Karen Bentley Pollick

Violin & Piano @ SPECTRUM

Saturday, November 3, 2018 @ 7:00 pm

with special guest Stuart Diamond on EWI

 

George Enescu: Airs dans le genre roumain (1926)

                                Moderato (molto rubato)

                                Allegro giusto

                                Andante – Tempo di Hora

                                Allegro giocoso

      Sarabanda (c. 1910 -1915)                                                                                                   

      Impressions en style roumain le 5 septembre 1925

                               Andante – Tempo di Hora – Allegretto piacevole – Allegro

discovered and reconstructed by Sherban Lupu

 

Mark Kopytman: Cantus IV: Dedication for violin solo (1986)   

Recitando, ben marcato – Dolce, cantando – Con fuoco – Poco più sostenuto –

Largo, dolcissimo – Giocoso – Mesto – Recitando, dolente – Lontano, netto

 

Yitzhak Yedid:  MAQA VIOLIN (2018) New York Premiere

1.  a’ la maqam Saba

2.  a’ la maqam Hijaz

3.  a’ la Taqsim

4.  a’ la maqam Sikah Baladi

5.  Ecstatic Debqa Dance

 

Hsueh-Yung Shen:  Fantasy Piece for solo violin (2014)  New York Premiere

 

Selim Göncü:  The Art of Zapping for solo violin (2018)  World Premiere

 

Ivan Sokolov:  Andante for contrabassoon and piano (2015)  New York premiere

Stuart Diamond, Electric Wind Instrument

 

Dan Tepfer: Solo Blues for violin and piano (2007)

 

 

Airs dans le genre roumain (1926) by George Enescu

Featured on the premiere recording by Sherban Lupu ’George Enescu: The Unknown Enescu’, Airs dans le genre roumain offers a lexicon of folk fiddling with a raft of bent notes, harmonics, double-stopping and luscious glissandi alternating between soulful lyrical movements, Hora dances, and lively “lautar” fiddling in the faster movements.

Sarabanda (1915) by George Enescu

Among Enescu’s manuscripts Sherban Lupu found this sketch of a Sarabande written in the style of those from the Bach Partitas for solo violin, which Enescu played so masterly.  The theme and the melodic content of the piece, as well as its rich harmonies, melismatic ornamentation and modulations seem to be inspired from folklore.  Enescu marks fingerings that indicate color changes.  Undated, the score seems to be related to his Suite No. 1 for orchestra, therefore it was probably written somewhere between 1910 and 1915.

Impressions en style roumain le 5 septembre 1925 by George Enescu

Dated 5 September, 1925 these little tunes, de facto “impressions” of Romanian folk music, written like the “Airs in Romanian style” the year before Enescu composed the monumental Third Sonata, op. 25 for violin and piano, were probably intended as preparatory exercises for the latter.  Enescu never used real folk themes in his compositions, considering them “too perfect to tamper with”, therefore he “invented” folk-like tunes.  From these sketches Sherban Lupu was able to etch out and develop a suite of four contrasting movements for solo violin full of lyrical passion and flamboyant virtuosity typical of the playing style of the “lautars” (fiddlers) of Moldavia. Therefore they must played “molto rubato” with much freedom in an improvisational style.  Some of the ornamentations and glissandi were indicated by Enescu himself.  Consequently, the similar style of writing was maintained by Lupu in his arrangement. 

www.georgeenescu.ro/en       www.sherbanlupu.com     

Cantus IV: Dedication for violin solo (1986) by Mark Kopytman (December 6, 1929 in Ukraine – December 16, 2011)

Cantus IV: Dedication was premiered at Alice Tully Hall on January 26, 1987 by violinist Nina Beilina in memory of her late husband, conductor Israel Chudnovsky. Kopytman’s music is inspired by Jewish folklore transformed through heterophony as a  contemporary notational device, depicting the human voice in mourning with swaying and sliding Jewish laments. The Arioso from his 1966 opera Casa Mare is integrated into the piece, followed by a Perinitza (Romanian folk wedding dance). 

www.kopytman.com

MAQA VIOLIN (2018) by Yitzhak Yedid, dedicated to Karen Bentley Pollick

MAQA VIOLIN, in 5 parts and c. 17 minutes’ duration solo piece, was conceived in 2018 by Israeli-Australian composer/pianist Yitzhak Yedid in Brisbane, Australia during his prolific two-year period of composition funded by the Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship. Composed for a triumvirate of virtuoso violinists: Graeme Jennings, Karen Bentley Pollick and Hagai Shaham, MAQA Violin was workshopped and premiered by Jennings at Darmstadt Summer School and Festival in July 2018. The creation of MAQA VIOLIN has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

The work is a synthesis of musical traditions, colours, textures and energies. It explores maqamat (Arabic modal system) and avant-garde with traditional melodic and formal conventions. In Part 1 (a’ la maqam Saba) the tetrachord of Saba (D, E 1/4 flat, F, G flat) permeates a lively Arabic folk dance alternating between rhythmic riffs and chromatic melodies. In Part 2, a’ la maqam Hijaz, Hijaz mode (C, D flat, E, F, G, A, B flat) is being exploit in a wide range of pizzicato techniques in a 10/8 + 7/8 meter and Presto tempo. Rapid firing 1/16th notes, tremolos a la mandolin, right and left hands slapping the fingerboard, and strumming in guitar position constitute a tour de force musical image. A’ la Taqsim (Part 3) is an improvisatory movement emerging from the low A to establish the tonal center before embarking into sul tasto extreme alternating with sul ponticello extreme, playing in the highest register with the fingernail of the left hand, all framing the plaintive ascending melodies high on the G string. Part 4, a’ la maqam Sikah Baladi (G, A flat, B, C, D, E flat, G sharp) is a chromatic virtuoso Vivacissimo, staccattissimo dance for the bow with glissandi up, down and around the maqam tones. An Ecstatic Debqa Dance (Part 5) is the finale, replete with non pitched percussive effects, Arabic folk dance accompanied by foot stomping, aleatoric pizzicato, sul ponticello, and bow slapping and sliding.

www.yedidmusic.com

 

Fantasy Piece for solo violin (2014) by Hsueh-Yung Shen

This work was written for Karen Bentley Pollick, and came about from mutual connections with the Danish guitarist Volkmar Zimmermann.  The work goes through a fairly familiar arch-form involving a slow build-up and a long fade-out.  After an initial high section, there is a slow progression when the violin starts low, which gradually goes higher and higher.  There is also extensive use of harmonic sounds, like gently pealing bells, which take over at the end of the piece; at times, the solo violin indeed sounds like a duo with opposing textures as well as the usual classical techniques. 

www.mostlymarimba.com/composers/composers-p-t/963-hsueh-yung-shen.html

The Art of Zapping for solo violin (2018) by Selim Göncü

zap | verb

/zæp/

To use a remote control to turn a television set on or off or to switch channels.

www.selimgoncu.com

Andante for contrabassoon and piano (2015) by Ivan Sokolov

Andante is a silent and sad piece.  Contrabassoon is a deep sounding instrument.  Maurice Ravel used it in his “Mother Goose Suite” when he characterizes a sad and ugly sorcerer.  Ravel’s oeuvre is the inspiration for my piece.  The deep sounds remind me of past times of natural evolution from prehistoric times.  In these sonorities I seek beauty, which has existed since the beginning of the world.

noontimeconcerts.org/musicians/ivan-sokolov-piano-2

www.stuartdiamond.com

Solo Blues for Violin and Piano (2007) by Dan Tepfer

Solo Blues was commissioned by Liz Bacher and premiered at the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall in January 2007.  It is a solo piece, as the title indicates, for violin and piano, meaning that both instruments are played by a single performer.  My idea in writing the piece was to imagine an inquisitive soul, equally adept at the piano and violin sitting down to explore the possibilities offered by the combination of both instruments.  As a child, after I had been playing the piano and improvising for a number of years, I was given a clarinet by my father and I have a clear memory of going through this exploration myself.  I loved how two separate problems, one geometric, the other musical, came together and grew off of each other.  Hence, there is a sense of narrative to the piece, as the musician, a little tentative at first, gradually gains confidence and sees her enthusiasm grow as she discovers more and more ways to combine the two instruments.  While the music is meant to stand on its own, a live performance of the piece is ultimately as much choreography as it is music.  The Blues of the title refers to the harmonic framework used in the composition, which is articulated around the first, fourth and fifth degrees of the key of D, in the order of the traditional blues form:  I – IV – I – IV – V – IV – I.  This makes two things possible:  on the one hand, using the backdrop of the blues connects this classical composition with my background in jazz and gives a cultural and historic framework to the plaintive quality of the initial melody; on the other, it allows me to use the violin’s open strings (G, D, A and E) to play the fundamental and fifth of each of the three harmonic centers of the pieces.  Seen this way, it’s as if the violin had been made to play the blues. Karen Bentley Pollick filmed Solo Blues in Shoal Creek, Alabama in 2009 on a Fazioli F212 grand piano.

www.dantepfer.com

 

Karen Bentley Pollick is one of America’s leading contemporary violinists and violists.  She received a grant form the National Endowment for the Arts for her 2010 Solo Violin and Alternating Currents concerts.  Karen performs a wide range of solo repertoire and styles on violin, viola, piano and Norwegian hardangerfele.  A native of Palo Alto, California, she studied with Camilla Wicks in San Francisco, and with Yuval Yaron, Josef Gingold and Rostislav Dubinsky at Indiana University where she received both Bachelors and Masters of Music Degrees in Violin Performance with a Cognate in Choral Conducting.  Her discography includes recordings of original music:  Electric Diamond, Angel, Konzerto & Succubus, and Ariel View, for which she has received three music awards from Just Plain Folks, including Best Instrumental Album and Best Song.  Karen premiered Swedish composer Ole Saxe’s Dance Suite for Violin and Orchestra with Redwood Symphony and has toured and recorded extensively with Russian pianist/composer Ivan Sokolov. In 2012 she created Violin, Viola & Video Virtuosity with New York video artist Sheri Wills in a collaboration that now highlights a repertoire of  twenty videos projected behind the violinist. While residing in Vilnius, Lithuania she debuted Resonances from Vilna with pianist Jascha Nemtsov in May 2014; Nothing is Forever with actor Aiste Ptakauske in December 2015; and premiered David A. Jaffe’s violin concerto How Did It Get So Late So Soon? with the Lithuanian National Opera & Ballet Theatre Orchestra in August 2016.  Karen received a Seed Money Grant for Disseminated Performances from New York Women Composers towards presenting solo violin and viola repertoire with electronics at Wayward Music Series in Seattle, Stanford University’s CCRMA, Female Composers Festival at SPECTRUMNYC, and CINETic in Bucharest in spring 2018. Karen performs on a violin made by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume in 1860 and a viola made in 1987 by William Whedbee.

www.kbentley.com

 

Stuart Diamond’s career covers a wide range of activities—entrepreneur, educator, writer/journalist, producer/video artist, and composer/musician. As a multimedia artist, Diamond has created works for the concert hall, film, dance, and theater. His ensemble, Electric Diamond, is one of the pioneering groups of live, electronic music performance. Diamond was a recipient of the Criterion Foundation Award that supported him for more than 5 years for the sole purpose of composing contemporary music. As an educator Diamond has created a range of programs – from hundreds of educational concerts in elementary schools throughout the New York region – to training programs for Wall Street – to innovative university curriculum on ethics. As a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, Diamond visits colleges throughout the United States in support of the value of the liberal arts.

www.stuartdiamond.com