Seeing through Sound: Chamber Music by Ivan Sokolov

Chapel at Good Shepherd Center Seattle, Washington Tuesday, November 1, 2011 8:00 pm

Karen Bentley Pollick, Violin & Viola Laura Renz, Viola Page Smith, Cello Ivan Sokolov, Piano

Sonata for Viola and Piano (2006) Allegro moderato – Andante – Allegro – Tempo Primo

Solnechnaya (Sunlight) Sonata for Violin and Piano in E minor (2005) I Moderato con moto

II Andantino III Scherzo IV Allegro

Intermission

Quartet for Violin, Viola, Cello and Piano (2010) I Moderato

II Andante III Allegro moderato

World Premiere

Sonata for Viola and Piano (2006), along with the 2002 cello and 2005 violin sonatas, form a triad of works, united by a similar opening motive. The Viola Sonata can be seen as an interlude between the violin and cello sonatas – the midway point between the two other members of a string trio. This one-movement sonata is comprised of four sections resembling the construction of a sonata or symphony cycle. The agitated opening Allegro is followed by a nocturne; the impetuous finale is preceded by a short scherzo-like link. Each section concludes with a funereal- like iteration of the beginning theme before its transcendental transformation. Perhaps it is possible to find some light irony or melancholic smile in the concept. Or perhaps it’s absolutely serious music. I don’t know…The sonata is dedicated to the violist Carol Allen — a friend of many years

Solnechnaya Sonata for Violin and Piano was written in August 2005. The first movement, Allegro moderato is a sonata form in E minor and is filled with a lyric-epic atmosphere and impressions from the beauty of Russian nature. Working on it, I was listening to Russian music and especially Alexander Glazunov’s Karelian Legend (op. 99, 1916). The second movement Andante is in a pastoral, contemplative mood — with a kinship to the symphonic music by Vassily Kalinnikov, suggestive of memories of respite in the open air. In the middle section there appears an image of a wide river, smoothly bearing its waters. In the recapitulation, you can hear bird singing. This bird’s singing comes closer to us in the third movement, Scherzo, and we look at it as if through an “ear microscope.” The finale, Allegro vivace, and the dramaturgical center of the Sonata, is in rondo form. It has only one theme, but some images from the previous movements are reflected and reach their conclusions in this finale. After a lyrical development, the music gradually becomes brighter and ends with a coda in E Major, which is reminiscent of a burst of sunlight. The entire piece is named for this coda — the Solnechnaya (Sunlight) Sonata.

I am grateful to the wonderful violinist Karen Bentley Pollick for her request to write this music and for agreeing to perform it.

Quartet for Violin, Viola, Cello and Piano (2010)

I wanted to write a big and diverse work, both in the content and character; a serious, strict and at the same time beautiful one. The first sonata movement is a center of the entire quartet. Here, I tried to express a maximally broad spectrum of emotions within one movement. The second movement is very dark. I see this movement as a prayer for the world that had been expressed in the first movement. The finale is a bright dream; it expresses the light, momentous and blissful mood that embraces you when the soul is peaceful, joyful and quiet. As in a dream, the subjects from the first movements are remembered.

-Ivan Sokolov

Ivan Sokolov graduated from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory as pianist and composer and worked as assistant professor of composition there in 1984-94. Mr. Sokolov has appeared in recitals and as a soloist with different orchestras in many European countries and in the USA. Being an extraordinary and inspired performer of baroque, classical and romantic music, Mr. Sokolov is one of the major Russian artists committed to the contemporary music world. His extensive contemporary music repertoire includes music by Prokofiev, Schönberg, Shostakovich, Hindemith, Bartók, Stravinsky, Stockhausen, Kagel, Crumb, Feldman, Cage, Boulez and other composers.

Mr. Sokolov is one of the most prominent and recognized performer of piano and chamber music by the Soviet and contemporary Russian composers. He premiered many works by S. Gubaidulina, V. Silvestrov, E. Denisov, N. Korndorf, A. Raskatov, V. Tarnopolski, F. Karayev, V. Ekimovsky, D. Smirnov, E. Firsova, A. Rabinovitch, and other composers. In 1995 he made a CD-recording of all Galina Ustvolskaya’s piano works. His other projects include the recordings of compositions by the Russian-Canadian composer Nikolai Korndorf, a recording of the Russian-German Composers’ Quartet, of which he is a member, and many other recordings. He collaborated with such excellent musicians as the cellists Alexander Ivashkin and Natalia Gutman, pianists Marta Argerich and Alexei Lubimov, violinists Tatiana Grindenko and Kolya Blacher, conductors Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Andrey Boreiko as well as with many distinguished Russian and German orchestras.

Since 1979 Mr. Sokolov has performed as a soloist in all major cities of the former Soviet Union and Europe. Since 1986 he has regularly appeared in concerts and festivals for contemporary music, including the Alternativa Festival in Moscow (of which he is one of the founders), the Schleswig-Holstein festival, Almeida Festival London, the Luzerner Festwochen, the Copenhagen Culture festival, and others. Sokolov made his debut in Seattle with the Seattle Chamber Players at the Icebreaker: Contemporary Russian Music Festival in February 2002, performing ten compositions in three days, and was re-engaged by the ensemble for another appearance in Seattle at the Shostakovich Uncovered festival with chamber music of Shostakovich and his followers, to many of whom Sokolov is a close friend and first and frequent performer of their compositions.

Mr. Sokolov’s own works include pieces for piano, violin, piano trio, orchestra, as well as a miniopera. They have been performed in Moscow and in many other Russian and European cities. In his music, Sokolov experiments with different types of musical expression, including cryptophonic encodings, graphic notational experiments, happenings as well as truly romantic stylistics. Since 1995 Sokolov has divided his time between Cologne (Germany) and Moscow and has toured all over the world. www.obst- music.com/artists/sokolov.htm

Karen Bentley Pollick has performed as violinist with Paul Dresher’s Electro-Acoustic Ensemble since 1999 and 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. She has several recordings of original music, including Electric Diamond, Angel, Konzerto and Succubus and Ariel View, for which she has received three music awards from Just Plain Folks, including Best Instrumental Album and Best Song. On her own record label Ariel Ventures she has produced Dancing Suite to Suite, <amberwood>, Homage to Fiddlers and Bebop for Beagles. She filmed Dan Tepfer’s Solo Blues for Violin and Piano in Shoal Creek, Alabama, in June 2009.

Pollick was concertmaster of the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in 1984 and has participated in the June in Buffalo and Wellesley Composers Conferences. She has appeared as soloist with Redwood Symphony in the world premiere of Swedish composer Ole Saxe’s Dance Suite for Violin and Orchestra, the Alabama Symphony, and orchestras in Panama, Russia, Alaska, New York and California. She has performed in recital with Russian pianist/composer Ivan Sokolov at the American Academy of Rome, Birmingham, Baton Rouge, Seattle and New York City, throughout the Czech Republic with cellist Dennis Parker at the American Spring Festival, and in England at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.

Along with choreographer Teri Weksler and percussionist John Scalici, Pollick received a Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham 2008 Interdisciplinary Grant to Individual Artists. Pollick received a grant from the Alabama State Council for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts for her March 2010 Solo Violin and Alternating Currents concerts in Birmingham, Seattle and at Music Olomouc 2011. With Australian pianist Lisa Moore, Pollick formed the duo Prophet Birds in spring 2009 and the Double Duo with Paul Dresher and Joel Davel. Pollick performs on a violin made by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume in 1860 and a viola made in 1987 by William Whedbee. She currently resides in Evergreen, Colorado. For more information: www.kbentley.com

Laura Renz, violist, is a member of the Pacific Northwest Ballet orchestra in Seattle, Washington. She also performs regularly with the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera. She is a previous member of the San Antonio Symphony, the Austin Symphony, and the IRIS Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Renz attended the Juilliard School in New York City, where she received a Master of Music degree as a student of Samuel Rhodes. Ms. Renz has participated in the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar (as a member of the Vaux String Quartet) and the New York String Orchestra Seminar. She has also attended the Sarasota Chamber Music Festival, the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and has held a fellowship position at the Aspen Music Festival and School. A native of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, Ms. Renz completed her Bachelor of Music, summa cum laude, at the University of Michigan under the instruction of Yizhak Schottten. In her spare time, Ms. Renz enjoys exploring Seattle and traveling elsewhere with her husband, Jeff Fair and their daughter Iris.

Page Smith is principal cellist of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra. She performs with the Seattle Symphony and the Seattle Opera. In addition to having been the solo cellist of the Northwest Chamber Orchestra for 30 years, she is one of the Washington state region’s beloved chamber musicians, performing with the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, Gallery Concerts series, the Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival, the Second City Chamber Music Series, the Mostly Nordic series, the Belle Arte series, the Music Northwest series and the Arts Northwest series. Smith performed for four summers as principal cellist of the Aspen Chamber Symphony, performing on tour with them in the Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival and the Kennedy Center’s Festival of Festivals. While living in New York, Smith performed as principal cellist with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and in the Chelsea Chamber Ensemble. She has been the featured soloist with the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, Northwest Chamber Orchestra, the Auburn Symphony, the Federal Way Symphony, the Tudor Choir, Opus 7, Choral Arts Northwest and Seattle Pro Musica. Her teachers have included Ronald Leonard, Lynn Harrell, Gabor Rejto and in Seattle: Eva Heinitz, Phyllis Allport and Raymond Davis.