Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Illych Tchaikovsky- Polonaise from Eugene Onegin Piano Concerto No. 1 in bb minor Symphony No. 2in c minor, "The Little Russian" Guest Conductor, Vladimir Verbitsky Guest Artist Bryan Wallick, piano A mere few years ago in Kiev, Ukraine a unique and talented piano virtuoso was recognized. American pianist, Bryan Wallick, emerged as gold medalist in the 1997 Vladimir Horowitz piano competition. This cornerstone event would only aid Wallick in a series of fortunate events. As fate would have it, musicians are situated in less-than-perfect living arrangement; as remarkable as Wallick’s talent is he too struggled, even after competition victories and his 1998 debute at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. He was accepted to Juilliard School of Music in 1999, but couldn’t pay for it. Yet, as a twist of fate, Wallick luckily missed the bus to a piano festival and he met a Washington Post writer and New York Philomusica board member. His new friend asked for a performance it led to a board of patrons and full tuition for four years at Juilliard School of Music. Wallick received his undergraduate degree in 2000, an accelerated Master’s degree in 2001 and studying piano with Christopher Elton in London at the Royal Academy of Music, which launched into a concert career. In 2003, he made his debut in London and his fame has reached all parts of the world; England, Copenhagen, Luxembourg, the British Virgin Isles, to name a few. He has been asked on numerous occasions to return to Ukraine for concerts on the radio and BBC radio. One of the unique traits is his ability to see colors while playing the piano. This rare phenomenon, called Synesthsia (when two or more sensory experiences to occur at the same time from one stimulus), only enhances the ability of Wallick as a performer. Recently, in a concert in Scottsdale, Arizona, he brought his literal visions to life with computer projection. From an audience stand-point, the experience was intense and exciting. One can only imagine the passion this sensory experience stirs in Wallick. The passion becomes apparent in his virtuosic playing and is a gift to audiences everywhere. Vladimir Verbitsky, conductor Voted the people’s artist of Russia, Vladimir Verbitsky has conducted some of the most beautiful music with orchestras all over the world; France, Spain, Germany, Greece, and the United States. He has also made a number of international recordings with the orchestras USSR State Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and had worked with a number of accomplished soloists. Born in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Verbitsky attended the Leningrad Conservatoire and graduated in piano performance and conducting. He went to Voronezh in southern Russia, near the border of Ukraine. There, in 1976, he took the position of chief conductor of the Voronezh Orchestra and completely transformed it into a powerful, fluid, emotive orchestra. The orchestra became competitive with other Russian orchestras. He later became the chief conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic from 1982 to 1984. In a world tour, Verbitsky led his orchestra to Australia. The Australian orchestras were so awestruck and enamored with the performances, they asked Verbitsky to stay as the Music Director of the State Orchestra of Victoria. His command of the orchestra and ability to extract the beauty and lush qualities hidden on the sheet of paper moved him up in ranks. In 1997, Verbitsky was awarded Conductor Laureate in recognition of his depth of knowledge, artistic vision and interpretation, and bond with the orchestra. Among his foreign orchestras, Verbitsky also conducts the orchestras of Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 2004, former Russian president, Vladimir Putin, gave Verbitsky a service award to his country. Vladimir Verbitsky has successfully communicated wonderful messages through the music of his orchestras. Pyotr Tchaikovsky Tchaikovsky stands as the first wholly professional, thoroughly cosmopolitan, and most important Russian composer of his time. In the last half of the 19th century Russian musicians strove to establish a national voice independent of the mainstream of Western European art music yet equal in sophistication and technical polish. Born into an aristocratic family in Votkinsk; his father was a factory manager at the ironworks. Pyotr was enrolled at the age of ten in the preparatory division of the School of Jurisprudence in the Imperial capital of St Petersburg. After the death of his mother from cholera in 1854, Tchaikovsky turned more seriously towards music and after some time was enrolled at St. Petersburg Conservatory. Just before his graduation he was invited to teach at the newly established music school in Moscow. One does not find many tales of contentment, satisfaction, or tranquility when exploring the life of Tchaikovsky; his journals are full of self-doubt, phobias, petty grievances, paranoia and a surprising number of entries on the topic of his persistent stomach problems. A typical example was written while staying at his brother-in-law’s country estate: “I am in a sort of seething fury. Because Sasha beat me, and with satisfaction, in two tricks at hearts, I got angry as a madman; chiefly, however, because in the preceding game (it was a threesome) I let her have the bid in clubs out of fairness in view of her hard luck at cards today. Why is that? Is this the feeling of an artist benefiting from fame?.. But then, I have not felt well since morning. The obnoxious condition of my stomach is beginning to seriously ruin my life.” What almost ruined Pytor’s life was a catastrophic marriage to the singer Antonina Ivanovna Milykova. She proclaimed her love for him and threatened suicide if he would not meet with her; he agreed, but explained that their relationship was to be completely platonic because, as he frankly confided to her, he was gay. The result was his half-attempt at suicide and retreat to St Petersburg, where he collapsed and lay unconscious for two weeks. A family doctor mercifully prescribed a life without Antonina. Just as his period of recovery in St. Petersburg was concluding, a new friendship with the wealthy widow Madame Nadezhda von Meck proved to be a saving grace for Tchaikovsky. She began sending him a regular allowance, permitting him to withdraw from his professorial duties in Moscow, travel (it was mostly in travel that he found any peace), and compose with a degree of freedom. Their correspondence continued for 14 years and though their relationship eventually cooled, her financial support dwindled. Their connection was one of the deepest of Tchaikovsky’s life. While it may shed light on the emotional world of any artist to examine the events of their life, we do not expect to consistently correlate with the artist’s works. Still, it might be imagined that Tchaikovsky’s music would exude nothing but woe. Not the exultant Polonaise from his opera Eugene Onegin. It struts onstage with triumphant brass and rushing strings. The opening bars of the Piano Concerto No. 1 feature a tune Tchaikovsky heard played by blind beggars in a market outside Kiev. The scope of the first movement is evident from the grandiose treatment this familiar melody receives. In the introduction there is a cadenza for the soloist, and not until the whole orchestra has repeated the theme with full force does the four-and-a-half-minute long introduction wind down to make way for the true first theme. Far fewer listeners would likely be able to quote this primary building-block of the movement, which bubbles in dotted rhythms from the soloist before being passed among the other instruments; but its partner, a heaving eight-note figure (cut from the cloth of the love theme from Romeo and Juliet) is vintage Tchaikovsky. A nocturnal atmosphere prevails in the second movement as orchestral solos partner in intimate chamber-like dialogues with the soloist. This reverie is interrupted momentarily by a game of cat-and-mouse in the central section. In the whirling cossak-dance of the finale, an extended and passionate contrasting strain emerges, gives way again to the dance rhythms and a dazzling cadenza, and resumes with irrepressible fervor before the concerto commences its terminal exertions. “Little Russia”, the subtitle of the Symphony No. 2, refers to the Ukraine, where Tchaikovsky’s sister’s estate served as a refuge and practically a second home for him when he fled in the aftermath of his honeymoon with Antonina. A number of folk tunes are treated in this cheerful work, despite a successful premiere in 1873, Tchaikovsky substantially revised in 1879-80. The first movement opens and closes when the horn sings a Ukranian variant of “Down by Mother Volga”. Tchaikovsky sidesteps gloomy introspection in the second movement, casting instead a strolling tempo. Its middle section features a second melody, “Spin, O My Spinner.” After a sporty, rhythmically accented scherzo, Tchaikovsky gives a grand introduction to the finale. Its folk-song subject, “The Crane”, is treated in several variations before reaching the thundering conclusion. |
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