David Russell - Program and Notes

David Russell
Saturday, March 26, 2011
8:00 PM
Bethel United Methodist Church Hall

PROGRAM

Rêverie Giulio Regondi
(1822-1872)

Suite no. 7 in G Minor, HWV 432 George Frideric Handel
Overture (1685-1759)
Andante
Allegro
Sarabande
Gigue
Passacaglia


INTERMISSION

Sinfonia (from Cantata BWV 156)* Johann Sebastian Bach
Sinfonia BWV 791* (1685-1750)
Sinfonia BWV 792*
Sinfonia BWV 797*

Le Bourdon de L’Âme** Patrick Roux
Songe (b. 1962)
Bourdon

Capricho Catalán* Isaac Albéniz
Cuba* (1860-1909)
Granada*
Preludio*
Rumores de la Caleta*
*Transcription by David Russell
**Dedicated to David Russell

David Russell appears by arrangement with Chicago Concert Artists, Inc.
431 South Dearborn Street, Suite 1503, Chicago IL 60605, 312-663-6434

The Artist
DAVID RUSSELL

David Russell, guitar

David Russell is renowned for his superb musicianship and inspired artistry, consistently earning the highest praise worldwide from both audiences and critics.
Born in Scotland, Mr. Russell moved with his family to the Mediterranean island of Minorca when he was a young boy. There he began learning guitar from his father, and the instrument quickly became central to his life.
From listening to and imitating the recordings of Andrés Segovia, through conservatory studies at London’s Royal Academy, to tutelage under the legendary José Tomás, Mr. Russell began accumulating a long list of accomplishments. At the Royal Conservatory he twice won the Julian Bream Guitar Prize, followed by numerous international awards including the Andrés Segovia Competition, the José Ramirez Competition, and Spain’s prestigious Francisco Tárrega Competition.
In recognition of his talent and international career, Mr. Russell was named a Fellow of London’s Royal Academy of Music in 1997. In 2005 he won a Grammy Award for his CD Aire Latino, in the category of best instrumental soloist in classical music.
Mr. Russell’s more than twenty-five recordings largely focus on repertoire that has stood the test of time, and include the music of J. S. Bach, Domenico Scarlatti, Agustín Barrios Mangoré, Francisco Tárrega, Isaac Albéniz, and Enrique Granados.
Not that easily categorized, however, Mr. Russell departs occasionally from standard repertoire with recordings such as Message of the Sea, featuring his arrangements of traditional Celtic melodies, and by including newer or lesser-known works as in Aire Latino.
David Russell is indeed a “guitarist’s guitarist.” His playing embodies unforced, thoughtful musicality, made possible by an apparently effortless technique, something only a few players can attain. Not spoiled by success, Mr. Russell considers himself fortunate to truly love the guitar and its music, and to share it worldwide in a busy performance and recording schedule. Coastal Concerts is indeed honored to welcome him back after his appearance here in 2006.

Program Notes

□ REGONDI
Rêverie
Giulio Regondi was born in 1822 to an unnamed German mother, who may have died at his birth, leaving Regondi to be raised by an Italian father who happened to be a talented guitarist, composer, and baritone.
Making his debut in Paris by the age of seven, young Giulio became known as “The Infant Paganini,” performing in the finest concert halls. The Spanish virtuoso Fernando Sor dedicated his Souvenir d'Amitié, op. 46, to the nine-year-old Regondi, evidence of great respect for his talent and hard work.
In May of 1831, Regondi and his father moved to London. Already a prominent concert virtuoso, Regondi’s renown was strengthened by a continuous stream of positive reviews in the major publications of the time. He performed to great acclaim throughout both England and Ireland.
In about 1835, Regondi became interested in a new melodic wind instrument, the English concertina, invented by Charles Wheatstone. Urged by his father, Regondi became a skilled performer on this instrument as well as the guitar.
In 1840-41, Regondi toured Europe in duo with the cellist Joseph Ledel. They began in Vienna with a series of ten concerts, subsequently performing in Munich, Frankfurt, and Darmstadt. Then Rigondi visited Prague and Leipzig, where he performed in a charity concert organized by Clara Schumann to establish a pension fund for the city's orchestra members.
Returning to London in 1844, Rigondi continued his concert activity for several years in duo with the pianist Madame Louise Dulcken. After about 1850, Regondi focused his interest mainly on the concertina, for which he wrote several works. A member of the Victorian musical establishment, he performed a few times a year in London and Liverpool, and enjoyed the patronage of Sir Charles Wheatstone, the concertina’s inventor. Rigondi died in London in 1872 and is buried in St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery, Kensal.
Devoting himself primarily to performance, Rigondi was an occasional composer. He did leave five works for solo guitar, which proved to be of great instrumental and artistic value, requiring virtuosi to play them. They are:
Rêverie in D, op. 19 (Nocturne)
Fête Villageoise in D, op. 20 (Rondo Caprice)
Aire Varié in D, no. 1, op. 21
Aire Varié in D, no. 2, op. 22
Introduction and Caprice in E, op. 23
If there is a set of effervescent nineteenth-century guitar works, it is these, which are very modern in sound.
□ HANDEL
Suite No. 7 in G Minor
George Frideric Handel, most famous for his operas, oratorios, and concertos, was born in Halle, Germany, in 1685 -- the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti. As a boy, Handel received musical training in Halle from the organist Friedrich Wilhelm Zachau. In 1698, Handel assembled a manuscript of Zachau’s works, together with other seventeenth-century German composers whose influence we can detect in his own earliest surviving compositions.
In 1703, Handel went to Hamburg where he remained for three years. He probably earned part of his living there by giving harpsichord lessons. As was customary, he must have written music for the public to play. The organ was not forgotten during this time, however, as several of his compositions can be played on either instrument.
An interesting anecdote from 1703 is related by Johann Mattheson, a German composer, writer, lexicographer, and music theorist who was a friend of Handel. Mattheson relates how he and Handel "travelled together on the 17th August of that year to Lübeck, and in the coach we composed many double fugues -- in our heads, not written down … There we played almost all the organs and harpsichords and we arrived at a particular conclusion with respect to our playing … namely, that he wanted to play only the organ and I the harpsichord."
The reason for their journey was to visit Dietrich Buxtehude, then aged sixty-six, who had served as organist at St. Mary's for thirty-five years and was looking for a successor who would also marry his eldest daughter. Neither prospective candidate seems to have fancied the idea.
The Roman diarist Francesco Valesio wrote of Handel on January 14, 1707: "There has arrived in this city a Saxon who is an excellent harpsichord player and composer of music -- who today exhibited his process by playing the organ at St. John Lateran, to the astonishment of everybody."
Handel's own publication in 1720 of his Eight Suites for Harpsichord was drawn from a body of work which dated in some instances to his youthful years in Hamburg. The Suite in G Minor, composed in about 1706, is one of these.
In six movements, this suite is much more than a standard-issue set of stylized dance movements. The first movement is an overture in the French style with a massive opening Adagio, followed by a fast and brutal Presto with a pummeling theme played in thirds, sixths, and octaves.
The following movement is a quietly lyrical Andante with a gently embellished melody. The next movement is a propulsive, two-voice Allegro in 3/8 time. The central Sarabande is an incredibly simple and affecting series of three- and four-voice chords with the melody as the top voice. The Gigue which follows is a hurtling movement in two virtuoso voices. The climax and culmination of the suite is the monumental Passacaglia of contrapuntal major force.
In the first biography of Handel, published in 1760, author John Mainwaring tells us that "… Handel had an uncommon brilliancy and command of finger; but what distinguished him from all other players who possessed these same qualities, was that amazing fullness, force and energy, which he joined with them. And this observation may be applied with as much justice to his compositions, as to his playing."
□ BACH
SINFONIAS
There are over one thousand known compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. The Bach Werke Verzeichnis (Bach Works Catalogue) is the numbering system used to identify them, with the prefix BWV followed by the composition's number. In the BWV system, Bach’s works are grouped thematically rather than chronologically.
BWV 156 — This cantata is composed of six movements: Sinfonia, Aria with Chorale, Recitative, Aria, Recitative, and Chorale. The first movement, Sinfonia (also known as Arioso — literally, arioso means airy), is played here as a transcription. The original was written for oboe and strings in the key of F Major.
The words of the cantata begin with a text from Johann Hermann Schein: “I stand with one foot in the grave … Soon falls my weary corpse therein.” It may seem incongruous that Bach chose one of his most beautiful melodies to open the cantata. This work is about the acceptance of human fate and happiness in our destiny. The same melody was used by Bach as the Largo movement of his Harpsichord Concerto No. 5 in F Minor, BWV 1056.
BWV 791 — Sinfonia No. 5 in E-flat Major
BWV 792 — Sinfonia No. 6 in E Major
BWV 797 — Sinfonia No. 11 in G Minor
The Inventions and Sinfonias, BWV 772–801, also known as the Two and Three Part Inventions, are a collection of thirty short keyboard compositions, consisting of fifteen inventions (two-part contrapuntal pieces) and fifteen sinfonias (three-part contrapuntal pieces). They were originally written by Bach as exercises for the musical education of his students. The two groups of pieces are both arranged in order of ascending key, each group covering eight major and seven minor keys.
Bach titled the collection: "Honest method, by which the amateurs of the keyboard – especially, however, those desirous of learning – are shown a clear way not only (1) to learn to play cleanly in two parts, but also, after further progress, (2) to handle three obligate parts correctly and well; and along with this not only to obtain good inventions (ideas) but to develop the same well; above all, however, to achieve a cantabile style in playing and at the same time acquire a strong foretaste of composition."
The Sinfonias were probably not completed until the beginning of Bach’s Leipzig period, approximately 1723-1729.
□ ROUX
Le Bourdon de L’Âme
Patrick Roux was born in Marseille, France, in 1962 and moved to Canada in 1967. He began studying music at the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec in Hull under Jean Vallières, where he was unanimously awarded first prize in 1984. A bursary from the Arts Council of Canada enabled him to study with David Russell in London.
In March 1992, the duo Patrick Roux and Robert Latreille won second place at the prestigious International Classical Guitar Duo Competition of Montélimar. Prior to that, Roux had won first place at the Canadian National Guitar Competition.
Since 1990, Roux’s passion has been composition, and his works have been published by Les Productions d'Oz. He created a complete original repertoire for the group Contretemps/Go, with whom he performs.
Roux has been a frequent invited soloist with the Orchestre de Chambre de Hull. He also has been featured often on CBC Radio, where he performed the world premiere of the concerto “Four Dialogues” for guitar and chamber orchestra, by the Canadian composer Violet Archer.
Roux has played for the Queen of Jordan, the Princess of Holland, and the Governor General of Canada. He is a tenured professor of guitar at the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec in Hull, and is on the Faculty of Music at the University of Ottawa. He also teaches during the summer at the Music Academy of the Domaine Forget.
"Le Bourdon de L'Âme" (roughly translated as “The Buzzing Bee of the Soul”) was published in 1995 and is dedicated to David Russell. The piece contains two contrasting and complementary movements, "Songe"(“dream”) and "Bourdon” (“buzzing bee”). "Songe" is languidly melodic and sensuous, needing careful attention to legato expression and chord voicing. "Bourdon" contains rapid arpeggios supporting a melody that surges and ebbs in waves. The result is potent and exciting, both technically and musically.
□ ALBÉNIZ
Capricho Catalán, Cuba, Granada, Preludio, Rumores de la Caleta
Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual was a Spanish pianist and composer best known for his piano works based on folk-music idioms. Born in Camprodon, province of Girona, to Ángel Albéniz (a customs official) and his wife Dolors Pascual, Albéniz was a child prodigy who first performed in public at the age of four. At seven, after apparently taking lessons from Antoine Marmontel, he passed the entrance examination for piano at the Paris Conservatoire, but was refused admission because he was believed to be too young.
His concert career began at the age of nine when his father toured with both Isaac and his sister, Clementina, throughout northern Spain. By the time he was twelve, Albéniz had made many attempts to run away from home. A popular myth has it that he stowed away in a ship bound for Buenos Aires, subsequently made his way via Cuba to the United States where he gave concerts in New York and San Francisco; then traveled to Liverpool, London, and Leipzig, so that by age fifteen he had given concerts worldwide. This over-dramatized story is not entirely true. Albéniz did travel the world as a performer; however, he was accompanied by his father, who was required to travel frequently as part of his work.
By the time he was a teenager, Albéniz gained a reputation as a virtuoso pianist, and word of his talents soon reached Madrid. After a short stay at the Leipzig Conservatory, Albéniz went in 1876 to study at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, for which he was awarded a royal pension.
In 1883, Albéniz married his student, Rosina Jordana. They had three children: Blanca, who died in 1886; Laura, a painter; and Alfonso, who played soccer for Real Madrid in the early 1900s before embarking on a career as a diplomat. Cécilia Sarkozy, former wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, is Isaac Albéniz's great-granddaughter.
Following his marriage, Albéniz settled in Madrid and produced a large quantity of music in a relatively short period. By 1886, he had written over fifty piano pieces. At the 1888 Universal Exposition in Barcelona, the piano manufacturer Erard sponsored a series of twenty concerts featuring Albéniz's music.
In 1883, Albéniz met the teacher and composer Felipe Pedrell, who was a leading figure in the development of nationalist Spanish music. Gilbert Chase, in his book The Music of Spain, describes Pedrell’s influence on Albéniz: “What Albéniz derived from Pedrell was above all a spiritual orientation, the realization of the wonderful values inherent in Spanish music." It was Felipe Pedrell who inspired Isaac Albéniz to write the Suite española, op. 47, noted for its delicate, intricate melody and abrupt dynamic changes. By the late 1880s, the strong influence of Spanish style is evident in all of Albéniz's music.
The apex of Albéniz's concert career is considered to be 1889 to 1892, when he performed on tours throughout Europe. During the 1890s Albéniz lived in London and Paris.
In 1900, he started to suffer from Bright's disease and returned to composing piano music. Albéniz died on May 18, 1909, at age forty-nine and was buried in Barcelona. He had not finished his last and most famous work, an extended set of impressions for solo piano in four books titled Ibéria, which consisted of twelve "scenes" from different regions of the country. The unfinished pieces in this set were completed by Enrique Granados.
Albéniz’s influence on the future of Spanish music was profound. His activities as conductor, performer, and composer significantly raised its profile abroad, and encouraged Spanish music and musicians in his own country. In 1997, the Fundación Isaac Albéniz was founded to promote Spanish music and musicians, and to act as a research center for Albéniz and Spanish music in general.
Perhaps the best commentary on his work is given by Albéniz himself. He is quoted as saying of his earlier works: “In all of them I now note that there is less musical science, less of the grand idea, but more color, sunlight, flavor of olives. That music of youth … appears to me like the carvings in the Alhambra, those peculiar arabesques that sway nothing with their turns and shapes, but which are like the air, like the sun, like the blackbirds or like the nightingales of its gardens.”
In transcription, Albeniz's piano works have become an important part of the repertoire of the classical guitar. Many of these transcriptions were done by Francisco Tárrega — Albéniz once declared that he preferred Tárrega's guitar transcriptions to his own piano compositions.
The works performed this evening were all originally composed for solo piano and come from the following sources:
Suite española, op. 47 (Spanish suite), with eight pieces: Granada, Cataluña, Sevilla, Cádiz, Asturias, Aragón, Castilla, Cuba. (Cuba was still part of Spain in
the 1880s.) The composition was dedicated to the Queen of Spain. Like much of Albeniz’s piano music, these pieces depict various Spanish regions and musical styles.
España, op. 165, with six pieces: Preludio, Tango, Malagueña, Serenata, Capricho Catalán, Zortzico.
Recuerdos de viaje, op. 71 (travel impressions), with seven pieces: En el mar, Leyenda, Alborada, En la Alhambra, Puerta de Tierra, Rumores de la Caleta, En la playa.