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≪Good Old Days ≫PartⅢ : European Masters ～The New World～
Time: Sunday, June 6, 2004 at 6:00PM
Place: Kioi Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Tickets: \6,000(S), \5,000(A) \3,000(student)
Kioi Hall ticket center 03-3237-0061
Ticket PIA 0570-02-9990
Duo Japan http://www.duojapan.com Tel. 03-5428-0571
Presented by OHTSU JUNKO American Chamber Music Society
Supported by US (American) Embassy, Tokyo, Japan & The America-Japan Society, Inc.
Special collaboration : NPO
～The Music of this era "Good Old Days" offers such wonderful lyricism and spirits.
It is clearly different from any European sound. ～
This concert will make the third of the series.
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* Another concert is scheduled for the fall of 2005
Part IV: Jazz Age ― F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" and his era
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Before the mid-19th century, American culture seemed just to follow European tradition. It was more than one half century after the Declaration of Independence was published (1776), when Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803~82) wrote "Self-Reliance" in 1841 and proclaimed transcendentalism, declaring the cultural independence of America. Emerson was followed by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Edger Allan Poe, Mark Twain and others, the writers who eventually established America's originality and independence in literature and culture. This golden era named American Renaissance, became the basis of the prosperity of American literature today, by way of the "Lost Generation" writers of the first half of the 20th century, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.
The same can be said for the field of music. Through the influences of the late-Romanticism and the composers from Europe such as A. Dvorak and Edgar Varese, American music began to form its originality and now plays a very important role world-wide.
How did America rise so quickly to become culturally influential to the world?
We may find the answer in the era of "Good old days", by exploring the music, literature, and other forms of arts of those days, and revealing the power and freshness of the New World, that attracted many masters of European music.
Russian composer,, Igor Stravinsky created an important theatrical work, "the Tale of Soldier" with influence of jazz immigrated to the United States in 1932.. Learning from examples of diversity of American culture, we will produce "the Tale of Soldier" using vocal expression of Kyohgen performer. (The Kyohgen is one of Japanese traditional forms of arts.)
Program
Antonin Dvorak : from the New World
Henri Vieuxtemps : Souvenir d'amerique (Variations burlesque sur 'Yankee Doodle')
Vittorio Rieti : Second Avenue Waltzes
Sergei Rachmaninov : Waltz (for six hands), Full Moon and Empty Arms
Igor Stravinsky : Suite from "The Tale of Soldier" for Clarinet, Violin and Piano
Kurt Weill : Medley from his works in his American years
Performers:
Junko Ohtsu (violin), Masahiko Satoh (piano & arrangement), Colette Valentine (piano)
Keiko Okada (piano), Shigeru Ikushima (clarinet), Kei Wada (Percussion), Shinichi Katoh (bass), Man-no-jo Nomura replaced by Sen-jo Nomura (Kyou-gen actor)
Commentators:
Kyoichi Kuroda (Music Critic), Donald Keene ( Professor Emeritus at Colombia University and Visiting Professor at Ueno Gakuen University )
Program Note：
1, Anton Dvorak: "from the New World" for Solo Violin, arranged by Masahiko Satoh
2, Henri Vieuxtemps: Souvenir d'amerique(Variations burlesque sur 'Yankee Doodle')
In 1843 at the age of 23, Henri Vieuxtemps, the great French violin virtuoso-composer, toured America for the first time for six months, covering from Boston to New Orleans. Early in the tour, he composed a brilliant and facile set of variations on Yankee Doodle and, everywhere he played, this "souvenir d'Amerique was a success. With this work, Vieuxtemps later wrote, "I became popular and got my foot in the door (to America), for better or worth, opening the way for others."
3, Vittorio Rieti: from "Second Avenue Waltzes" for two pianos
Born in 1898, in Alexandria, Egypt, and moved to Milan to study Economics and received a doctorate degree. He started studying compositions soon after under Respighi and in 1925, he went to Paris and made close relationship with the French Six group (Les Six: a group of young French composers who, under the influence of Satie and Cocteau). In 1939, he moved to New York and became American citizen in 1944. He taught at the Queens College succeeding the outstandingly influential teacher of composition, Madam Nadia Boulanger, and at the Chicago University. Some of his works show the influences of Stravinsky and Les Six. He died in 1994, in New York.
4, Sergei Rachmaninov:" Waltz" / "Full Moon and Empty Arms" for piano six hands
A Russian piano virtuoso-composer. After Russian Revolution, he exiled himself to Switzerland and performed mainly in Europe and America. Waltz for six hands was composed for the three sisters of his friends' family when he was seventeen years old. "Full Moon and Empty Arms" was arranged after Rachmaninov's second piano concerto and became quite popular as American pops during 1940s. Masahiko Satoh, renowned Japanese Jazz pianist-composer/arranger arranged this piece for piano six hands for tonight's concert.
5, Igor Stravinsky; Suite "The Tale of Soldier" for Clarinet, Violin and Piano
A Russian composer. Diaghilev invited Stravinsky to compose "the Firebird" in 1910 for his famous "Ballets Russes" company in Paris, and its success made Stravinsky world -famous. This theatrical work was originally composed in 1918 for chamber ensemble of seven. With the Russian Revolution of 1917, resulting in confiscation of his property, and the financial troubles of the Diaghilev's ballet company, Stravinsky thought of forming a small touring theatrical company to present inexpensively mounted productions. The result was "The tales of Soldier" and it also enabled him to combine two of his main interests, Russian folk-rhythms and American Jazz. In 1924, Stravinsky himself arranged the trio (Clarinet-Violin-Piano) version. He immigrated to the United States in 1932.
Mr. Man-no-jo Nomura, Kyogen actor, is going to collaborate in the performance. Prior to the performance, Kyoh-ichi Kuroda, music critic and Professor Donald Keene, scholar of Japanese Literature will talk about American culture and its diversity.
6, Kurt Weill: Medley from his American years, arranged by Masahiko Satoh
Born in Germany. In 1933, he moved to Paris, then to London and finally to New York in 1935, and became American citizen in 1943. He wrote several successful Broadway musicals. The evocate melody "September Song" was written for Knickerbocker Holiday (1938) and "Street Scene" (1946) is a vivid picture of New York tenement life. His outstanding success came in Berlin in 1928 with updated version of "The Threepenny Opera" containing satirical topical references to German life at the time and evoking by its jazzy and harsh but brilliant scoring the atmosphere of that particular period even for those who didn't experience it. Brecht's lyrics and the singing of Lotte Lenya, who became Weill's wife, were significant factors in its success. Its hit number was "Mack the Knife". After his death, The Threepenny Opera" was given an English libretto by Marc Britzstein and ran successfully in New York. Weill's music captures the flavor of an era and also successfully fuses jazz with classical elements. Again, Masahiko Satoh arranged Weill's songs such as My Ship, Speak Low and Mack the Knife, for Violin and Jazz trio for tonight's performance.
Bibliography:
* Mary Canberg - Editorial Note for H.Vieuxtemps's Souvenir D'amerique published by Galaxy Music Corporation
* Oxford Concise Dictionary of Music (New Edition) by Michael Kennedy
written by Junko Ohtsu
May 4, 2004
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