Saturday, October 1st, 2022, 8 pm
 at
New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall
rescheduled (was January 29)

Presenting

Ya-Fei Chuang 莊雅斐,  pianist


 



  




 







 







 




~
Program ~

Franz Schubert (1797~1828)
Moment Musicaux, Opus 94 D780
2. Andantino
3. Allegro moderato
5. Allegro vivace
6. Allegretto


Frédéric Chopin
(1810~1849)
Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58
I. Allegro maestoso
II. Scherzo. Molto vivace
III. Largo
IV. Finale. Presto non tanto


~Intermission~

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
(1714~1788)

Rondo in E Minor, Wq 66
“Farewell to my Silbermann Clavichord”
Poco andante, e sostenuto

Maurice Ravel
(1875~1937)
Valses nobles et sentimentales
I. Modéré, très franc
II. Assez lent, avec une expression intense
III. Modéré
IV. Assez animé
V. Presque lent – dans un sentiment intime
VI. Vif
VII. Moins vif
VIII. Lent


Sergei Rachmaninoff
(1873~1943)
Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, Op. 36
(1931)
I. Allegro agitato
II. Non allegro-Lento
III. Allegro molto



Program subject to change to comply with COVID mandates and rules of Jordan Hall.


Leon Golub of The Boston Musical Intelligencer: “The gentle power of Ya-Fei Chuang’s Jordan Hall concert continues to yield subtle treasures to me as I write. First was the power of contrasting scale. Ya-Fei gave us piano works ranging from the delicate miniature of ephemeral love to the towering immensity of eternity. Despite her dazzling dress, as she took possession of the stage, there was a warning: listen for depth tonight, elegant and stylish, not a bonfire of vanity." “After receiving tributes of flowers from young admirers and aspiring pianists, YFC regaled us with soft, dreamy, repose in the Schumann Romance, Op. 28, No. 2. Like the embers of a fire that never blazes to dazzle but provides light for months and years to come, YFC illuminated us with enduring memories."



Foundation for
Chinese Performing Arts

 

 







photos: Chung Cheng
 




photos: Xu Xiaopei
 

Ya-Fei Chuang 莊雅斐,  pianist

Acclaimed by critics in the United States and abroad for performances of stunning virtuosity, refinement and communicative power, Ya-Fei Chuang’s playing has been named the equal of Vladimir Ashkenazy, Garrick Ohlsson, and Idil Biret (The Boston Musical Intelligencer), and Alfred Brendel has praised her as "a pianist of extraordinary ability, intelligence, sensitivity and command . . . approaching the height of her powers." Commenting on her newly released (April 2019) Chopin/Liszt recording, he also stated "If you want to listen to Chopin and Liszt with different ears, Ya-Fei Chuang's ecstatic performances cannot leave you cold, and her pianism is staggering"; and Remy Franck wrote "... masterful ...thrilling ...phenomenal" (Journal about Classical Music, Luxembourg).

Ya-Fei Chuang’s international appearances include the symphony orchestras of Berlin, Boston, Birmingham, Israel, Malaysia, and Tokyo; and performances at the Berlin Philharmonie and Schauspielhaus, the Gewandhaus (Leipzig), Queen Elisabeth Hall (London), Boston Symphony Hall, National Concert Hall (Taipei), Suntory Hall (Tokyo) and, more recently, performances in New York, San Francisco, Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and at the International Grieg Piano Competition in Norway (where she also served as member of the competition jury several times), and the Grand Piano Series in Naples, Florida.

Festival appearances in recent seasons include Verbier, Ruhr Piano Festival (where she regularly performs), Oregon Bach, Mozartwoche (Salzburg), the Taiwan Maestro Piano Festival (where she also gave a two-week masterclass), the Mozart Festival (Romania), Beethoven Festival (Warsaw), Beethoven Festival (Krakow), European Music Festival (Stuttgart), Bach Festival (Leipzig), Taipei International Music Festival, and the festivals of Schleswig-Holstein, Gilmore, Ravinia, Rockport, Sarasota, and Tanglewood.

Performances on fortepiano include Boston Baroque, Handel & Haydn Society, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Philharmonia Baroque, and Concerto Köln.

Ya-Fei Chuang has recorded for ECM, Harmonia Mundi, Naxos, and New York Philomusica Records, and the Ruhr Festival has released several of her live recordings. Fanfare Magazine hailed her "delicacy and fluidity of touch" for her Mendelssohn G Minor Concerto live recording, and her recording of Hindemith chamber works was awarded a special prize by the International Record Review. Upcoming CD releases include recordings of the complete piano solo works by Ravel for Le Palais des Dégustateurs, to be released worldwide on Harmonia Mundi.

Ya-Fei Chuang’s mastery of the most challenging solo and chamber repertoire is complemented by her commitment to contemporary music. She has given the world premieres of works by John Harbison, Stanley Walden, Thomas Oboe Lee, and Yehudi Wyner.

She is on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and on the New England Conservatory Preparatory & Continuing Ed, where she teaches a piano performance seminar. She gives master classes throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, and since 2008 an annual two-week master class at the International Summer Academy at Mozarteum in Salzburg.

Prizewinner in the Cologne Inter¬na¬tional Piano Competition at age 18, Ya-Fei Chuang first performed on television in her native Taiwan at the age of eight and gave her first public recital at age nine. She won first prize at the nationally televised ‘Genius vs. Genius’ Music Competition at age ten and first prize at the National Competition (Taiwan) at age eleven. The following year she received unprecedented fellowships and scholarships from several prestigious foundations in Germany and Taiwan that enabled her to pursue pre-college, under¬graduate, and masters-level studies at the Freiburg Conservatory (Musik¬hochschule) with Rosa Sabater and Robert Levin, completing the six-year course of study in four. During this time she was awarded numerous prizes, including the Basel-Colmar-Freiburg Arts Prize, the Mendelssohn Prize (Freiburg) and Parke-Davis Prize (Germany). She subsequently concluded her German studies with Pavel Gililov, receiving a concert diploma (final degree) at the Cologne Conservatory, and earned a graduate diploma at the New England Conservatory in Boston, USA, with Russell Sherman. Her master class teachers included Leon Fleischer, Gil Kalish, Elisabeth Leonskaja, John O'Conor, Meneham Pressler, Karl-Ulrich Schnabel. Her mentor Alfred Brendel has been working with her regularly in recent years.


 
NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
By Dr. Jannie Burdeti

Franz Schubert (1797~1828)
Moment Musicaux, Opus 94 D780
2. Andantino
3. Allegro moderato
5. Allegro vivace
6. Allegretto
 

The six Moments musicaux (literally, “musical moments”) by Franz Schubert are, in a sense, poetic utterances boiled down to their essence. Composed between 1823 and 1828, but mostly during the final two years of his life, these short gems epitomize the popular genre of the character piece. Such works were much in fashion during the Romantic period—they were accessible to amateurs and had tremendous value for publishers as products that could easily be monetized. Some precedents of the Moments musicaux include Beethoven’s Bagatelles Op. 33 and Václav Tomášek’s Eclogues (poems).

The second selection of the Moments Musicaux is a dreamy barcarolle that slips into a F-sharp-minor section with some of the most sorrowful music ever written. Later in the piece, the same theme returns with a heart-wrenching cry of despair. The third selection, marked Allegro moderato, has always been the most popular of the set. It actually appeared for the first time in publication in December 1823 and was titled “Air russe” by the publisher. Passionate, dactylic chords come bursting through in the fifth movement, the most technically challenging of the set. The final offering, the complete opposite of the preceding one, is an Allegretto and Trio, bittersweet in its harmonic changes; it finds Schubert at the height of his poetic powers, all the while exposing his innermost sentiments.

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58
(27’)
Allegro maestoso
Scherzo: Molto vivace
Largo
Finale: Presto non tanto
 

Chopin experienced the full range of life’s vicissitudes in the year 1944: the sorrow of his father’s death; the elation of his sister, Ludwika, visiting him for the first time in fourteen years; his health taking a turn for the worse at his young age of thirty-four (he would die five years later); and the deterioration of his relationship with his partner, Baroness Aurore Dudevant, known by her pen name, George Sand. Throughout these events, Chopin worked diligently on his Third Piano Sonata. Despite a negative initial reception by critics, the sonata remains one of the most important pieces of the nineteenth century, with its confluence of styles, rich palette of emotions, and large-scale craftsmanship.

The key of choice of B minor was unprecedented at the time for a large-scale piano sonata, and it likely motivated Liszt’s decision to cast his famous sonata for piano in the same key a few years later. The first movement of Chopin’s sonata begins with a bold declaration, containing a half-step motive that will inform the entire work. Lyricism abounds in the second subject, with its long, singing melody above a gossamer left hand. The development section demonstrates Chopin’s mastery of contrapuntal techniques, the product of a lifetime of studying Bach’s music. (It has been recorded that the only work that Chopin took with him during his summer retreats was Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier.)

A clear departure from the gravitas of the opening, the second movement, marked Scherzo, is fleeting in character and filled with sparkling finger-work. Charles Rosen makes the argument that the middle trio section not only makes “one melodic line out of many voices” but “project[s] a single line to distant regions of the musical space.” While Chopin emulates Bach in the layered writing, he simultaneously makes the music entirely his own.

The third movement is a breathtakingly beautiful nocturne. An arpeggiated middle section spins out a hypnotic meditation where time seemingly stops. After a return of the opening material, with subtle echoes of Chopin’s recently completed Berceuse, the coda concludes the work with a moving synthesis of both sections.

Compared to the abundance of material in the first movement, the finale is almost bare in its use of themes. We hear a rather angular theme combined with dazzling runs. The movement’s inexorable momentum practically gallops into a roof-raising close.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714~1788)
Rondo in E Minor, Wq 66
“Farewell to my Silbermann Clavichord”
Poco andante, e sostenuto

“Play from the soul, not like a trained bird,” wrote Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in his seminal treatise, Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments. CPE Bach, the second surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach and godson of George Philipp Telemann, influenced generations of keyboard players, not only through this treatise, but through his keyboard compositions, which are unfortunately often neglected today. The term Empfindsamkeit, now deeply associated with CPE Bach, characterizes the composer’s understanding of expression. Its meaning most closely resembles the word sensibility as used by Jane Austin in the novel Sense and Sensibility. In essence, while CPE’s father, Johann Sebastian, would often create a single emotion throughout one piece, intending it to be constant and meditated upon, for CPE and also his older brother, Wilhelm Friedemann, the focus was on depicting the ephemeral nature of emotion and its quick changes.

While CPE Bach favored various keyboard instruments depending on the musical situation at hand, based on his treatise and his musical output, it is clear that the clavichord—an instrument that dates from the 1400s—took a central place in his practicing and teaching. The clavichord is a small, rectangular stringed keyboard instrument, with brass blades that strike the string when played. Unlike the harpsichord or fortepiano (both of which Bach was familiar with), the clavichord allowed its player to create vibrato by varying the pressure on the key, a technique called Bebung. CPE Bach believed that playing the clavichord allowed one to develop a sensitive touch and musical finesse.

There was one clavichord constructed by Gottfried Silbermann that CPE Bach was particularly fond of. The instrument boasted a beautiful singing tone, stayed in tune, and allowed for a large range of dynamics. In fact, it remained close to Bach’s heart for thirty-five years, indirectly shaping his keyboard idiom and allowing him to develop the freedom of expressivity that is evident in his later works for solo keyboard. When, in 1781, he finally parted with his prized instrument, selling it to one of his students, Ewald von Grotthuss, the occasion prompted him to write his “Farewell to My Silbermann Clavichord.” According to Walter Georgii, part of his impetus for composing this affecting work was to demonstrate “that it [was] possible to write sad rondos.”

Maurice Ravel (1875~1937)
Valses nobles et sentimentales
I. Modéré, très franc
II. Assez lent, avec une expression intense
III. Modéré
IV. Assez animé
V. Presque lent – dans un sentiment intime
VI. Vif
VII. Moins vif
VIII. Lent

The title of Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales is an homage to Franz Schubert’s Valses nobles and Valses sentimentales. Ravel revealed his fascination and utter enjoyment of the genre through the epigraph he chose for the score, by the poet Henri de Régnier: “ . . . the delightful and ever-fresh pleasure of a useless pastime.” In 1906, Ravel had already begun composing his other waltz-inspired work, La valse, and by the time he published the piano version of his Valses nobles et sentimentales, it was 1911; an orchestral version of the work followed the next year. His La valse, published eight years later, in 1920, would be, in his words, the “apotheosis of the Viennese waltz.”

Pianist Louis Aubert premiered Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales at an event held by the Société Musicale Indépendante. At the concert, the composer’s name was withheld, to give the audience an experience of listening without preconceived ideas. To the embarrassment of the listeners, some of whom were Ravel’s best friends, all guessed incorrectly and even scorned the work due to its harmonic daring—until they learned that it was written by Ravel.

Ravel described the work as “a simpler and clearer way of writing in which the harmony is sharper and the contours of the music are made to stand out.” Bold and “noble” waltzes—to be played without a pause—stand in contrast to the sweet and enchanting. After the climax in the penultimate movement, the last of the set is marked “Epilogue”; it offers a dreamlike, otherworldly conclusion to this kaleidoscopic exposé of the waltz. Ravel would later orchestrate this set into his ballet, Adélaïde.

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873~1943)
Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, Op. 36
(1931)
I. Allegro agitato
II. Non allegro-Lento
III. Allegro molto

In his memoirs, Sergei Rachmaninov wrote, “The sound of the church bells dominated all the cities of the Russia I used to know. . . . If I have been at all successful in making bells vibrate with human emotion in my works, it is largely due to the fact that most of my life was lived amid vibrations of the bells of Moscow.” It is no wonder then that one hears bell-like sonorities throughout Rachmaninov’s oeuvre, and the Second Sonata, dedicated to friend and classmate Matvey Pressman, is no exception. In 1913, during a family trip to Rome, Rachmaninov made sketches for the Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 36, and The Bells, Op. 35, a choral symphony.

The sonata’s interrelated three-movement structure is played without interruption, as in his Third Piano Concerto, composed four years earlier. The sonata begins with a tumultuous thunderclap that cascades into the deep bass of the piano. A descending-third motive that saturates the rest of the sonata, including the main theme of the middle movement, follows the opening gesture. The second element that permeates this work is a descending chromatic line in the left hand, which later transforms into a plaintive second theme. It reappears in the middle of the second movement, as the contrapuntal web spun around the subject.

Although Rachmaninov’s premiere of the work in 1915 was reasonably well received, he was unsatisfied and felt that it was too sodden—in length, texture, and technical difficulty. He compared it to Chopin’s Second Sonata, a staple in his concert repertoire, and wrote that Chopin’s masterpiece “last[ed] nineteen minutes, and all has been said.” In 1931, he published an alternate, nineteen-minute version, not only taking out 120 measures but cutting other passages as well. There also exists the famous Horowitz edition, endorsed by Rachmaninov himself, which combines elements from the original composition and the 1931 revision. To this day, it is left to the taste of the performer, as great pianists perform all three versions.


新聞稿 10-1-2022, 鋼琴家莊雅斐獨奏會

中華表演藝術基金會為鋼琴家莊雅斐在紐英崙音樂學院喬頓廳(Jordan Hall)所舉辦的獨奏會,原定為129日舉行,但因當日大風雪而延期到上週六101日才能舉行。當莊雅斐身著一件鑲滿水鑽的晚禮服,全身發光的步上舞台的那一刻,全場近400多位期待已久的熱情觀眾,立刻以雷動的掌聲表示歡迎。

在台灣出生,在歐洲美國受教育的莊雅斐,現任教於波士頓音樂學院(Boston Conservatory)及紐英崙音樂學院附校。深受學生愛戴與同事的敬重。她當晚的曲目,包羅範圍極廣,涵蓋相對性不同的風格。這些舒伯特、蕭邦、巴赫、拉威爾及拉赫曼尼諾夫的作品,有的細膩抒情,有的高聳壯大,沒有深厚功力的鋼琴家是不敢嘗試的。莊雅斐以她優雅的風姿,高超的琴藝,誠懇大方,深度智慧一氣呵成,震撼全場的觀眾。全體多次起立歡呼,熱烈掌聲久久不停。她以舒曼的第28號浪漫曲作為安可,回應熱情觀眾。學生們在台上及後台獻上大量鮮花,以示祝賀。

當晚在場的鋼琴家如劉孟捷,Victor Rosenbaum等多人,都不約而同的說莊雅斐的音樂將他們帶到另一個仙境。還有很多在Wikipedia上列名的世界級的指揮家,作曲家,鋼琴家等,如Yehudi Wyner, Laurence Lesser, Robert Levin, Marc-Audre Hamelin, Thomas Oboe Lee, Lloyd Schwartze, Boaz Sharon, Bruce Brubaker等等,對演出的多彩,豐富,完美層面都大大讚賞。莊雅斐的多種CD 也被搶購,盛況空前。

波士頓音樂情報雜誌 (Boston Musical Intelligencer)資深樂評Leon Golub 很快就發表一篇評價極高的樂評。他對每一首曲目和莊雅斐的詮釋都仔細討論。他說「好像陳年美酒令人回味無窮。好像溫馨的爐火,不是強烈爆炸的那型,但她的光輝可維持經年累月,照亮了我們永恆的回憶。」

音樂會的錄音錄影近日將放上Youtube ,供大家免費欣賞。也請關注中華表演基金會的 Instagram: @cathychanfcpa.


新聞稿 for 10-01-2022

中華表演藝術基金會第34屆音樂季 (2022-2023)場音樂會 ,將於101日週六晚8時 ,在新英格蘭音樂學院喬頓廳 (Jordan Hall) 舉行。鋼琴家莊雅斐演出鋼琴獨奏會曲目包括拉威爾蕭邦CPE巴赫,舒伯特, 拉赫瑪尼諾夫等作品。須出示打過疫苗或測試陰性證明方可入場。票價為 $15 (7-13)$30$50。提供學生免費票 (14歲以上),及非學生贈送卷。需事前預訂。6歲以下兒童請勿入場。詳情請查官網

鋼琴家雅斐精湛的琴藝 ,受到樂評家的驚嘆及好評。已在國際舞台贏得肯定與讚賞。她的恩師 Alfred Brendel 讚美她 『是一位具有特殊才華,智慧,精細敏感,並富駕馭能力的鋼琴家』

雅斐出生台灣 ,從小音樂天份即被發掘。之後遠渡德國學習再到美國深造,在德國弗萊堡 (Freiburg) 音樂學院,以四年時間完成六年的課業,從大學預科,本科,及碩士學位,還得到了榮譽藝術家文憑。在科隆 (Cologne) 音樂學院完成了獨奏家最高文憑。並獲得多項國際競賽大獎。 還在新英格蘭音樂學院取得了研究生文憑。

莊雅斐經常在世界各大音樂廳表演。與著名指揮家及樂團合作。她曾出現在眾多國際音樂節,包括華沙貝多芬,歐洲Musikfest Stuttgart,德國Leipzig,巴哈,RuhrSchleswig-Holstein,美國Gilmore, SarasotaTanglewood 等。她是挪威國際格里格 (Grieg) 鋼琴比賽及維也納貝多芬鋼琴比賽的評審。

德國ECM,法國Harmonia Mundi, 瑞典Naxos,和紐約Philomusica等唱片公司都曾為她錄音。德國魯爾Ruhr音樂節發行了許多她的現場錄音 ,包括一張她的個人專輯。這張專輯在福諾論壇 (Fono Forum) 雜誌以頭版登出。雜誌稱讚她 : “恬淡流動性的琴藝, 雅緻且細膩.” 她所錄製Hindem室內樂作品受到國際唱片評論 (International Record Review) 授予特殊的獎項。「音樂樂迷雜誌」(Fanfare Magazine) 將她的孟德爾頌 (Mendelssohn) 第一號鋼琴協奏曲的現場錄音列入與 Perahia, Rudolf Serkin, John Ogdon等大師齊名的等級中。

莊雅斐的雙鋼琴演奏合作對象包括Noah Bendix-BalgleyMartin Chalifour等世界級大,並與Steven Isserlis Robert Levin 二人定期合作演出。莊雅斐詮釋了許多最具挑戰性的現代獨奏和室內樂曲。她為作曲家John Harbison, Stanley WaldenThomas Oboe Lee 的作品做了世界首演。

莊雅斐目前任教於波士頓音樂學院和新英格蘭音樂學院預科。她極受歡迎的大師班遍及美國,歐洲和亞洲,並每年定期在歐洲薩爾茨堡 (Salzburg) Mozarteum 開班教授。

當晚曲目有:

 舒伯特:音樂時刻 ,作品94,D.780
    (Moment Musicaux, Op.94,D.780)
蕭邦: B小調第三奏鳴曲 ,作品 58 
    (Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58)
CPE
巴赫: E小調迴旋曲 Wq 66 『告別我的西爾伯曼古鋼琴
    (Rondo in E Minor, Wq 66  “Farewell to my Silbermann Clavichord”)
拉威爾: 高貴與感傷的圓舞曲
    (Valses nobles et sentimentales)
拉赫瑪尼諾夫: B小調第二奏鳴曲 ,作品36
    (Sonata No.2 in B-flat Minor,Op.36)











    



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中華表演藝術基金會
Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts
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updated 2022