Welcome to the Beethoven in the Rockies Concert Series! Our 2022 season will explore some of the most beautiful orchestral and ensemble music in the stunning UNC Campus Commons Performance Hall. We will begin with one of the best chamber ensembles of our region: the Colorado Piano Trio, with a program of fun music by Beethoven and fiery tangos of the Argentinian master Astor Piazzolla.
PROGRAM
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 11
INTERMISSION
Astor Piazzolla (1921 - 1992)
Four Seasons Tango Suito for piano trio
George Gershwin/ arranged by Ian Jamison: Summertime
Henry Mancini/arranged by Ian Jamison: Moon River
About the Artist:
The Colorado Piano Trio is an international ensemble based at the University of Northern Colorado. American violinist Jubal Fulks, Polish pianist Adam Żukiewicz, and Slovenian cellist Gal Faganel began their artistic collaboration in 2016. Since then, they have performed across Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, collecting enthusiastic reviews and invitations for future performances. Upcoming projects include the recording of a debut album, an east coast concert tour including a performance at Carnegie Hall, as well as performances in California. The trio is commissioning new music by Polish, Slovenian, and American composers. As enthusiastic teachers, members of the trio are involved in a variety of outreach, arts advocacy, and educational projects.
Jubal Fulks is an award-winning and critically acclaimed artist and teacher who is adept in all repertoire, from historically informed performance on baroque violin to the commissioning of new works. He has been seen as soloist, chamber musician, and with orchestras across the United States and Europe, and has been heard on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today.” Currently Associate Professor of Violin at the University of Northern Colorado, he maintains an active recording and national recital schedule.
A native of Poland, Adam Piotr Żukiewicz has performed across Europe, United States, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Hong Kong and Macau. He has appeared on TV in Poland, Italy, and Canada and his performances were broadcast in USA, Canada, Italy, Slovenia and Poland. Mr. Żukiewicz currently resides in Greeley, Colorado, where he serves as an Associate Professor of Piano at the University of Northern Colorado. He is also a Resident Faculty Pianist at the International Music Festival of the Adriatic in Duino, Italy.
Gal Faganel is an award-winning cello performer and recording artist, and an acclaimed teacher. He is currently an associate professor and string area head at the University of Northern Colorado, where he greatly enjoys teaching cello, coaching chamber music. With a doctorate from the University of Southern California, he was previously the principal cellist of the Phoenix Symphony. He has recorded for Astrum, Naxos, Potenza Music, Pucihar Music, and many radio stations. His performances have been praised in the press for “exceptionally sensitive interpretation,” his “powerful and beautiful tone,” and “brilliant virtuosity and youthful vigor.”
PROGRAM NOTES
by
Hanguang Wang
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 11
I. Allegro con brio
II. Adagio
III. Tema con variazioni
The Trio in B-flat major was composed in 1797, when Beethoven was 26 years old and steadily gaining a reputation around Vienna. The work was originally composed as the trio for a particular clarinet virtuoso, Joseph Beer. The then-famous clarinetist considered it a less flamboyant vehicle for his talents and probably never performed it. Perhaps realizing that there was a limited market for works for this combination of instruments, or perhaps confirming Beer’s lack of enthusiasm, Beethoven wrote an alternative version, in which the violin serves as the clarinet part.
The trio includes three movements. The first is in easily followed the sonata form, with the three instruments announcing the main theme in unison. The slow movement is built on two expressive themes - the first a singing melody introduced by the cello and the second started by the cello’s ascending scale answered by the clarinet. There is a short but dramatic development. The final movement is a set of variations on a popular comic opera tune from L'amor marinaro (“love at sea”) by the Austrian composer, Josef Weigel (1766-1846). The song, entitled "Pria ch'io l'impegno" (Before I go to work, I must have something to eat), became Vienna's "Gassenhauer” (“street song”). As a result, the piano trio is also known as the "Gassenhauertrio".
Astor Piazzolla (1921 - 1992)
Four Seasons Tango Suite
I. Verano Porteño (Buenos Aires Summer)
II. Otoño Porteño (Buenos Aires Autumn)
III. Invierno Porteño (Buenos Aires Winter)
IV. Primavera Porteña (Buenos Aires Spring)
As a well-known New Tango composer, player, and bandleader, Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) left a rich musical legacy to the world. His music is a lived-in mix of traditional tango, classical music, jazz, and even elements of popular styles such as Neapolitan song and klezmer. It can be lyrical, elegant, and coarse. Traditional and contemporary musical elements are constantly remade and reframed in his compositions; there are also many unexpected twists and turns that showcase the composer's ingenuity and innovation.
In Argentina, tango was considered primarily dance music. A traditional tango band had a core of six instruments: two violins, two bandoneóns, a piano, and bass. These groups often included a singer and occasionally a flute or acoustic guitar. Inspired by The Four Seasons of Vivaldi, Piazzolla composed over six-year period (1964-70) four tangos and published them as The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. Each tango is a unique blending of the syncopations of the dance, Bach-like counterpoint, touches of Romantic and Impressionistic music, and jazz. In the music, you may feel the four unique and colorful "seasons" from the southern hemisphere of Buenos Aires; "summer" with its street noise, "autumn" with its softness and sentimentality, "winter" with its quietness but also a bit of desolation, and "spring" with its vitality.