Ravinia 2022, Issue 6

BENNETT GORDON HALL 1:00 PM SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2022 INNA FALIKS, piano Reimagine: Beethoven and Ravel BEETHOVEN Six Bagatelles, op. 126 ( preceded by responses from contemporary composers ) GOLUB Bagatelle 1. Andante con moto HENDELMAN Bagatelle 2. Allegro DANIELPOUR Bagatelle ( Childhood Nightmare ) 3. Andante KROUSE Etude No. 2a ( Ad fugam ) 4. Presto CARLSON Sweet Nothings 5. Quasi allegretto LEFKOWITZ Bagatelle 6. Presto—Andante amabile e con moto –Intermission– RAVEL Gaspard de la nuit ( preceded by responses from contemporary composers ) PRESTINI Variations on a Spell Water Sprite Bell Tolls—Golden Bees ANDRES Old Ground CHILDS Pursuit 1. Ondine 2. Le gibet 3. Scarbo This is the world premiere of the complete Reimagine: Beethoven and Ravel project in live performance. FROM THE ARTIST In 2017, I curated a piano festival called “Di- alogues” at UCLA. During this festival, stu- dents and faculty performed new works that responded to music of the past. I have been drawn to this “response” genre since pre- miering the complete 13 Ways of Looking at the Goldberg responses to Bach’s Aria . This work was written for Gilbert Kalish, one of my teachers, and I am deeply grateful to him for introducing me not only to the piece but to the “response” idea. I am drawn to it because it creates a bridge between the past and the pres- ent, illuminating the canon of piano repertoire while opening the stage to bright new voices. For the festival, I asked six composers fromthe UCLA faculty—Peter Golub, Tamir Hendel- man, Richard Danielpour, Ian Krouse, Mark Carlson, and David Lefkowitz—to respond to the Six Bagatelles, op. 126, the last work Beethoven wrote for the piano. This group of six pieces fascinates me with its childlike wonder, wit, moodiness, charm, rhythmic energy, transcendence, and experimentation. The responses are tumultuously contrapuntal, multilayered, humorously whimsical, jazzy, sweetly sensuous, and dark. Interspersing the new bagatelles with the original felt like the most organic way to present them in per- formance. I hope that the emerging dialogue between then and now highlights the unique character of the original while forming a wholly new sonic adventure. Wanting to enlarge the scope of the project, I turned to an iconic triptych of the piano rep- ertoire—Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit ( Ondine , Le gibet , and Scarbo ), a work that I recorded in 2008 and have frequently performed. Like the Beethoven bagatelles, Ravel’s masterpiece is richly experimental and full of sonic contrasts and innovative effects. The original is itself a response to the poetry of Aloysius Bertrand; it was interesting to continue the chain of re- sponses to the evocative subjects: Ondine, the sensuous water nymph; Gibet, the hypnotic, almost minimalistic gallows; and the diaboli- cal, virtuosic imp Scarbo. It is considered one of the most pianistically challenging works in the repertoire, and I wanted responses that would be challenging and rich, as well. With the help of Yamaha Artist Services and UC- LA’s Davise Fund, I turned to three compos- ers—Paola Prestini, Timo Andres, and Billy Childs—who, I felt, would respond powerfully to the individual qualities in each of the Ravel pieces. The resulting pieces stand on their own as powerful additions to the piano repertoire. While responding to and elaborating on qual- ities singular to Ravel, they can be performed as individual works or a coherent suite. I am humbled and grateful to these nine bril- liant composers who have responded with such passion and dedication to these great works from the piano repertoire. –Inna Faliks LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Six Bagatelles, op. 126 Beethoven often turned to the slight, unpre- tentious bagatelle at the close of a consuming period of piano sonata composition. He com- pleted his first collection—the Seven Baga- telles, op. 33—in 1802, the same year as the three sonatas of op. 31 (including the “Tem- pest” and “Hunt”). In fact, Beethoven had written eight sonatas between the years 1800 and 1802. Two final sets of bagatelles postdate Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas, opp. 109, 110, and 111, from 1820–1822. The Eleven Bag- atelles, op. 119, originated during the same two-year span, while the Six Bagatelles, op. 126, were a product of 1824. On the sketches for the Six Bagatelles, op. 126, Beethoven wrote “Ciclus von Kleinigkeiten” (Cycle of Trifles), a title not meant to belittle these works—Beethoven often called his bag- atelles “trifles.” The “cyclic” concept was new to op. 126: these six bagatelles observe a stra- tegic key scheme and regular alternation of moderate and fast tempos. When Beethoven offered op. 126 to the publisher Schott, he de- scribed themwith pride: “Six bagatelles or tri- fles for pianoforte solo, amongst which some are more fully worked out and most likely the best of this kind which I have written.” FROM THE RESPONDING COMPOSERS PETER GOLUB (b.1952) Bagatelle Writing the first piece of a set and not know- ing what’s coming after is a little like leading an expedition without a map. So, knowing that the composers following me would be having intimate relations with their own bag- atelle, I decided to lead the way by weaving in and out of Beethoven’s first piece. This way there would be some likelihood that mate- rial I made use of would recur and resonate later in the set. I was especially interested in Beethoven’s use of what at first seem like odd Ludwig van Beethoven by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (1823) RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 37