PhD Recital Series
Friday 11 May 2012, 6:00pm
Conservatorium Recital Hall
5 Sandy Bay Road, Hobart
Robert Stonestreet, horn
Amanda Hodder, piano
PROGRAMME
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
arr. Scott Brubaker
Sonata for Cello and Piano in e minor Op.38
I
II
III
Allegro non troppo
Alegretto quasi Minuetto
Allegro
Interval
Stjepan Šulek (1914-1986)
Sonata ‘Vox Gabrieli’ for Trombone and Piano
Michael Head (1900-1976)
Scherzo for Horn and Piano
Alexandr Konstantinovich Glazunov (1865-1936)
arr. Mikhail Buyanovsky
Elegie in D flat Major for Cello and Piano Op.17
Daniel Schnyder (b.1961)
Romeo and Julia Variations
Associate Artist: Robert Coleman, bass trombone
Today’s concert will finish at approx 7:00pm
PROGRAMME NOTES
The Sonata for Cello and Piano in e minor Op.38 by Johannes Brahms (18331897) was published in 1866, the same year as the famous Trio for Horn, Violin and
Piano in E flat Op.40, although the first two movements (as well as an Adagio which
Brahms later withdrew from the work) were completed in 1862. Brahms dedicated
the sonata to the Viennese vocal teacher and amateur cellist Joseph Gänsbacher
(1829-1911), the pair premiering the work for a private audience in Leipzig on
January 14th 1871. The first of the three movements, an elegiac Allegro non troppo,
showcases the cello’s lyrical qualities whilst the second movement, Allegretto quasi
minuetto, combines the folk and dance influences that Brahms became renowned for
with sweeping Romantic melodies. Brahms’ love of Johann Sebastian Bach (16851750) is demonstrated in the intense final movement where he integrates
contrapuntal techniques within the sonata form, using a melody reminiscent of those
found in Bach’s Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of Fugue) BWV 1080. The sonata was
transcribed and recorded by Scott Brubaker, along with the Sonata for Clarinet and
Piano in E flat Major opus 120 No.2, which he hoped would contribute “something
truly substantial to the repertoire for horn and piano, both in quality and dimension.”
Brubaker considered both of these works ideal due to their deeply lyrical, romantic
characters as well as their tonal attributes, with Brahms favouring “warmth of tone,
rather than brilliance.” Whilst the characteristic cello writing cannot be denied, the
substitution of horn allows for greater dynamic equality in louder sections where the
piano often utilises the lower register and thickens the texture, whilst also
maintaining the quiet and more introverted characters. The exploration of the horn’s
middle and lower registers preserves the ideal warm, dark, passionate and
expressive tone colours initially used by Brahms and yet also provides the performer
with a wonderfully challenging and rewarding work that according to Brubaker “will
especially test one’s endurance, low register, and flexibility, not to mention
musicianship!” Horn player Scott Brubaker has had a notable career as a soloist,
chamber musician, recording artist and has been a member of the Metropolitan
Opera Orchestra since 1973, when he won his position at the age of just 21.
The Croatian composer, conductor and violinist Stjepan Šulek (1914-1986) studied
at the Zagreb Academy of Music before returning to teach there in 1945, a post
which he held until his retirement in 1975. He is well known amongst brass players
through this Sonata ‘Vox Gabrieli’ for Trombone and Piano, which is a much loved
and frequently performed work. Šulek also composed eight symphonies, two operas
and significant amounts of both chamber music and piano music, and became well
known for his expressive Romantic style of writing and the use of relatively simple
Classical or Baroque forms and structures. This sonata for trombone was
commissioned by the International Trombone Association in 1974 and dedicated to
the renowned trombone teacher and founding member of the ITA, William F.
Cramer. It balances powerful dramatic and often highly technical passages against
expansive lyrical melodies, providing many challenges for the horn player, including
C transposition in bass clef if the original trombone part is used as I am doing today.
In the liner notes for the CD Trombone Favourites, trombonist Alain Trudel describes
the sound of the trombone in this work as representing “the voice of the Angel
Gabriel descending to earth.” Only two years before the composition of this sonata,
Šulek composed a concerto for horn and orchestra that he dedicated to the horn
player Prerad Detiček, who premiered it on February 16 th 1973 in Zagreb and later
recorded it. Detiček inspired many works by Croatian composers through his work
with the Croatian Society of Music Artists, which followed a distinguished playing and
teaching career, where his students included Radovan Vlatkovic. Unfortunately the
concerto has failed to break into the horn’s standard repertoire.
British Composer Michael Head (1900-1976) is well known in the UK and Canada
due to his large output of vocal compositions, however he also composed a
significant amount of chamber music for the oboe following performances with oboist
Evelyn Rothwell. He began studying piano and singing at an early age and in 1919
entered the Royal Academy of Music where composition was his main focus, yet his
piano and vocal training continued with the addition of organ studies. A couple of
years after graduating he returned to the Academy as a piano teacher (in 1927), and
remained heavily involved with the institution until the year before his death. During
the Second World War, Head became heavily involved with CEMA (Council for the
Encouragement of Music and the Arts), and later the BBC as well as numerous other
organizations. Despite his popularity as a composer of art songs, his public
reputation was largely based on his vocal performances and broadcasts where he
would sing and accompany himself at the piano. Although melodically simple and
harmonically conservative the Scherzo for Horn (or Bassoon or cello) and Piano,
composed in 1970 and 1971, is attractive to low horn players due to the neatness
and precision that it requires. It exhibits some of the characteristics often used to
describe the composer himself: pleasant, entertaining, direct, witty, relatable and
energetic. It was dedicated to the horn player Ian Smith, who studied piano with
Michael Head at RAM in his first year there, before leaving early in 1971 to take the
post of co-principal horn with the Scottish National Orchestra, a post that he held for
twenty-two years.
Aleksandr Konstantinovich Glazunov (1865-1936) was an immensely talented
youth and studied composition with Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) for less
than two years before raising the interest of wealthy art patron Mitrofan Belyayev and
embarking on further studies and travel abroad. The first of his eight symphonies
premiered on March 29, 1882 when he was only sixteen years old. As well as
Rimsky-Korsakov, his music was heavily influenced by the great Russian masters
Balakirev, Borodin, Tchaikovsky and Taneyev, and although rather conservative he
soon received international acclaim. Whilst working on his Symphony No.2 in f#
minor opus 16 in 1886, Glazunov was plunged into mourning following the death of
Franz Liszt (1811-1886) whom he had met and spoken with during a trip to Vienna
two years earlier. Glazunov dedicated the work to Liszt and then composed the
Elegie in D flat Major for Cello and Piano opus 17, which he also dedicated ‘To the
memory of F. Liszt.’ The elegy was arranged for horn and piano by the Russian horn
professor Mikhail Buyanovsky (1891-1966) and later orchestrated by his son Vitaly
Buyanovsky (1928-1993). Although not significantly altered from the original the work
contains all the makings of a great horn piece including deeply romantic harmonies,
a lyrical and expressive melody, chances to alter the tone of the instrument, and
during the more uncompromising middle section, an opportunity to really open up in
both the upper and lower registers.
The works of Swiss composer Daniel Schnyder (b.1961) are quickly gaining in
popularity, perhaps because they bridge the gap between classical music and other
styles such as jazz and popular music, and also frequently incorporate non-Western
influences. Schnyder is also a very prominent and well-respected saxophonist known
internationally as both a recording artist and chamber musician having toured
extensively. This work, Romeo and Julia Variations is based on material from the
ballet Romeo and Juliet opus 64 of Sergey Prokofiev (1891-1953). Completed in
1936, it is one of the Russian composer’s most famous works. After gaining
popularity during the Second World War in its original form, it is now most frequently
performed in the reduced form of an orchestral suite or piano transcription. Schnyder
originally wrote this adaption as a trombone and bass trombone duet for a show in
Zurich in 2000, however it was recently transcribed by the composer and recorded
by horn player Adam Unsworth and bass trombonist David Taylor, along with several
other works by Schnyder on the CD Just Follow Instructions. The work is quite
virtuosic, especially in the bass trombone part, and requires not only power and
stamina but also flexibility and accomplished technique across the entire range of
both instruments. As found in other works by Schnyder it combines beautiful,
technical and catchy melodies of an improvisatory nature with complex rhythms and
interplay between the horn and bass trombone.