Ralph Votapek - Ivory Classics

Ralph
Votapek
Music by
Ginastera, Poulenc,
Szymanowski & Piazzolla
Ralph Votapek
Music by Ginastera, Poulenc, Szymanowski and Piazzolla
Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983)
Alberto Evaristo Ginastera was born in Buenos Aires, April 11,
1916. From early childhood he showed interest in music, beginning
formal studies when he was seven years old. At twelve he entered the
Conservatorio Williams, eventually entering the National
Conservatory of Music where his teachers included Athos Palma
and Jose Andre. His first mature work, the score for the ballet
Panambi, was also the first he allowed to survive. The suite from the
ballet was premiered in 1937 and the complete ballet was introduced at the Teatro Colon in 1940. Primitive in its rhythms and
modern harmonies, the score constantly reveals the composer’s
interest in a national Argentine idiom. During this time he also
wrote the wonderful piano work, Danzas Argentinas. In 1938 he
graduated with honors from the National Conservatory. In 1941 he
was commissioned the ballet Estancia, and his first symphony,
Sinfonia Portena followed in 1942. In 1942 he received a
Alberto Ginastera
Guggenheim Fellowship and he visited the United States. World
War II inspired his Twelve American Preludes for piano and the
Elegiac Symphony (1944), dedicated to those who “died for freedom.” From 1945-1947 he lived in
New York. In 1948 he became director of the conservatory of the province of Buenos Aires in La
Plata. In 1948 he completed another important work — his first string quartet.
Ginastera’s Piano Sonata No.1 (1952) and the Variaciones Concertantes (1953) followed. Because
of his pronounced anti-Fascist sentiments, Ginastera became increasingly suspect in Argentina during the Peron regime. Finally, in 1952, he was dismissed as director of the Conservatory of Music and
Drama which he had founded. Compelled to earn his living elsewhere, he took to writing motion
picture scores. In 1955, with the overthrow of the Peron regime, Ginastera was restored to his
Conservatory post — where he remained until 1958 when he resigned to become director of the new
Facultad de Ciencias y Artes Musicales of the Catholic University. His Piano Concerto was premiered
in Washington, D.C. in 1959 and for the opening season of the New York Philharmonic at
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the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Ginastera was commissioned to write a violin concerto.
Ruggiero Ricci introduced it with Leonard Bernstein conducting on October 2, 1963. Ginastera’s
opera Don Rodrigo was performed by the New York City Opera in 1966. His next opera Bomarzo
(1967) was an extraordinary success. Its overt sexuality prompted one critic to label it “Porno in
Belcanto.” In 1971 he wrote his third opera, Beatrix Cenci and in 1972 his Second Piano Concerto was
introduced by pianist Hilde Somer with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. His second and third
piano sonatas were written in 1981-1982, his cello sonata in 1979 and his cello concertos in 1968
and 1980. Additionally, Ginastera wrote two other string quartets, No.2 in 1958 and No.3 in 1973.
Alberto Ginastera died in Geneva, Switzerland on June 25, 1983.
Sonata No.1, Opus 22 was composed in 1952 for the Pittsburg Contemporary Music Festival on
a commission from the Carnegie Institute and the Pennsylvania College for Women. Johana Harris,
pianist-wife of the American composer, Roy Harris, gave the premiere on November 29, 1952. The
composer provided the following notes: “The Piano Sonata is divided into four movements. The first
one, Allegro marcato, corresponds to the plan of the sonata-form with two main themes: the first one
is built upon complex rhythmic cells while the second has a melodic character. The second movement
has the structure of a scherzo in three parts whose main theme arises from a row. The whole movement is played pianissimo and has strange sonorities. The third movement, Adagio molto appassionato, corresponds to the form of a three-part Lied (song). The theme in the first and third parts appears
as a lyric improvisation, the second being of a passionate character. The fourth movement, Ruvido ed
ostinato (“Rough and Obstinate”), is built in the form of a rondo in five parts with the style and technique of a toccata. This movement is built on a rhythmic line which changes constantly within a fixed
structure.”
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
Francis Poulenc was a true “musicien francais,” which is to say, of course, that Poulenc’s music
is bound to be a bit inexplicable to those of us who listen with non-French ears. We won’t have any
trouble enjoying it. Poulenc is as persuasive as Piaf, as mellifluous as Melarchino and mostly about
as modern as Mendelssohn. No twelve-tone implications here! No language of dissonance (not a
consistent and logical dissonant language, anyhow). Poulenc was once a radical shocker. But, even
in 1960, his dissonance remained that of the snazzy musical revolution of the 1920’s, now verging
upon the quaint for our case-hardened ears. And the Poulencian consonance is that of the later
1930’s, when “modern” music permitted itself to relax, for awhile, and plain, old-fashioned
C major chords were once again heard — somewhat to everyone’s relief. That time, too, is
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now gone. But in the 1960’s Poulenc was still there.
Born in 1899 in Paris, Poulenc wrote his first piano compositions in early 1917. In 1919 the concert audiences heard his three
Mouvements Perpetuels and Poulenc became a household name
almost overnight. He then joined a group of French composers
(along with Milhaud, Durey, Auric, Honegger and Tailleferre)
called “The French Six.” In 1924 Sergei Diaghilev commissioned
Poulenc to write a score for the Ballet Russe, and the result was Les
Biches (“The Does”). The ballet was a great success. One critic
wrote: “The Poulenc score is exquisite... With its ironic and slightly
rakish twists, its thoroughly traditional elegance of thought, it goes
straight to the point, its one aim being to bring delight.”
Many works followed — the Concert Champetre, a Concerto for
Two Pianos and Orchestra, the Mass in G Major, songs, chamber
music and, of course, more piano pieces. During World War II,
Poulenc was an active member of the French Resistance movement.
Francis Poulenc
Works from these years include the poignant Violin Sonata dedicated to the memory of Federico Garcia Lorca and the deeply moving, tragic choral work, Figure Humaine. In 1957 he produced the opera Les Dialogues des Carmelites,
which received its American premiere at the San Francisco Opera on September 22, 1957. In 1959
he produced La Voix Humaine, and in 1961 the six-part Gloria for chorus and orchestra. Francis
Poulenc died suddenly at his home in Paris on January 30, 1963.
Critic Jay Harrison once stated that, “In many ways, Poulenc is Paris. He is gay like Paris, sad like
Paris. And he bustles constantly. His hands wave, his eyebrows arch, he twitches, grins, makes faces.
When his mouth talks, all of him talks too. If he is not Paris, he is at least French. Not even a deaf
man could doubt that.” And certainly that is also true of Poulenc’s music. Poulenc’s eight nocturnes
span about a decade (1929-1938). Although they are often played separately, Poulenc created a
“cycle” when he composed the eighth nocturne and titled it “Pour servir de Coda au Cycle” (“To serve
as the Coda for the Cycle”). Unlike Chopin’s or Faure’s, Poulenc’s nocturnes are not romantic tonepoems. They are instead “night-scenes” and “sound-images” of public and private events.
The first Nocturne, in C major, acts as a prelude to the set. It is typically Poulenc — constructed
out of a touching, almost child-like melodic pattern, with some Stravinskian style touches and a weird
epilogue marked, “le double plus lent.” The second Nocturne is entitled “Bal de jeunes filles.”
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The young girls, in Poulenc’s world, are indulging in a quadrille, a dance with both military and theatrical associations. According to biographer Wilfrid Howard Mellers, this Nocturne “is a delicious
Poulenc image for the vulnerability of youth, perhaps even the vanity of human wishes.” The third
Nocturne, is entitled “Les Cloches de Malines.” Mellers sees this as a different kind of genre-piece “for
it aurally depicts a small-town market-square that is probably, at dead of night, destitute of people.
Bells toll through fourths between F and C, played by the left hand in equal crotchets but irregular
metre, as though the mechanism is defective. It may well be, since the bells are very old, being in one
of Poulenc’s ‘antique’ pieces — with the proviso that its world, however ancient, is still extant... the
cacophony that eventually forms a brief middle section has a programmatic intention... perhaps the
frantic clangings warn of some disaster, or maybe the clock’s works have gone crazy. In any case, we
hear the raucous chaos in psychological as well as physical terms: the hubbub is the ills that flesh is
heir to, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, things that go bump in the night.”
The fourth Nocturne, “Bal fantôme” carries a quotation by Julien Green:
“Pas une note des valses ou des scottisches ne se perdait
dans toute la maison, si bien que le malade eut sa part de
la fête et put rêver sur son grabat aux bonnes années de
sa jeunesse.”
We are led by Poulenc through an old-world, “phantom ball” where the chromatic harmony, sensuously spaced, moves us through a by-gone-era waltz. It is dream-like, seductive and welcoming. The
fifth Nocturne is entitled “Phalènes” (“Moths”). In this Presto misterioso, Mellers hears the moths
flickering in an iridescent bitonality. It is one Poulenc’s more pictorial pieces — the coda is a quivering, sepulchral bit of music, which Mellers feels may signal a human allegory: “we may be moths, jittering directionless.”
We are again outdoors for the sixth Nocturne. Mellers sees the work as “wafting through darkness.” In the seventh Nocturne, our “jeunes filles” are back dancing or strolling on a balmy summer
night. According to Mellers, “since the young girls are recalled in the seventh Nocturne, it makes sense
that Poulenc should round off the cycle with an epilogue.” The eighth Nocturne is designated
“Nocturne pour servir de Coda au Cycle.” It begins with a tune close to that of the first Nocturne,
but in 3/4 instead of 4/4. Mellers sees this as “a positive evolution... the music modulates flatwards
ending on bare fifths of C, so the tonic C basic to the suite is reinstated, but not strongly affirmed.
Fallibly human, Poulenc mistrusted definitive answers. This delectable suite of eight Nocturnes
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displays the loving care with which Poulenc defined, and protected, his vulnerabilities, even though they are less patent than
those of the jeunes filles.”
Karol Szymanowski (1883-1937)
Karol Szymanowski was born in Tymoszowka, near
Elisavetgrad, in the Ukraine, on September 21, 1883. His
father was a wealthy Polish landowner who made his home a
gathering place for the cultural elite. As a result, the young boy
was surrounded in childhood with literature, music and art.
Music and the piano attracted him and eventually a local
teacher was hired to teach him theory. In 1900 he published his
first works, a set of piano preludes which prompted the one
critic to write, “The lyric sincerity, the charming poetic ideas,
the beauty of melodic invention, the harmonic variety and,
finally, the elegance of technique and finesse commanded universal attention.” His talent now required serious nurturing,
and Karol Szymanowski was sent to Warsaw in 1903 to study
Karol Szymanowski
with Zygmunt Noskowski. Under Noskowski, he worked
industriously at counterpoint as well as in the free forms of composition. A sonata for piano composed in 1905 under Noskowski’s guidance, won first prize in a Chopin competition held in
Lemberg. That year, he moved to Berlin, where he fell under the spell of the composers Richard
Strauss, Gustav Mahler and Anton Bruckner.
In 1906 he composed his First Symphony, still under the influence of German Romanticism.
After he left Germany in 1908, Szymanowski’s style became more subjective, filled with restless
moods and dramatic expositions. Examples from this period were his Second Symphony and Second
Piano Sonata. A prelude and fugue, written in 1909, won a prize in a competition instituted by the
Berlin Signale für die musikalische Welt. Szymanowski did not feel completely comfortable with the
direction his music was taking and turned next to exotic idioms. Szymanowski much admired the
compositions of Alexander Scriabin and became also interested in mysticism and oriental philosophy.
The resulting music he produced was filled with the atmosphere and colors of the East: the
opera Hagith (1913), the Love Songs of Hafiz (1914), and the Third Symphony, “The Song of
the Night” (1916).
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The Russian Revolution had far-reaching repercussions for Szymanowski. His family estates in
both Poland and the Ukraine were plundered and all the family belongings were confiscated by the
Bolsheviks. Destitute, he settled in Warsaw and managed to eke out a living through his music, concertizing when opportunities presented themselves, in Paris, London, and the United States. After the
war, Szymanowski spent a few months in the Tatra Mountains of Poland, where he heard native songs
and dances. This experience inspired him to utilize these native idioms in his compositions. “Today,”
he wrote, “I have developed into a national composer, not only subconsciously but with a thorough
conviction, using the melodic treasures of the Polish folk.” His ballet, Harnasie (1926), was based on
a Polish legend from the Tatra mountains. Also in 1926, Szymanowski was appointed director of the
Warsaw Conservatory. Ill-health began to plague him and in 1929 he suffered a nervous breakdown.
He resigned his academic post and checked himself in at a sanitarium near Lausanne, Switzerland.
He continued to compose creating his Symphonie Concertante for piano and orchestra, Opus 60 and
his Violin Concerto No.2, Opus 61. He took on the responsibilities of president of the Academy of
Music in Warsaw, but a relapse sent him back to Switzerland where he died on March 28, 1937 of
laryngeal tuberculosis.
Szymanowski composed the three piano tone-poems, Masques, Opus 34 in 1915-16. They were
first played on October 12, 1916 in St. Petersburg by Sascha Dubiansky. The first poem,
“Sheherazade,” which is dedicated to Dubiansky evokes the orientalism and imagery of A Thousand
and One Nights. “Tantris the Clown” is based on Ernst Hardt’s poem. Dedicated to Heinrich
Neuhaus, this work is a warped version of the Tristan legend. According to Artur Rubinstein,
“Tristan, under this false name [an anagram] tries to steal into Isolde’s apartment one night but is
readily recognized by the dogs and arouses the suspicions of the household.” “Don Juan’s Serenade”
was dedicated to Artur Rubinstein. It is a work that begins in a quasi-improvisational vein, growing
impassioned and urgent, with fits of ecstasy. This is an ardent work, full of, according to biographer
Eduard Volynski, “soul and heart.”
Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)
Following a long struggle against illness, composer and musician Astor Piazzolla died on
Saturday, July 4, 1992, at the age of 71. He had plunged into a deep coma following a stroke suffered in Paris on August 5th, 1990. He was never to compose or play again, and in the months preceding his death, he was already being spoken of in Buenos Aires in the past tense. The tunes and
works of Astor Piazzolla will remain, inscribed forever on the walls of the temple of the tango, just
below those of the unforgettable Carlos Gardel. All tango lovers agree that there was a “before” and
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“after” Piazzolla. “He revolutionized the tango,” writes
Marikena Monti, “Giving the tango emotion and mystery...
He discovered a different new rhythm, pure tango, yet different. It was a real miracle.”
Piazzolla reinvented the tango, bringing to it influences
from classical, jazz, and Argentinean folk music. He was
born in 1921 in Mar del Plata and was educated in New
York until the age of 15. He played classical piano, until one
day when his father gave him a bandonéon. “I was 10 years
old,” he said. “If he’d bought me a saxophone I’d have
played jazz. But it was the tango that won.” While in the
United States he met his idol Carlos Gardel who had
already noticed this little prodigy. Back in Buenos Aires
Piazzolla played in orchestras and composed, but was considered an “intellectual” of the tango by the Porteños,
always reluctant to accept innovation in their tango
domain. Piazzolla eventually travelled the world and
Astor Piazzolla
became one of the most famous Argentineans outside
Argentina. During the 1960’s he gained popular recognition in his homeland with what were to
become his two best-known compositions: the dramatic and sorrowful Adiós Nonino written to commemorate the death of his father and Balada para un loco (“Ballad For a Madman”), the result of his
long collaboration with the poet Horacia Ferrer. In 1985 he composed the History of the Tango. The
work is in four parts depicting a particular moment in the evolution of the dance. The two tangos
selected by Ralph Votapek are less often heard, but just as compelling. Lo Que Vendrá (“That Which
is Coming”) was composed in 1957, two years after Piazzolla had studied with Nadia Boulanger. This
piano tango is one of his earliest “infused” works, drawing upon the rhythms of the traditional dance
in combination with jazz elements and classical counterpoint and ornamentation of Bach’s time.
Retrato de Alfredo Gobbi was composed in 1970 and is a portrait (retrato) of a musical friend.
— Marina and Victor Ledin, ©1998
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Ralph Votapek
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Ralph Votapek Biography
Ralph Votapek was born in Milwaukee in 1939 and began his musical studies in Milwaukee’s
Wisconsin Conservatory at the age of nine. He studied at Northwestern University with Guy
Mombaerts, earning his Bachelor’s Degree, and subsequently attended the Manhattan School of
Music and the Juilliard School. His principal teachers were Rosina Lhevinne and Robert Goldsand.
In 1959, he won the Naumburg Award which gave him his New York debut at Town Hall. Mr.
Votapek skyrocketed to world prominence when he won the Gold Medal of the First Van Cliburn
International Piano Competition in 1962. The prize brought with it a $10,000 check, headlines
around the world, a Carnegie Hall debut recital, a contract with famed impresario Sol Hurok, and
an RCA Victor recording contract.
Since 1962, Votapek has maintained a front-rank position among pianists. After the Van
Cliburn Competition prize, Votapek scored a tremendous success in London with the
Philharmonia and was hailed for his performances across the United States. In 1966, he made his
first tour of South America, where his reputation among young audiences in Buenos Aires was compared to those of the “ye-ye” idols. At the famous Colon Theatre they mobbed him, chanting,
“Ralphie, Ralphie.” Mr. Votapek has a special commitment to South America, where he has toured
every other year for the past three decades. In August 1997, the Buenos Aires Herald said, “Votapek,
now in his fifties, keeps his characteristic boyishness; handsome, dynamic and ingratiating, he communicates easily. Artistically he is as consistent as they come; a rock-solid technique, a catholicity
of taste that knows no bounds, and beautifully varied and interesting programs. You’ll never be disappointed in a Votapek recital.”
He has appeared with virtually all the major American orchestras and has been partnered by
such legendary conductors as Rafael Kubelik, William Steinberg, Joseph Krips and Erich Leinsdorf.
He has been guest soloist sixteen times with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and has appeared
frequently with the Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Boston Pops, Saint
Louis, Houston, Dallas and Louisville orchestras.
Equally at home in chamber music, Mr. Votapek has performed with the Juilliard, Fine Arts,
New World and Chester String Quartets. The PBS television network and other educational stations in the U.S. broadcast frequently Mr. Votapek’s video series of forty recitals.
Mr. Votapek has the title of Artist-in-Residence at Michigan State University in East Lansing.
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Credits
Recorded at the WFMT Studios, Chicago, July 28-29, 1997
Recording Engineer: Lawrence Rock
Editor: John McDaniel
Executive Producer: Michael Rolland Davis
Mastered by: Ed Thompson
Piano: Steinway & Sons, New York
Cover and Inside Tray Card Photos:
Arnaldo Colombaroli (Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Liner Notes: Marina and Victor Ledin
Design: Communication Graphics
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P.O. Box 341068 • Columbus, Ohio 43234-1068
Phone: 1-888-40-IVORY • Fax: 614-761-9799
e-mail@ivoryclassics.com • Website: www.IvoryClassics.com
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Ralph Votapek
Music by Ginastera, Poulenc, Szymanowski & Piazzolla
Alberto Ginastera: Sonata No.1, Opus 22 (1952) 14:57
1
2
3
4
I. Allegro marcato
II. Presto misterioso
III. Adagio molto appassionato
IV. Ruvido ed ostinato
Francis Poulenc: Nocturnes (complete)
5
6
7
8
9
No.1 in C Major (1929) – Sans traîner
No.2 in A Major (1933) – Bal de jeunes filles
Très animé
No.3 in F Major (1934) – Les cloches de Malines
Modéré mais sans lenteur
No.4 in C minor (1934) – Bal fantôme
Lent, très las et piano
No.5 in D minor (1934) – Phalènes
Presto misterioso
4:17
2:40
5:07
2:53
17:27
3:01
10
11
12
Karol Szymanowski:
Masques (3 Poems), Opus 34 (1916)
13
1:26
14
15
3:09
1:17
17
3:05
2:08
1:50
21:11
9:21
5:59
5:51
5:58
2:49
3:09
I. Shéhérazade – Lento assai, languido
II. Tantris le Bouffon – Vivace assai
III. Sérénade de Don Juan – Vivace
Astor Piazzolla: Two Tangos
16
1:31
No.6 in G Major (1934)
Très clame mais san traîner
No.7 in E flat Major (1935) – Assez allant
No.8 (1938) – Pour servir de Coda au Cycle
Très modéré
Lo Que Vendrá (1957)
Retrato de Alfredo Gobbi (1970)
Total Playing Time:
60:40
Recording Engineer: Lawrence Rock • Executive Producer: Michael Rolland Davis
Mastered by: Ed Thompson • Piano: Steinway & Sons, New York
1998 Ivory Classics™ • All Rights Reserved.
Ivory Classics™ • P.O. Box 341068
Columbus, Ohio 43234-1068 U.S.A.
Phone: 1-888-40-IVORY • Fax: 614-761-9799
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