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presents

Classical Guitar with Paul Galbraith

Soka Performing Arts Center

Saturday, October 28, 2017, at 8:00 p.m.

ProgramFrench Suite No. 2 in C Minor (trans. E Minor), BWV 813....... J.S. BACH

I. Allemande (1685-1750)II. CouranteIII. SarabandeIV. MenuetV. Gigue

Four Preludes .................................ALEXANDER SCRIABIN (1872-1915)Prelude Op. 11, No. 17Prelude Op. 2, No. 2Prelude Op. 16, No. 4Prelude Op. 11, No. 21

Various ........................................................ ISAAC ALBÉNIZ (1860-1909)Sevilla, from Suite española, Op. 47Mallorca, Op. 202 Torre Bermeja, Op. 92

-INTERMISSION-

Keyboard Sonata in C-sharp Minor, Hob. XVI:36, (trans. E Minor) ........... ........................................................FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN (1732-1809)

I. ModeratoII. ScherzandoIII. Minuet. Moderato

Keyboard Sonata in E Major, Hob. XVI 31 .................................... HAYDNFinale, Presto

(All works arranged for 8-string guitar by Paul Galbraith.)

Paul Galbraith appears by arrangement with Lisa Sapinkopf Artists, www.chambermuse.com.

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BACH

Bach’s “French” Suites are really no more French than any of his other suites, and the title was probably merely a convenient way to reference them, differentiating them from the so-called “English” Suites (and no-one knows why they were called “English”). The French Suites stand apart from Bach’s other sets of keyboard suites—the earlier “English” ones and the later Partitas—by their relative spareness of texture and concision. It’s thought that they (or at least the first of them) were composed as a wedding gift to his second wife, Anna Magdalena.

The conscientiously (possibly didactically?) pared-down approach Bach utilizes here (though they’re still far from easy on the keyboard!), which lays stress on crystal-clear textures, was plainly carefully tailored to his wife’s capabilities and budding potential (she was still only twenty years old). We guitarists haven’t been able to resist converting those lean textures to our instrument, and probably most of the French Suites have been tried on guitar by now, though the intimate, rather restrained nature of No. 2 makes it, for me, the most suitable candidate of all.

SCRIABIN AND ALBÉNIZ

The next two composers on the program have a fair amount in common (besides sporting similar, highly exuberant mustaches—a reflection, surely, of their highly exuberant characters!). Scriabin and Albéniz were both virtuoso pianists and though, as composers, they occasionally branched out into orchestral writing (and in Albéniz’s case, opera), they otherwise composed exclusively for their chosen instrument. Both were nationalist composers, keen to reflect in their music the rich roots of their respective countries—Russia and Spain, including Catalonia. They also both started out highly influenced by the music and pianism of Chopin, and the four preludes I have chosen to play come from Scriabin’s early, Chopinesque phase. As they matured, however, a basic difference in temperament emerges: Scriabin was what Schiller termed “sentimentalic” by nature, by which he meant one who is an eternal striver and developer; while Albéniz was a “naive” type, again a term of Schiller’s invention, coined to describe the very contrasting artistic character-trait of the “natural,” non-striving creator, who doesn’t feel the need to search, since essentially, there is an inborn sense of having arrived already. (The two most obvious musician examples of Schiller’s typology are Beethoven as “sentimentalic” and Mozart as “naive.”) Therefore you see a vast change in Scriabin’s writing style as he progresses, culminating in those far-seeing explorations into pan-tonal musical landscapes towards the end of his life. Meanwhile, Albéniz, rather like Grieg from Norway, remains very much the same—something for which we are just as thankful!

Albéniz was a strange and, as far as I know, unique case of being the foremost composer of music for an instrument about which he knew absolutely nothing—Albéniz gained renown as a great guitar composer without having composed a

Program Notes

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single note for it! It is said that when Tarrega, a contemporary of Albéniz who had been a pianist before switching to guitar and was possessed of a missionary zeal to put the guitar on the musical map, played his version of Torre Bermeja (one of the pieces I’ve chosen for this program) to Albéniz, Albéniz said he preferred it to the original piano version!

Much of Albéniz’s simpler piano music quickly became synonymous with guitar music when played in guitar recitals; the guitarist-arranger was sometimes mentioned in programs, but more often than not it was simply tacitly understood to be original guitar music. Tarrega, his star pupil, Llobet, and Llobet’s pupil, Segovia, were brilliant at finding creative solutions for the problem that many pianistic ideas are simply not possible on the far more limited instrument at their disposal, the six-string guitar. The arrangements which they produced and played became—and remain to this day—reference versions, which have taken on a life of their own, and have become exceptionally popular with the musical public at large. And so it’s come to pass, that the music has been disseminated not so much through their original piano versions, wonderful though these are, but rather through the (necessarily) distorting mirrors of guitar versions, which can practically be termed compositions in their own right, or co-compositions at the very least.

I mention this as I like to play my own versions of this repertory, in order to better reproduce the original piano scores which Albéniz left us. In this particular instance, it often felt strangely as though there were two historical orthodoxies: the original piano score on the one hand, and those aforementioned “reference” guitar arrangements, through which most of us have come to know the music in the first place, on the other. I myself sometimes have a double-take at certain passages from my own “faithful” transcriptions, as they clash with expectations of hearing the composition I used to know—the traditional guitar version! I can’t help but feel a twinge of nostalgia at leaving those old guitar transcriptions of Albéniz’s piano music behind.

HAYDN

The classical keyboard sonata developed during the eighteenth century, the changes in its form and content taking place during Haydn’s lifetime. This formal development took place during a period when keyboard instruments themselves were changing, with the harpsichord and clavichord gradually replaced by the new hammer-action fortepiano. There are some fourteen early harpsichord sonatas attributed to Haydn. Of his forty-seven later keyboard sonatas, dating from about 1765, the first thirty were designed for harpsichord and the next nine for harpsichord or piano. The remaining eight sonatas include seven specifically intended for piano and one for piano or harpsichord.

In 1780 Haydn published a set of six piano sonatas dedicated to the talented sisters Caterina and Marianna Auenbruggel. The sonata in C-sharp minor heard on tonight’s program is the second of the set. The sonata exudes formal as well as structural innovation—such as Haydn’s self-invented double-variation

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form in the middle movement, similar to that in the F-minor variations—and in the Adagio from Beethoven’s ninth symphony (giving further grounds for Hans Keller’s saying: “everything Beethoven did was original, except that Haydn had done it before.”

The legendary guitarist Andrés Segovia wrote in his autobiography: “We would run through [Haydn and Mozart]. I was deeply saddened by the fact that the guitar, an intrument so rich in shading and so suited to the dreams and fantasies of a composer, should be so lacking in beautiful works such as these. [This] compelled me to seek . . . to dig a deeper and wider course so that greater streams of music could run through it.”

Haydn’s suitability for guitar was an early discovery for me. Even as a nine-year -old, I gravitated toward the music of Mozart and Haydn, and was soon trying out piano music of both composers on my six-string guitar. I found Mozart difficult to transcribe, whereas Haydn looked tantalisingly playable.

Finally, in my late teens, I plucked up the courage to perform a Haydn sonata. Ironically, in hindsight, I innocently chose one of the most challenging and least guitaristic ones—thus jumping in at the deep end! Reaction was mostly favourable—provided, I was told, you closed your eyes while listening; the sound was fine, but the constant shifting needed to play this music on the six-string was distracting to watch. I let Haydn rest for a couple of years.

I realized I needed an instrument that would enable me to realise more fully and completely this glorious music, and, working together with the late luthier David Rubio, we came up with my eight-string guitar. The result was that the Haydn sonatas finally fell into place. They not only sounded fuller and better, but they felt right, as if Haydn himself had had an intimate knowledge of this instrument, and had written these extraordinary works especially for it.

In the liner notes to Gilbert Kalish’s recording of the Haydn Sonatas, H.C. Robbins Landon wrote: “The Sonata Hob. XVI:36 is in C-sharp minor (a very rare key in those days). . . . The terse and explosive opening movement is balanced by a light second movement, called “Scherzando” by the composer; a pensive minuet in the home key of C-sharp minor with a beautiful trio in the parallel major brings the piece to its conclusion.”

As a “bonus track,” I’ve appended to this sonata the Finale (Presto), a theme and variations with a contrasting E-minor episode, from Haydn’s Sonata in E major, Hob. XVI:31.

—Paul Galbraith

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Biography

PAUL GALBRAITH

Paul Galbraith’s recording of the Complete Bach Violin Sonatas and Partitas was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Solo Instrumental Album. This two-CD set was also chosen as one of the two best CDs of the year by Gramophone magazine, which called it “a landmark in the history of guitar recordings.” It received a Four Star rating in Stereo Review, and reached the top ten on Billboard’s classical charts.

Galbraith gave a nationally-televised closing-night performance of Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez at the Scottish Proms with the BBC Scottish Orchestra, and was invited by the CBC to give a special Tribute to Glenn Gould concert for Canada-wide broadcast at the Glenn Gould Studios in Toronto on the occasion of the twenty-fi fth anniversary of the great pianist’s death. Galbraith has been featured twice on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and numerous times on Performance Today.

In Galbraith’s unique playing position, the guitar is supported by a metal endpin, similar to that of a cello, which rests on a wooden resonance box. The instrument has two extra strings, one high, one low. Both the guitar’s extraordinary design and Galbraith’s playing style are considered groundbreaking development in the history of the instrument, increasing its range to an unprecedented extent.

Most recently, Galbraith has appeared in festivals in Vienna, Austria, and in Spain, Italy, China, and South Korea. Later this season he made his New York debut at the Frick Collection, receiving a rave review in the New York Times; later this season he appears for the third time on Lincoln Center’s Great Performances series, and he has twice given solo recitals at the 92nd Street Y. Recent and forthcoming engagements include New York City, Boston, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, San Diego, Atlanta, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Portland (Seattle), Miami, Baltimore, Buffalo, Milwaukee, San Antonio, San Juan (Puerto Rico), and Cuernavaca (Mexico). In addition, recitals in Geneva, Basel, and Moscow, and tours of the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Israel, and Turkey are among

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Galbraith’s international activities. He has appeared at numerous Bach festivals, including those of Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Denver, and Carmel.

At the age of seventeen, Galbraith won the Silver Medal at the Segovia International Guitar Competition. Andrés Segovia, who was present, called his playing “magnificent.” This award helped launch a career including engagements with some of the finest orchestras in Britain and Europe. He toured the United States as soloist with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, and performed in Prague’s Dvorák Hall with the National Chamber Orchestra of Chile.

Born in Scotland and now residing in Basel, Switzerland, Galbraith has lived in Malawi, Greece, London, and Brazil.

Further information on Paul Galbraith is available at www.paul-galbraith.com.

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LOS ANGELES GUITAR QUARTET: FROM BLUEGRASS TO BACHSunday, March 4, 2018, at 3:00 p.m.

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ACOUSTIC STRINGS FESTIVALSaturday, January 20, 2018, at 3:00 p.m.

This day-long festival features outstanding musicians performing a variety of genres and strin instruments: Germán López, timple player from Gran Canaria; composer and guitarist Kaki King; folk/Americana duo Bettman & Halpin; Brazilian guitarist Diego Figueiredo; and Namburg International Violin Competition winner Tessa Lark. Artists will play individually, then unite at the end of the evening.

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Soka University of America Board of Trustees:Steve Dunham, JD, ChairTariq Hasan, PhD, Vice ChairYoshihisa Baba, PhDMatilda BuckLawrence E. Carter Sr., PhD, DD, DH, DRSMaria Guajardo, PhDClothilde V. Hewlett, JDLawrence A. Hickman, PhD

Soka University of America Administration:Daniel Y. Habuki, PhD, PresidentEdward M. Feasel, PhD, Vice President of Academic Affairs & Chief Academic OfficerArchibald E. Asawa, Vice President for Finance and Administration & CFO & Chief Investment

OfficerTomoko Takahashi, PhD, Vice President of Institutional Research and Assessment & Dean of

Graduate SchoolKatherine King, PHR, Vice President for Human Resources and Risk ManagementWendy Harder, MBA, APR, Director of Community RelationsHyon J. Moon, EdD, Dean of StudentsAndrew Woolsey, EdD, Director of Enrollment ServicesBryan Penprase, PhD, Dean of Faculty

We would like to thank our Board of Trustees and our Administration for their extraordinary support of

Soka Performing Arts Center.

With deepest gratitude to the donors who made Soka Performing Arts Center possible.

Kris Knudsen, JDKaren Lewis, PhDDaniel Nagashima, MBAGene Marie O’Connell, RN, MSDavid P. Roselle, PhDYoshiki TanigawaShunichi Yamada, MBA

Soka Performing Arts Center Staff:David C. Palmer, General ManagerRebecca Pierce Goodman, Marketing and Administrative ManagerShannon Lee Blas-Blair, Patron Services ManagerSam Morales, Production and Technical Services ManagerSteve Baker, House Manager; Hana Kurihara, Stage Manager; Ray Mau, Lighting Technician; Hiroyuki Connor Miki, Assistant Production ManagerJim Merod, Director, Jazz Monsters Series and Soka University Jazz Festival

Students of Soka University of America who serve as patron and technical services crew, as well as marketing assistants. Citizens of Aliso Viejo and surrounding communities who volunteer their service as ushers and hospitality aides.

Our Sponsors and Partners:Orange County Register, KJazz 88.1, KUSC 91.5, California Presenters, California Arts Council.