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GUEST RECITAL
JONATHAN SOKASITS, PIANO
Friday March 18, 2011 5:00 p. m. Northeast Wisconsin Piano Teachers Green Bay, WI
PROGRAM
Suite in F major, HWV 427 George Frederick Handel (1685-1759) I. Adagio II. Allegro III. Adagio IV. Allegro
Andante con Variazioni in F Minor, Hob. XVII/6 Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1809)
Persona for piano solo (2008; revised 2009) Dana Wilson (b. 1946) I. Hammering II. Freely, reflective but quasi-rhapsodic III. Relentless IV. Intimate, timeless V. Warm and colorful but insistent
INTERMISSION
Two Nocturnes, Op. 27 Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849) Larghetto in C-sharp minor Lento sostenuto in D-flat major
Le tombeau de Couperin: Suite pour le piano (1914-17) Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Prlude Fugue Forlane Rigaudon Menuet Toccata
The works of Dana Wilson have been commissioned and performed by such diverse ensembles as the Chicago Chamber Musicians, Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, Xaimen Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Memphis Symphony, Dallas Wind Symphony, Voices of Change, Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Syracuse Symphony, and Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra. Solo works have been written for such renowned artists as Gail Williams, Larry Combs, James Thompson, Rex Richardson and David Weiss. Dana Wilson has received grants from, among others, the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council for the Arts, Arts Midwest, and Meet the Composer. His compositions have been performed throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia, and are published by Boosey and Hawkes and Ludwig Music Publishers. They have received several awards, including the International Trumpet Guild First Prize, the Sudler International Composition Prize, and the Ostwald Composition Prize, and can be heard on Klavier, Albany, Summit, Centaur, Innova, Meister Music, Elf, Open Loop, Mark, Redwood, Musical Heritage Society, and Kosei Recordings.
Dana Wilson holds a doctorate from the Eastman School of Music, and is currently Charles A. Dana Professor of Music in the School of Music at Ithaca College. He has been a Yaddo Fellow (at the artists retreat in Saratoga Springs, New York), a Wye Fellow (Aspen Institute), a Charles A. Dana Fellow, and a Fellow at the Society for Humanities, (Cornell University).
Persona for piano solo was written on commission from the Nebraska Music Teachers Association; I had the distinct privilege of giving its premiere at the October 2008 NMTA State Conference. One can hear Wilsons highly personal blend of many disparate elements, including his background as a jazz pianist. In March of 2009, the composer sent me a different final movement (to conclude the set with a "colorful burner" that provides more weight to the whole.) Following are the composers notes on the work:
Persona is a Latin term referring to an actors face mask (literally from per sonare which means to sound through). In plays and literature even today, persona can refer to a narrator, which allows the author to provide a world view without necessarily claiming it as his or her own. The words person and personality are also derived from this term.
In the early 20 th Century, the psychologist Carl Jung used the term to suggest that people put on various psychological masks to express who they are in different settings and to fulfill the social roles of child, parent, friend, adversary, and the likesometimes appearing to have very different personalities as a result.
This piece is an exploration of this phenomenon. By placing very simple melodic material (primarily the pitch interval of a third, and to some degree the major seventh) in dramatically varied contexts, it becomes transformed and appears to take on very different personalities or roles. Causing the material to sound through a variety of dynamics, registers, harmonies and textures allows us to glean a full sense of its meaning.
The first piece features constantly shifting meters, and juxtaposes hammering chords at the extremes of the piano with gentler chords in the central register. The composer likened the sudden shifts of dynamics to closing the window on the noisy bustle of life going on outside one's room. The second movement features a meandering theme that explores the conflict between major and minor thirds. The third movement is a breathless exploration of running half-steps and their inversion, major sevenths; after the torrent of energy it generates, the piece quietly slithers away at the close. The fourth movement is a poetic meditation again exploring major and minor thirds in extended harmonies drawn directly from the jazz idiom. The final movement opens with shimmering seconds alternating between hands; a breakneck ragtime full of spiky dissonances emerges from this lovely haze.