Michael Schneider, Pianist

Friday, November 13, 2009 at 7:30pm

At Lakeland Baptist Church, Lewisville  (Directions)

397 South Stemmons, Lewisville TX 75067

Adults $25, Seniors (60+) $20, Students $10

Families $60 no matter how large the family.

Special UNT student and faculty rate: $5

Beethoven: Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93

Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor

More on Michael Schneider | the Piano Concerto | Brahms | the Symphony | Beethoven

Michael Schneider

Critics have hailed Michael Schneider as ‘a pianist with exceptional insight’ and a ‘performer with great panache’ at venues including Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, the International Chopin Festival at the legendary château of George Sand in France, the Music Festival in the Hamptons, and the Annual Paderewski Festival in California.

In the last two seasons, Michael performed the Gershwin Concerto in F and Rhapsody in Blue with the San Angelo Symphony, The Poulenc Concerto for Two Pianos with the UT University Orchestra, and the Beethoven Triple Concerto with the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Irving. He also performed Rhapsody in Blue with the Plano Symphony in October 2008.

Michael has also had solo performances at the Library of Congress in Washington DC, was the featured guest artist of the Texas Music Teachers Association State Convention in Houston, gave a solo concert at the California Music Teachers Annual State Convention, and most recently performed two solo recitals at the 2nd Hungarian Festival in Cancun, Mexico.

2009-10 performance highlights includes a concerto performance with the Lake Lewisville Symphony, solo recitals in California, Germany, and also joins world renowned South African pianist Anton Nel in a performance of the Dvorak Slavonic Dances for 4 hands in the Georgetown Dvorak Festival in Texas. On May 16, 2009, Michael performed an all Liszt recital at the famed Liszt Museum in Budapest, Hungary.

He holds degrees from the University of North Texas where he studied with Dr. Pamela Mia Paul, and the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with Mr. Paul Schenly.

Michael spent two years as adjunct Professor of Piano at Youngstown State University in Ohio, and is now currently in the Doctorate of Musical Arts program at the University of Texas in Austin where he studies with Professor Anton Nel. Michael is currently a recipient of the William C. Race Endowed Presidential Scholarship.
 

Program notes by Dr. John Green

Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor  

Johannes Brahms

            Maestoso

            Adagio

            Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo

The germ of this composition was three movements for a two-piano sonata which Brahms wrote in 1853 when he was only twenty.  Encouraged by friends who foresaw in him a great symphonist, he turned the sonata into sketches for three movements of a symphony, and even orchestrated the first movement.  But he was not satisfied.

When the composition was played in two-piano form by Clara Schumann and Julius Otto Grimm, the latter suggested its proper form – a piano concerto.  Brahms continued to make revisions until 1858, when he at last felt ready to perform the work as soloist.  The public was far from ready to accept the Concerto, and hissed after its second performance.  It was not until the turn of the century that the work was recognized in the United States as a work of genius.

 Maestoso.  The Concerto opens with force as a tympani roll introduces the first theme played fortissimo by violins and cellos.  After the orchestra states two secondary themes the opening subject returns, ending in an orchestral tutti.  The piano enters with a reflective melody, then after a brief reference to the opening melodies, introduces the eloquent second subject.  The development is largely a dialogue between piano and orchestra.  Following a lovely duet of piano and horn the Coda is worked up to an exciting close.

 Adagio.  This movement opens with an elegiac melody for muted strings and bassoon.  The piano enters quietly and engages in a conversation with the string section.  The contrasting middle section reaches powerful heights and a new theme is passed between soloist and orchestra.  The gentle opening theme returns followed by a piano cadenza.  Solemn, muted strings lead to the close of the movement.

 Rondo.  Allegro ma non troppo.  The soloist enters with a brilliant, syncopated theme which sets the tone for the movement.  The orchestra takes up this lively melody and a dialogue with the soloist follows.  A quieter theme is introduced by the soloist before the strings return to the Rondo theme.  After the recapitulation the piano has a cadenza.  The concerto is brought to a close with piano chords and an orchestra dominated by horns.

Johannes Brahms

Born on May 7, 1833 in Hamburg, Germany

Died on April 3, 1897 in Vienna, Austria

 Johannes Brahms, a German composer, pianist, and conductor, was one of the most significant composers of the nineteenth century.  His works combine the warm feeling of the Romantic period with the control of classical influences such as Bach and Beethoven.  He was considered by many to be the ‘successor’ to Beethoven, and his first symphony was described by Hans von Bulow as ‘Beethoven’s tenth symphony’.

Brahms’ father, a double bassist, gave him his first music lessons.  Brahms showed early promise on the piano and helped to supplement the meager family income by playing the piano in theatres and restaurants, as well as by teaching.  The young Brahms gave a few public concerts, but did not become well known as a pianist.

 He began to compose, but his efforts did not receive much attention until he went on a concert tour with Eduard Remenyi in 1853.  On this tour he met Joseph Joachim, Franz Liszt, and was introduced to the great German composer, Robert Schumann.  Joachim was to become one of his closest friends, and Schumann, through articles championing the young Brahms, played an important role in alerting the public to the young man’s compositions.

 In 1862 he settled permanently in Vienna and began to concentrate fully on composing.  Brahms established a strong reputation and came to be regarded in his own lifetime as one of the great composers.  In 1890, the 57-year old Brahms resolved to give up composing.  However, as it turned out, he was unable to abide by his decision, and in the years before his death in 1897 he produced a number of acknowledged masterpieces.

Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93

Ludwig van Beethoven
   Allegro vivace e con brio
   Allegretto scherzando
   Tempi di menuetto
   Allegro vivace

The Eighth Symphony was completed in Linz in October, 1812. Beethoven conducted its first performance on February 27, 1814 as part of a program that began with his Seventh Symphony and ended with Wellington's Victory (also known as The Battle of Vittoria). Sandwiched in between two crowd-pleasers, the Eighth Symphony was not too well received which displeased Beethoven because, as he is recorded as saying, "It is much better."

Allegro vivace e con brio. The first movement begins without any introduction and with the first theme divided between the strings and woodwinds. The second subject presents two ideas which alternate: a vigorous full orchestra pattern answered by a contrasting lyrical melody. The development treats the first theme primarily and a lengthy coda concludes the movement.

Allegretto scherzando. The inspiration for the measured rhythm of this movement has been attributed to Beethoven's interest in Maelzal's chronometer which developed into the metronome patented by Maelzal in 1816. Written in sonatina form the movement begins in the key of B-flat. The second theme follows in the key of F. A brief transition brings about a return to the original key and the restatement of both themes.

Tempi di menuetto. Although the form of this movement is that of the classic minuet with trio, the style of the music represents a decided change toward a more symphonic treatment of the old form. The minuet opens with a theme in F major. The trio remains in the same key, with the principal melodic idea given to the horns along with a contrapuntal played by the clarinet. The movement concludes with a literal repetition of the minuet.

Allegro vivace. The main theme of the finale is more rhythmic than melodic. Contrasting with it is a lyric strain presented by the violins. The sparkling music romps through the development and then settles down in a gigantic coda that takes up nearly half of the movement. The symphony maintains its spirited presence to the final cadence.
 

Ludwig van Beethoven

 Born on December 17, 1770 in Bonn

Died on March 26, 1827 in Vienna

Notes by Ian Cleghorn

The citizens of Vienna recognized Beethoven as a colorful, eccentric genius and twenty thousand of them turned out for his funeral. Those who came in direct contact with him found themselves in the stressful company of a personality that filled every corner of a room with an enormous presence.

While Mozart was a timid supplicant to the nobility, expected to eat with the servants after a performance, Beethoven felt it was the aristocracy’s good fortune that he consented to dine with them. He was creating music for the ages and their superior.

 'Aristocrats were easy to manage if you have something to impress them with,’ he noted. To give the aristocracy its due, it recognized the greatness of his music and somewhat in awe, forgave his deplorable manners and personal habits. He fell in and out of love with married and unmarried noble women for most of his life, enjoying a contemporary reputation that Casanova might have envied.

For all his love affairs, he remained a bachelor, living in an incredibly messy home because no servant could put up with his tantrums. One worthy described Beethoven’s quarters:
Picture yourself the darkest, most disorderly place imaginable – blotches of moisture covered the ceiling; an oldish grand piano, on which the dust disputed the place with various pieces of engraved and manuscript music; under the piano (I do not exaggerate) an unemptied chamber pot. The chairs, mostly cane seated, were covered with plates bearing the remains of last night’s supper, and with wearing apparel, etc.

Before being recognized as a composer, Beethoven gained fame as a pianist. The Viennese were used to the smooth fluid style of Mozart and Hummel. Beethoven was different. He held his hands high, smashing at the piano, breaking strings and seeking a new sound from the keyboard. He begged Vienna’s piano makers to give him a better instrument than the light-actioned pianos that, he complained, sounded no better than harps. Almost every European pianist of note came though Vienna, but as Harold Schonberg, the former New York Times critic, put it, Beethoven played every one of them under the table.

In the eyes of most performers and composers, Beethoven was a master of orchestral composition and orchestration. They were revolutionary in his day; while he adhered to Classical musical forms, his melodies and orchestration were of such unprecedented power and beauty that they astonished even the most hardened listeners. Always profound, inspiring and essentially tragic, his music defined the limits of human expressiveness in sound.

Beethoven could control many aspects of his life by force of personality. Deafness, a disaster for a pianist, was not one of them. Eventually he could only hear compositions in his mind, although at rehearsals he would use his eyes to follow the bows and correct any slight imperfection in tempo or rhythm. Many of his greatest works, the Violin Concerto, the Ninth Symphony, were composed after he was enveloped in silence. His last works seem to be created so deep in his mind that they are very difficult to perform and understand. That, he would have considered, was the world’s misfortune. It was the world’s job to adapt to him.

At the premier performance of the Ninth Symphony in 1824 he was completely deaf and could neither hear the music as it was performed nor the enthusiastic applause from the audience. A friend turned him around and the audience responded by waving handkerchiefs, hats and hands in the air so Beethoven could see their ovation gestures.