Summary of Dissertation Recitals Three Programs of Piano Music

Abstract

Three piano recitals were given in lieu of a written dissertation.

In these three recitals I have explored the two opposing yet inseparable sides of the art of piano playing–that inspired by philosophy, literature and nature along with the extrovert tradition of the concert pianist as virtuoso performer. Composer pianists have dealt with this paradox inherent in the pianist’s art in various ways. The first lecture-recital presented Charles Ives’s Concord Sonata as a highly philosophical and heavily literature-inspired masterwork by a keyboard virtuoso. The second recital presented Scarlatti’s Sonata in F minor K. 481, Beethoven’s Piano Sonata op. 109, as well as transcriptions by Ferruccio Busoni and Franz Liszt. The third program combined folklore and literature inspired works by Albeniz and Ravel with works by Bach, Chopin, and Scriabin.

Sunday, December 13, 2015, 5:00 p.m., Walgreen Drama Center, Stamps Auditorium, The University of Michigan. Lecture and recital on Charles Ives, Piano Sonata no. 2 “Concord, Mass., 1840–60.”

Friday, February 19, 2016, 5:30 p.m., Walgreen Drama Center, Stamps Auditorium, The University of Michigan. Domenico Scarlatti, Sonata in F Minor, K. 481; Johann Sebastian Bach (trans. Ferruccio Busoni), Chaconne for Solo Violin; Franz Schubert (arr. Franz Liszt), Gretchen am Spinnrade, Auf dem Wasser zu singen, Erlkönig; Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Sonata no. 30 in E Major, op. 109.

Sunday, May 8, 2016, 5:00 p.m., Earl V. Moore Building, Britton Recital Hall, The University of Michigan. Johann Sebastian Bach, Prelude and Fugue in G Minor from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II; Frédéric Chopin, Étude op. 25, no. 6 in G-sharp Minor; Alexander Scriabin, Etude op. 42, no. 5 in C-sharp Minor; Isaac Abeniz, Iberia, Book II; Maurice Ravel, Gaspard de la nuit: Trois poèmes pour piano d'après Aloysius Bertrand.