The Center for New Music hosts
Guest Cellist, Tim Gill with
Pianist, David Gompper in concert
Wednesday, September 3, 2022 at 7:30p in the Concert Hall
Program
Suite Italienne (1932) | Igor STRAVINSKY(1882-1971) |
1. Introduzione
2. Serenata
3. Aria
4. Tarantella
5. Minuetto e Finale
Sonata in C (1962), op. 65, for cello and piano | Benjamin BRITTEN(1913-1976) |
1. Dialogo
2. Scherzo - pizzicato
3. Elegia
4. Marcia
5. Moto Perpetuo
Intermission
Sonata for cello and piano, op. 40 (1934) | Dmitri Shostakovich(1906-1975) |
1. Allegro non troppo
2. Allegro
3. Largo
4. Allegro
Timothy Gill is recognised as one of the most versatile instrumentalists of his generation, equally at home in the works of Beethoven or Xenakis.
He is in demand as a soloist, chamber musician and principal cellist, having led the cello sections of all the London orchestras. In 2008 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, and he is currently professor of Cello at the Guildhall School of Music.
He studied in Paris, Cambridge and London, first drawing critical acclaim for his concerts in the South Bank’s Park Lane Group Series, following which he was contracted to make two CDs of music for cello and piano on the Guild label.
He has since toured the world as a soloist, appearing frequently with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta, where, in both organisations, he held the position of principal cello for many years.
His most recent solo performances include engagements at the BBC Promenade series, the MiTo international music festival inTurin, “Cello Unwrapped” at Kings Place London and with the RTE orchestra in Dublin.
Before lockdown he just completed his second CD of music by American composer David Gompper for the Naxos label, recording a new cello concerto written especially for him with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Timothy is currently cellist of the Fidelio piano trio and principal cellist of the London Sinfonietta. He plays a cello by Francesco Ruggeri, dated 1695.
Program Notes
Suite Italienne (1932) By the end of World War I, Diaghilev commissioned various living composers (Stravinsky, Respighi, Tommasini) to orchestrate “old-Italian” music (Cimarosa, Scarlatti, Pergolesi) for his dance productions in both London and Europe. Diaghilev collected the manuscripts of known and unknown works from Italian music conservatories and libraries, and asked Stravinsky to give his opinion without prejudice. The music that Stravinsky chose was by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736): trio sonatas and three operas. Diaghilev also found an old manuscript in Naples that contained a number of comic episodes in which the leading part was played by Pulcinella, the traditional hero of “commedia dell arte”. From these disparate strands, Stravinsky deftly created an 18-movement ballet (1920) that defined and shaped his second “neo-classical” period. Shorter concert suites soon followed, including a version for violin and piano (1925) and two additional versions under the title Suite Italienne for both Piatigorsky (1932) and Dushkin (1933). - DKG |
Sonata in C, op. 65, for cello and piano This sonata was written for Mstislav Rostropovich, and was premiered in 1961 at the Aldeburgh Festival. Assembled in five short movements, there are a number of musical and extra-musical references, including the Balinese gamelan tradition (II), musical satire reflected in Prokofiev (IV), the use of the DSCH motif (V). Despite the various references, the work is formally in the classical sonata tradition. The semi-tonal language is rooted in the octatonic scale, with never a missed opportunity to explore tone/semitone relationships. The work also reflects Shostakovich’s approach to the cello, especially in the cello sonata composed some 25 years earlier, in the way the cello and piano play off each other through dialogue, and achieving an instrumental balance by avoiding the virtuosic. --DKG |
Sonata for cello and piano, op. 40 (1934) After his early enthusiasm for the outrageous avant-garde in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Shostakovich began to feel the need to move towards a greater clarity and simplicity in his music. One of the first fruits of this new mood was his Cello Sonata, written for his friend the cellist Viktor Kubatsky. He and Kubatsky used to tour a good deal together as recital partners. Their concerts often made a feature of the Rachmaninov Cello Sonata, and Shostakovich seems to have felt the need to compose a new large-scale recital-work that would counterbalance the late romanticism of that work with a sense of neo-classical lightness and elegance. The result is one of Shostakovich’s most graceful and melodically memorable pieces, showing a masterly command of the chamber-music idiom and an ability to write music that makes sense entirely in and of itself, in contrast to the more obviously theatrically-driven compositions that had formed the bulk of his output over the previous 5 or 6 years. Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata is nowadays considered by cellists to be one of the key works of 20th century cello music and it is rarely absent from the concert platform. The first two and the last of its four movements are fast-moving, and the solitary and expressive slow movement is placed third. Note by Gerard McBurney |