Luke Eckhoff - DePaul University, Chicago

1 Sunday, May 28, 2017 1:00 luke Eckhoff Graduate Recital DePaul Concert Hall 800 West Belden Avenue Chicago Sunday, May 28, 2017 1:00 DePaul Concert Hall luke Eckhoff , clarinet Graduate Recital Kay Kim, piano PROGRAM Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (1962) I. Allegro tristamente II. Romanza III. Allegro con fuoco Kay Kim, piano Karel Husa (1921-2016) Three Studies for Solo Clarinet (2007) I. Mountain Bird II. Poignant Song III. Relentless Machine Victor Babin (1908-1972) Hillandale Waltzes (1947) Kay Kim, piano Intermission luke Eckhoff May 28, 2017 Program Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in E-flat Major, op. 120/2 (1894) I. Allegro amabile II. Allegro appassionatoIII. Andante con moto - AllegroKay Kim, piano luke Eckhoff is from the studio of Steve Williamson.

2 This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of the degree Master of Music in Performance. As a courtesy to those around you, please silence all cell phones and other electronic devices. Flash photography is not permitted. Thank you. luke Eckhoff May 28, 2017 PROGRAM NOTES Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (1962) Duration: 15 minutes Among the composer s final works, Francis Poulenc s Sonata for Clarinet and Piano bears a dedication to the memory of Arthur Honegger, a fellow French composer and member of Les Six who had died in 1955. While the centralized aesthetic aims of this group of French composers are often overstated, they were united by their reverence for Erik Satie and the acerbic rhetoric of writer, artist, filmmaker, and enfant terrible Jean Cocteau as their spokesman. Cocteau furnished the group s manifesto in the form of his 1918 pamphlet The Cock and the Harlequin.

3 In it, he implores French composers to free their music from foreign, particularly Wagnerian, taints, calling for music on the earth, MUSIC FOR EVERY DAY. The resultant style embraced the fads of the time French popular and folk songs, music-hall numbers, jazz, Cubism, new technologies like the gramophone and radio, and the fashionable Maurice Chevalier. And while the other members of Les Six quickly moved on to explore other musical paths, only Poulenc staunchly maintained his dedication to the frivolity of the group. The Sonata for Clarinet and Piano is cast in a conventional fast-slow-fast three-movement form. The paradoxical tempo marking of the first movement, Allegro tristamente (cheerful and sad), foreshadows the ironic wit and juxtaposition of musical character on which the work is based. Recalling Prokofiev (for whom the Oboe Sonata, Poulenc s final work, is dedicated), the primary theme of this movement is as expansive as it is irreverent.

4 It is primarily due to these musical allusions to Prokofiev that there exists speculation over the dedications of the sonatas for oboe and clarinet. Regardless, the slow digression at the center of this opening movement betrays the composer s lifelong admiration for Satie, proceeding coolly in monotone. This affect continues in the tender Romanza , the wistful opening melody spinning thematic variants of melancholia. The fiery finale contains the most straightforward example of Cocteau s music on the luke Eckhoff May 28, 2017 Program Notes earth. Bright and rambunctious circus-like music yields to a recollection of the rueful music derived from the opening movement. The percussive piano and impertinent clarinet provide an unruly and boisterous conclusion. At long last, according to Poulenc, the music hall was invading Art with a capital A.

5 Karel Husa (1921-2016) Three Studies for Solo Clarinet (2007) Duration: 10 minutes A native of Prague, Karel Husa was intent on pursuing a career in civil engineering despite being a skilled violinist and pianist. Following the German occupation of Czechoslovakia beginning in 1938 and the subsequent closing of technical universities, Husa was presented with the choice of a career in painting or music. He promptly enrolled in the Prague Conservatory as a composition student, later studying at the cole Normale de Musique in Paris with Arthur Honegger (to whom Poulenc s Clarinet Sonata is dedicated) and Nadia Boulanger, the matriarch of 20 th century music. Husa s music derives its power from kaleidoscopic instrumental sonorities and formal inventiveness that communicate the emotional scope of his political and humanitarian concerns.

6 Having endured German occupation during World War II beginning in 1938 and the Communist takeover in 1948 that forced the composer into exile, Husa once again watched in dismay as the Prague Spring of 1968 a period of liberalization led by forward-thinking reformist Alexander Dub ek was extinguished by Soviet tanks, the momentary glimpse of freedom exterminated. It is not surprising, then, that Husa s works often contain strong symbolic ties to political and social events. Music for Prague 1968 embodies the events of Prague Spring with a Hussite war song, which Husa describes as a symbol of resistance and hope for hundreds of years, whenever fate lay heavy on the Czech nation ; Apotheosis of this Earth represents the composer s manifesto against the desperate state of mankind and its destruction of itself and the earth.

7 Husa s Three Studies for Solo Clarinet is the composer s only foray into unaccompanied solo works, save for a few early piano pieces. Commissioned by Czech clarinetist Ji i Hlav on the occasion of the 60 th anniversary of the Prague Spring International Music Competition, the three-movement work progressively depicts different playing characteristics espressivo , legato , and staccato and extramusical symbolism: Mountain Bird , the natural beauty of the Tatra Mountains and the bird as a symbol of unbridled freedom; Poignant Song , an elegy of sorts for the suppression of freedom throughout Czech history and its modern analogues; and Relentless Machine, a depiction of the inexorable energy of modern society. Victor Babin (1908-1972) Hillandale Waltzes (1947) Duration: 11 minutes Despite being a towering figure of American musical life in the mid-20 th century, Victor Babin and his music have unfortunately faded into relative obscurity.

8 Babin is perhaps best known for his collaboration with his wife, Vitya Vronsky, as the piano duo Vronsky & Babin. Initially meeting as students of the venerable Arthur Schnabel, Vronsky & Babin delighted American audiences through performances and recordings of the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, who befriended and mentored the duo. Hailed by Newsweek magazine (then as now with a penchant for purple prose) as the most brilliant piano team of our generation, the Russian-born duo performed well over 1,200 concerts in the United States. Babin, also a teacher and reactionary but colorful composer, served as director of the Aspen Music Festival (1951-1954) and the Cleveland Institute of Music (1961-1972). luke Eckhoff May 28, 2017 Program Notes The Hillandale Waltzes were composed as a gift to Anne Archbold, daughter of oilman John Dustin Archbold and heiress to the Standard Oil fortune.

9 Archbold s Georgetown home, Hillandale, a sprawling 78-acre Tuscan Renaissance style estate, housed guests that included Queen Elizabeth II, Madame Chiang Kai-shek, Eleanor Roosevelt, Gertrude Stein, Noel Coward, and Leopold Stokowski. Two such guests in 1947 were Victor Babin and Vitya Vronsky. The eight waltz movements that comprise Babin s gift to his haut monde hostess fancifully deviate from the theme by Johann Nepomuk Hummel with which the work begins. Aptly named for their moods elegant, passionate, somber, flying, sad, brilliant and joyous, and, finally, forgotten the Hillandale Waltzes exude the idea of friendship, love, and togetherness expressed in music that Babin sought to instill in American audiences. Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in E-flat Major, op. 120/2 (1894) Duration: 23 minutes The apocryphal, no doubt highly romanticized, tale of a performance by clarinetist Richard M hlfeld of Mozart s sublime Clarinet Quintet and Weber s operatic F minor Concerto inspiring the aging Johannes Brahms to suspend his compositional retirement needs little introduction.

10 This creative impetus resulted in the genesis of the A minor Trio, op. 114 and the B minor Quintet, op. 115 in 1891, and, following a strengthened collaboration and burgeoning friendship, the two sonatas for clarinet and piano, op. 120. (It is decidedly not coincidental that these two sonatas in F minor and E-flat major correspond to the keys of the two concerti of Weber.) Brahms was no stranger to the clarinet or to collaboration. His fruitful lifelong artistic partnership with violinist Joseph Joachim produced the deeply collaborative Violin Concerto (1878) despite personality clashes stemming from Brahms s gruffness and Joachim s petulance. Moreover, the luke Eckhoff May 28, 2017 Program Notes confidence with which Brahms handles the orchestral clarinet in his serenades and symphonies established a keen footing on which M hlfeld s influence could rest.