Friday, December 18, 2020 at 7 pm
Download a copy of the program here.
Daniel Glover, piano
in celebration of the 250th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Program
Muzio Clementi (1752–1832)
Sonata in G minor, Op. 34, No. 2 (1795)
Largo e sostenuto: Allegro con fuoco
Un poco adagio
Finale: Molto allegro
Beethoven-Charles Valentin Alkan (1813–1888)
Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 (1803)
I. Allegro con brio (cadenza by Amy Beach [1888])
John Corigliano (b. 1938)
Fantasia on an Ostinato (1985)
Franz Liszt (1811–1886)
Fantasy on Beethoven’s ‘Ruins of Athens’, S. 389 (1852)
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ländlerischer Tanz in F major (discovered in 2020!)
About the program
This is a program of rare solo piano works which also exist(ed) as orchestral works. Since we currently have no chance to attend live orchestra concerts, this recital will remind us of what we have been missing. Performed in honor of Beethoven’s 250th birthday (December 16!) the program features works with a connection to Beethoven, including a newly discovered work by the master, only just found and published in Vienna this year! This is most likely an unverified West Coast premiere!
Muzio Clementi’s Sonata in G minor, Opus 34, No. 2 was alleged to have been a symphony, prior to this alternate version for piano solo. The original symphony has been lost. It obsessively uses the same rhythm as Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, and many scholars speculate that it was Beethoven’s inspiration. It was composed in 1795 prior to Beethoven’s first three piano sonatas, Opus 2, and his Symphony No. 1.
Charles-Valentin Alkan’s masterly solo transcription of the first movement of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 seamlessly combines the orchestral and piano parts into an impressive whole. Although his hyper-virtuosic and inordinately lengthy original cadenza is a primary reason to hear the work, Daniel will instead play the neglected cadenza by the late Romantic American composer Amy Beach.
John Corigilano’s Fantasy on an Ostinato (1985) was commissioned as a competition piece for the seventh Van Cliburn Competition. It uses the obsessive rhythm and simple harmony of Beethoven’s iconic slow movement from his Seventh Symphony. The performer decides on the duration and number of repetitions of patterns played in this quasi-minimalistic/improvisatory work.
Franz Liszt’s entertaining Fantasy on themes from Beethoven’s ‘Ruins of Athens’ closes the program. This short showpiece was originally for piano and orchestra, and is heard in his own piano arrangement. It features three themes, including the ever popular Turkish March.
About the performer
Pianist Daniel Glover has performed in 42 states and 25 countries throughout Europe, Asia, North America, South America and the Caribbean. Called “an incisive, exciting, and apparently tireless player … a natural for hyper-virtuosic challenge” by the San Jose Mercury News, Mr. Glover has trained with such luminaries as Eugene List, Abbey Simon, Jerome Lowenthal, Nancy Bachus and Thomas LaRatta. He holds a master’s degree from New York’s Juilliard School, where he was a scholarship student. Among his numerous competition awards is first prize in the prestigious Liederkranz Competition in 1990.
With a repertoire of over fifty-five concerti and other works for piano and orchestra, Mr. Glover has appeared regularly with eighteen Bay Area orchestras, as well as numerous orchestras nationally and internationally. Recent appearances include the critically acclaimed World Premiere performance of Eric Zeisl’s Concerto in C major (1952) in May 2005 with the Saratoga Symphony, Brahms’ Concerto No. 2 in B-flat and Ravel’s Concerto in G with the Tulare County Symphony, Mozart’s Concerto in C minor, K. 491 with the Szeged Philharmonic (Hungary), Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 3 with the North Bay Philharmonic, Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 2 in G with the Nova Vista Symphony, Bartok’s Rhapsody, Opus 1 with the Kensington Symphony, Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 3 with the Redwood Symphony, Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini with the Palo Alto Philharmonic, Saint-Saëns Concerto No. 2 with the Mission Chamber Orchestra, and Messiaen’s massive Turangalîla-Symphonie.