John Gilbert
violin
Dmitri Shteinberg, piano
Guest Artist Recital
Saturday, November 9, 2013
3:30 pm
Recital Hall, Music Building
Program
Sonata in F Minor, Op. 4 (1928) Samuel Barber
Allegro agitato (1910-1984)
Sonata in D Minor for Solo Violin, Op. 27, No. 3 (1921) Eugène Ysaÿe
“Ballade” (1858-1931)
Sonata in G Major, Op. 78 (1879) Johannes Brahms
Vivace ma non troppo (1833-1897)
Adagio
Allegro molto moderato
Intermission
Sonata in C Minor, Op. 30, No. 2 (1802) Ludwig van Beethoven
Allegro con brio
Adagio cantabile
Scherzo. Allegro
Finale. Allegro
Program Notes
Samuel Barber: Sonata in F Minor for Violin and Piano, Op. 4 (1928)
Samuel Barber (1910-1984) composed his only Sonata for Violin and Piano in 1928. At
this time he was already a published composer and the eighteen-year-old composer
assigned the Sonata as his opus four. The premiere, and only performance of all three
of the movements, took place in 1928 in Philadelphia at the Curtis Institute of Music
with the composer at the piano and his friend and fellow Curtis student Gilbert Gama
as the violinist. The Sonata was enthusiastically received and was awarded the Joseph
H. Bearns Prize for Composition from Columbia University. In spite of this success
Barber decided to withhold the piece from publication and the manuscript fell into
obscurity, even though offers of performances from such legendary figures as Isaac
Stern and Arnold Steinhardt were made in later years. The manuscript to this, the last
of the works three movements, resurfaced by accident in 2005 (along with some
missing pages of the manuscript of the Op. 6 Cello Sonata) and was brought to the
attention of Barbara Heyman, the noted biographer and archivist of Barber. The third
movement was then prepared for deposit in the Barber archive at the Library of
Congress. The work was released to the public through the publisher G. Schirmer in
2010. Passionate and virtuosic, unabashedly Romantic in character and melodic
appeal, the work stands as testimony to the genius of the 18 year old American
master. (notes by John Gilbert)
Performers
Violinist John Haspel Gilbert is Professor of Violin at the Texas Tech University
School of Music in Lubbock, TX. He has been praised by legendary performers such
as the late Josef Gingold ("I have great admiration for this superb violinist"), Glenn
Dicterow ("Obviously we are dealing with a very high level of artistry"), Camilla
Wicks, Arnold Steinhardt and the late Joseph Fuchs. An active soloist, recitalist and
chamber music collaborator, he regularly performs throughout the United States,
having appeared from coast to coast in prestigious venues from Weill Recital Hall in
New York City, to Abravanel Hall in Santa Barbara (CA). Recent international
engagements have included performances in Brazil, France, Iceland, Italy, and the
United Kingdom. A sought after clinician and adjudicator and has been heard in
concert in every major city in Texas. His former students hold orchestral and
university positions throughout the United States and Brazil.
Gilbert served as concertmaster of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra for 13 seasons.
With the LSO he appeared as soloist in the concerti of Beethoven, Brahms, Corigliano,
and Sibelius. He previously held this position with the Baton Rouge Symphony and
Knoxville Symphony and has been a member of the faculty at the SMU Meadows
School of Music, University of Memphis, and Hope College. Gilbert was the teaching
assistant to Sally O'Reilly at both the University of Minnesota and Louisiana State
University. A former member of the artist faculty member of the Green Mountain
(Vermont) Chamber Music Festival, his other summer festival appearances have been
at the Madeline Island (WI) Chamber Festival, Schlern (Italy) International Festival,
Sewanee Summer Music Festival, BRAVO! Summer String Institute, Eastern Music
Festival, Heidelberg Castle Festival, Killington Music Festival, and the Spoleto
Festival.
Gilbert's principal studies were under the tutelage of Sally O'Reilly and Charles
Castleman. He holds degrees from the University of Minnesota, the Yale University
School of Music, and the Eastman School of Music, and has held fellowships at the
Aspen Music School in both chamber music and orchestral performance. His chamber
music studies were with current or former members of the Julliard, Tokyo, Cleveland,
Fine Arts and Yale string quartets, and the Eastman and Rafael trios.
Mr. Gilbert may be heard on the Centaur, Naxos and Innova labels. His recording of the
Kurt Weill Concerto and the Alban Berg Kammerkonzert with the Baton Rouge
Symphony Orchestra was released on the Sono Luminus label in September of 2012
(Sono Luminus 92161).
FANFARE 2013
“…pure-toned John Gilbert’s interweaving with his colleagues in the Weill is
especially impressive…”
GRAMOPHONE 2013
“The masterpiece here…is the Berg, which sounds as impassioned, conflicted and
intricately layered as ever. Nothing appears to cause anxiety for the Baton Rouge
musicians, who dispatch the score’s rhythmic and expressive challenges with
handsome aplomb. Violinist John Gilbert and pianist Dmitri Shteinberg are vibrant
soloists and the winds perform with cohesive and precise assurance under conductor
Timothy Muffitt.”
Before joining UNCSA, Dmitri Shteinberg served as a coordinator of piano studies at
Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. He is also on faculty at the Green
Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vt. His students won a number of
state and regional competition prizes and were awarded scholarships to many
prestigious conservatories.
Shteinberg has appeared across North America, Germany, England, France,
Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Bulgaria and Israel. His solo
performances include the Jerusalem Symphony, The Italian Filarmonica Marchigiana,
Israel Chamber Orchestra, Israel Camerata Orchestra and Porto National Symphony
under the batons of Massimo Pradella, Roger Nierenberg, Florin Totan and David
Shallon, among others. In the United States, he appeared with the Richmond,
Charlottesville and Manassas Symphony orchestras. Shteinberg was a guest artist at
the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, Summit Music Festival, Music Festival
of the Hamptons, the ''Oleg Kagan'' Festival in Germany, Festival Aix-en-Provence in
France and Open Chamber Music in Cornwall, England. Chamber music appearances
include the Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Kimmel
Center in Philadelphia, Alice Tully Hall in New York, and the Saunders Theatre in
Boston. Called “protean and refined” by the New York Times, Shteinberg recorded
for Summit Records, Yamaha Disklavier, Bavarian Radio and NPR, and collaborated
with members of the New York Philharmonic and cellists Han-Na Chang and Natalia
Gutman. Shteinberg is a prizewinner in 20 competitions worldwide, including the
first prize in ''Citta de Senigallia'' international piano competition in Italy. In the
United States, he won the Naomi Foundation Competition and the Artists
International Debut Award, and received the Salon De Virtuosi Fellowship Grant.
Besides solo and chamber music performances, Shteinberg frequently appears with
concert-lectures; he also plays harpsichord and period pianos. His interest in new
music has led to world premieres and numerous commissions.
A native of Moscow, Dmitri Shteinberg studied at the Gnessin Special School of
Music under Anna Kantor, teacher of Evgeny Kissin. His later teachers include Victor
Derevianko and Nina Svetlanova, both students of Heinrich Neuhaus. Shteinberg
holds a Doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music.
