UNCG Focus on Piano
Literature 2012
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1921)
Guest Artist Recital
Monique Duphil, piano
assisted by
Marjorie Bagley, violin
Scott Rawls, viola
Alexander Ezerman, violoncello
Saturday, June 2, 2012
8:00 pm
Recital Hall, Music Building
Program
Ballade, Op. 19 (1877-79)
Nocturne #2, Op. 33, No. 2 (c. 1881)
Valse-caprice #3, Op. 59 (1887-93)
Impromptu #5, Op. 102 (1908-09)
Monique Duphil, piano
Intermission
Piano Quartet #1 in C minor, Op. 15 (1876-83)
Allegro molto moderato
Scherzo: Allegro vivace
Adagio
Allegro molto
Monique Duphil, piano
Marjorie Bagley, violin
Scott Rawls, viola
Alexander Ezerman, violoncello
Program notes
Ballade in F# major, Op. 19 (1877-79)
Fauré himself recounted a famous story concerning his presentation of the Ballade to
Franz Liszt in 1882, reporting that “after five or six pages, he said to me, ‘I’ve run out
of fingers,’ and, to my terror, asked me to continue.” Although this has sometimes
been interpreted to signify that the elderly Liszt no longer commanded the requisite
technical resources to cope with the younger man’s advanced musical language, a
likelier explanation, advanced by Nectoux, suggests that “he found the writing of the
work too dense to be entrusted to two hands and that some thinning-out was
necessary. This advice will be perfectly comprehensible to anyone who knows the
solo piano version of the Ballade, the difficulty of which probably explains why it is
so rarely performed....”
Fauré’s pupil Émile Vuillermoz drew a thoughtful comparison between aspects of the
Ballade’s musical style and a contemporary trend in the visual arts: “it is full of the
minutest details of adjusted harmonies and rhythmic malleability that add to its
supple and subtle perfectionism. Such music is virtually a counterpart to the
feminine curves and intertwining strands painted by Art Nouveau artists such as
Alphonse Mucha.” In the long melodic strands, decorative trills, and sensuous
arpeggios that pervade the Ballade, one may indeed perceive a kinship with the highly
fluid, supple, and elegant designs of Art Nouveau.
Vuillermoz further sensed a natural affinity between the two composers, citing Liszt’s
“idiosyncratic experiments with form and his deep yet sensual spirituality and poetic
instinct” as qualities the young Frenchman would have admired, more so than his
“flamboyant virtuosity.” In terms of refined nuance, richness of texture, and
sustained concentration, this first major piano masterpiece of Fauré requires
virtuosity aplenty, but it is only into his later Valses-Caprices that Fauré will admit the
slightest hint of flamboyance.
Nocturne #2 in B major, Op. 33, No. 2 (c. 1881)
Saint-Saëns wrote Fauré in January 1887: “I’m grinding away at your pieces again;
this time I’m getting somewhere. The more I look at them the more I love them.
Especially the Nocturne in B Major which I find absolutely entrancing. I shall ask you
for a lesson sometime.” We don’t know if Saint-Saëns ever received his lesson, but he
would have had plenty to practice, particularly in the agitated B-minor section that
dominates the center of the work. At this stage of his work, Fauré still interests
himself in the technical resources of the piano, transforming the cross-handed
acrobatics of B minor into one of the most gossamer endings ever penned.
Valse-caprice #3 in G-flat major, Op. 59 (1887-93)
Attempted only by the brave, the four valses-caprices allow Fauré to dally in the
realm of the virtuoso concert solo. In the G-flat, he delights in concocting endless
permutations of 3/4 time while slyly slipping from one key to another. After a
grupetto-based theme gets the dancing underway, the middle section offers a more
relaxed mood in which arabesques of all sorts festoon broadly singing melodies. A
shift into high gear drives the piece to a cheeky conclusion.
Impromptu #5 in F# minor, Op. 102 (1908-09)
Supposedly irritated upon hearing a piece by Florent Schmitt based on the whole-tone
scale (a mode that was very au courant after Debussy started exploiting it around
1900), Fauré decided to show what he could do in the same vein. But the natural
tendency of whole tones is to avoid seeking a key – with all steps of the scale the
same, one can stop and start anywhere with little sense of a dominating pitch. As if to
say “au contraire, mon cher,” Fauré’s harmony always seeks, and finds, resolution in
the key of F# minor. Even in the middle section the scales and arpeggios continue to
whirl about, turning this evanescent piece into the most pervasively brilliant of
Fauré’s impromptus.
Piano Quartet #1 in C minor, Op. 15 (1876-83)
Fauré’s C-minor Piano Quartet achieved immediate and lasting success and has
remained eternally fresh as one of those masterpieces of youth whose sheer
inspiration continues to astonish. The keyboard is integrated with the strings with
consummate skill, now supporting the bass, now spinning out the melody, now
weaving a background tapestry of arpeggios. Advancing from a broadly lyrical
opening movement through a spirited, playful scherzo, an elegiac slow movement,
and a finale whose ardor is infused with irresistible éclat, this quartet supplies the
perfect hail and farewell to this year’s Focus.
Andrew Willis
Performer bios
Monique Duphil, pianist
At the age of ten, Monique Duphil entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de
Paris and studied with Jean Doyen, Marguerite Long and Joseph Calvet. Having won
the First Prize in piano at 16, she graduated the following year with the Grand Prize
in professional chamber music. Later studies were with Harriet Serr and Vladimir
Horbowski in South America and Germany.
She made her formal debut at 15, performing Mendelssohn's G-minor Piano Concerto
with "Orchestre de la Société des Concerts" (now Orchestre de Paris), and she soon
earned prizes in four international competitions, including the Chopin Competition in
Warsaw. Appearing in more than 2000 concerts throughout the world, she has
performed recitals, chamber music, and concerts with orchestras in Western and
Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, Korea, Japan, China, India,
New Zealand, Australia, North Africa, the United States, Canada, Mexico, and almost
every country in South and Central America. The duo she formed in 1976 with her
husband Jay Humeston, formerly Hong Kong Philharmonic's principal cellist, was
highly successful in America, Europe and throughout Asia.
In recognition of her spectacular debut in the United States with the Philadelphia
Orchestra, substituting on a few hour's notice for cellist M. Rostropovich, Ms. Duphil
was reengaged by Eugene Ormandy to appear with him four more times. Invited by
Charles Dutoit, she recorded in live performance the Ginastera Piano Concerto No. 1
for the Swiss Radio with the Bern Symphony Orchestra, in presence of the composer.
The Cleveland Orchestra chose her to premiere the Roger Sessions Piano Concerto in
1985.
Others among the numerous symphony orchestras with which Monique Duphil has
perfomed are Québec, Warsaw, Bern, Munich, París, Caracas, Mexico, Lima, Río de
Janeiro, Seoul, Tokyo Metropolitan, Kanazawa, Sapporo, Taipei, Hong Kong
Philharmonic, Singapore, Hanoi, Sidney, Brisbane, Adelaide, and the New Zealand
Symphony, under the direction of conductors such as Ormandy, Markevich, M.
Shostakovich, Smetacek, Wislocki, Akiyama, Fukumura, Sir Alexander Gibson,
George Hurst, Peter Maag, Charles Dutoit, Thomas Sanderling, Ling Tung, Vladimir
Verbitsky, Gerard Schwarz, Irwin Hofman, Louis Lane, Timothy Weiss, Eduardo
Mata, James de Preist and many other distinguished Maestros.
Ms. Duphil was invited by the Shanghai Symphony to be their soloist at the China
International Arts Festival in Beijing.
An avid chamber musician, Monique Duphil has partnered many renowned artists
like Henryk Szeryng, Ruggiero Ricci, Karl Leister, Pierre Fournier, Regis Pasquier,
Gerard Poulet, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Hermann Baumann, Cho-Liang Lin, Michel
Debost, Alex Klein; and, among others, the Chester, Portland, St Petersburg, Haydn,
Vienna Philharmonic, Musikverein and the American String Quartets, as well as the
Salzburg Mozarteum Trio.
Ms. Duphil was on the faculty of the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts,
and Senior Lecturer at Hong Kong Baptist College before being appointed in 1994 as
Professor of Pianoforte at the renowned Oberlin College Conservatory of Music in the
USA. She has also given masterclasses in many countries, particularly in Asia where
she is regularly invited to hold seminars on piano repertoire.
Ms. Duphil has been a judge in many International Piano Contests, such as J. S. Bach
International Competition in Germany (Saarbrücken and Würzburg); the Emil Gilels
International Piano Competition in Odessa; the Neuhaus International Piano
Competition in Russia; the Maracaibo International Piano Competition in Venezuela,
the 2nd Thailand International Piano Competition in September 2011, as well as
numerous national and international competitions in the United States.
Ms. Duphil has recorded for Polydor, Avila, Telefunken, Marco Polo, and Naxos.
Marjorie Bagley, Associate Professor of Violin, UNCG. Graduate, Manhattan School
of Music, class of Pinchas Zukerman. Active recitalist, chamber musician, and teacher.
Former first violinist, Arcata String Quartet. Active proponent of new music,
premiering works by Chihara, Noon, Vigeland, and Shatin. Recordings for VOX,
New World, Summit, Equilibrium. Co-Director, Juniper Chamber Music Festival,
Logan, Utah. Has taught at Ohio University, Utah State University, International
Music Academy in Pilsen, Brevard Music Center, Perlman Music Program, Kinhaven
Music School, and Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Program.
Scott Rawls, Associate Professor of Viola, UNCG. Solo and chamber career
throughout USA, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and Europe. Recent collaborations with
William Preucil, Alex Kerr, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Gary Hoffman, Lynn Harrell,
Vladmir Feltsman, Bella Davidovich, Keith Lockhart, and the Diaz Trio. Chamber
music recordings on CRI, Nonesuch, Centaur, Capstone, and Philips. Extensive tours
since 1991 with Steve Reich and Musicians.
Alexander Ezerman, Associate Professor of Violoncello, UNCG. BM, Oberlin College
Conservatory; MM and DMA, SUNY at Stony Brook. Study with Timothy Eddy,
Norman Fischer, David Wells and his grandmother Elsa Hilger. Prizewinner in
national and international competitions; soloist and chamber musician in the United
States, Canada, Europe and South America. Founding member, Botticelli String
Quartet, Ezerman Duo. Premiered Teresa LeVelle’s Ignis Fatuus for solo cello,
recorded for Innova. Faculty, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, Brevard
Music Center, Killington Music Festival.
