Super Soloist at Sottile
CHARLESTON, which has slowly become a mecca for musicians, now boasts its own piano prodigy in Micah McLaurin, a 15-year-old native who will be performing next Tuesday at the College of Charleston’s 2009–2010 International Piano Series. This is the third concert in a series featuring Enrique Graf and three of his protégés. Micah will also be performing Mozart this Saturday night with The Charleston Symphony. (And you can gain more insight into Micah’s talents in this article by Lindsay Koob.)
Micah has already been recognized in regional and international competitions. In 2008, he won second prize in the International Institute of Young Musicians Competition and first prize in the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra Youth Concerto Competition. He also won fourth prize in the 2009 Blount-Slawson Young Artists Competition in Alabama. He has been an annual winner of the South Carolina Music Teachers Association Pre-College Auditions, and has performed twice on SCETV as a representative of the SC Piano Festival Association. Micah received the Critic’s Circle rating five times in the National Guild Auditions. He is on a Charleston Symphony Orchestra scholarship and is a student of Enrique Graf at the Charleston Academy of Music.
TUESDAY • FEBRUARY 9
Works by J.S. Bach, Chopin, Prokofiev, Haydn, and Rachmaninoff
8 PM • Sottile Theater • 44 George St
Program Notes by Lindsay Koob
J.S. Bach: French Suites
J. S. Bach composed his six French Suites during his happy interlude at the royal court in Cöthen. They first appeared in his Little Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach: an instructional collection for his wife. They were written for “Clavecin” (harpsichord), but—like so much of Bach’s keyboard material—they adapt nicely to the modern piano. The fifth suite, in G Major, is one of the more upbeat and laid-back of the series—but is still one of the more difficult of them. Like the rest, it contains four standard dance movements: Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, and Gigue—with three additional movements: Gavotte, Bourée, and Loure—inserted after the Sarabande. As usual, there’s plenty of variety in tempo, mood, and style—crowned by Bach’s inimitable, brain-teasing contrapuntal wizardry.
Chopin: Ballade No. 4
The Ballade No. 4, in F minor, is widely regarded as one of Frédéric Chopin’s most profound and technically demanding creations. Of the four Ballades, it’s the most subtle—yet the darkest and most emotionally intense. It also contains the fewest distinct thematic subjects (only two), relying instead on extended development of the material at hand. After a brief introductory passage, the airy and pensive opening theme undergoes a series of transformations before the appearance of the second motif. From there, the development of the two themes becomes intertwined, gradually building in tension and complexity. Finally, after a moment of relative calm, the bravura, counterpoint-laced coda brings the work to its feverish close.
Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 3
Sergei Prokofiev first sketched his single-movement Piano Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 28, during his student years, and completed it ten years later, in 1917. Many regard it as one of his finest piano compositions. It can be described as a study in contrasts between his hallmark “motoric” style and his more lyrical side. The work begins in Prokofiev’s typically headlong, driven mode—but soon gives way to a tender, songful interlude. The sophisticated development section that follows is symphonic in scope, with pronounced dramatic-lyric shifts. The manic final coda drives the work to a powerful, crashing finish.
Haydn: Sonata No. 38
It’s not known how many piano sonatas Josef Haydn produced, as he often gave his only copies of them to the students he wrote them for. But more than fifty survive, covering a wide range of sophistication and difficulty. His Sonata No. 38, in F major (H. XVI/23) is a model of confident elegance. The opening movement quickly becomes virtuosic, notable for its trills against a choppy motif. The second movement—built upon scales—is subtly introspective. The assertive finale employs bright chordal textures, leading into a bravado finish.
Rachmaninoff: Piano Sonata No. 2
Sergei Rachmaninoff composed his lush, late-romantic Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 36 in 1913, but revised it in 1931—and it is this condensed (120 bars shorter) version that is most often performed today. Rachmaninoff dives into the work with a slashing, arpeggiated downward plunge, before nearly drowning the listener in a rhapsodic torrent of tense and neurotic music. The slow movement follows without a pause, offering tender and exquisitely elegiac relief—before taking it to a level of feverish intensity. Another sudden downward slash announces the stormy and nervous finale, alternating between a frantic march-parody and moments of incredible lyric intensity. It ends in a blaze of virtuosic glory. •
