Program Notes for February 20, 2011

An Evening with All Five Festival Artists

Tong-Il Han, Helen Lee & Seol-Hwa Kim (piano); Sangjun Shinn (violin); Dejan Yu (cello)

(by invitation only)

2011 Festival Final Concert in the magical candle-lit setting of The Chedi Hotel on the River Mae Ping!

Welcome to tonight's wonderful Festival Finale in the magical setting of the twinkling candle-lit of the Chedi Hotel by the beautiful river Mae Ping.

The program opens with Schubert's wonderful Impromptu in G flat, the third of a set of four that he wrote in 1827. The opening melody of this delectable serenade is sheer poetry, full of lyrical beauty and emotional depth. It is played tonight by pianist and Festival musical director, Tong-Il Han.

Then follow a series of pieces that our musical director has labeled "delectable musical desserts". In other words we are going to be treated to a series of short pieces of great beauty which allow the musicians to display their artistry while bringing enormous pleasure to the audience. In the mid-1950's the famous conductor Sir Thomas Beecham released a series of short orchestral pieces and called the album "Lollipops" – so combining the best of both these titles we are to hear "delectable musical lollipop desserts"!

The first two pieces played by Dejan Yu accompanied by Helen Lee are by Sir Edward Elgar, his Salut d'Amour followed by Gabriel Faure's lyrical Apres un reve. Sang-Jun Shinn and Helen Lee then play Monti's renowned Csardas, the famous and beautiful Meditation from Thais by Jules Massenet and finally Halvorsen's arrangement of a Handel Passacaglia. This is followed by Saint-Saens's evocative Le Cygne with Dejan Yu and Helen Lee; next the Tango por un cabeza by Gardel arranged by John Williams is played by Sang-Jun Shinn and Helen Lee. Finally our musical pot-pourri ends with the second movement, andante espressivo, of Felix Mendelssohn's 1845 opus 66 Piano Trio in C minor, played by Sang-Jun Shinn, Dejan Yu and Helen Lee. This work was dedicated to violinist and composer Louis Spohr who is known to have played the work at least once with the composer at the piano.

We then hear pianist Seol-Hwa Kim bring the recital and the festival to a close playing two pieces. Firstly there is a set of Variations on a Theme of Paganini by Brahms, who is known as the "Master of the Variation", having written a number of very famous variations as well as having included several movements of a similar nature in his orchestral works. This set dates from 1862/3, at just about the time Brahms made his first visit to Vienna, settling there permanently a few years later. Secondly, Seol-Hwa Kim finishes the concert with the well-known Mephisto Waltz No 1 by Franz Liszt, fittingly since this year is 200 years since the birth of the composer. Written between 1857 and 1862, this waltz describes most evocatively the antics of Mephistopheles and Faust who gate-crash a village wedding and interrupt the ceremony!