Faculty Recital – Yi-Heng Yang, fortepiano. November 30, 2018.

Room 350, Mannes School of Music, The New School, Manhattan.

Program

Polonaises F. 12 by W. F. Bach (1710-1784).

   No. 1 in C Major

   No. 8 in E Minor

   No. 12 in G Minor

Sonata in G Major for Violin and Piano, I. 379 by Mozart (1756-1791).

Trio in D Major, Hob XV. 24 by Haydn (1732-1809).

Melody from Orfeo ed Euridice by Gluck (1714-1787).

Sonata in A Major, op. 30 no. 1 by Beethoven (1770-1827).

Artists

Daniel Lee, violin

Max Zeugner, double bass

Yi-Heng is on the faculty of Mannes, and her father told us about this recital.

Yi-Heng began by explaining the instrument in the relatively small room (filled with about 40 people, I had to sit on the window sill,) and how the different registers were designed to mimic the sounds of different instruments. The one used this evening is a replica of one in use in Mozart’s time, and the original sits in the Mozart museum in Salzburg.  The instrument is well suited for an intimate setting such as tonight’s.

The audience for the recital.  It packed the small room.

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach was one of J. S. Bach’s many children, and considered one of the best composers among them.  The three short polonaises help me understand (somewhat) the characteristics of the instrument.

Per Chung Shu, Daniel Lee is currently teaching at Yale, and has known Yi-Heng for a long time.  He played tonight’s pieces on a violin strung with gut strings.  Gut strings are sensitive to heat and humidity, and the overcrowded room proved to be a problem.  The violin sound started well, but by the time the concert ended Lee had problems with getting the strings to behave properly, including incidences where no sound would come out (a wet string may not cling to the rosin that readily, that’d be my guess.)

Mozart’s sonata’s tempo markings are (i) Adagio-Allegro; and (ii) Andantino cantabile – Allegretto.  Haydn’s trio was written for the violin, cello, and the piano.  Tonight the cello part was replaced by the double bass.  It worked well.  Max told me afterwards there was no need to transcribe the part.  Reasonable, as the bass is tuned an octave lower than the cello.  The trio’s movements are Allegro; Andante; and Allegro,  ma dolce.

The musicians after performance of the Haydn trio.

The melody from Gluck’s opera isn’t from the one I am familiar with, and played on the double bass sounded very nice.  One could get into an argument if the cello or the bass is the better sounding instrument.

Beethoven’s sixth violin sonata has three movements: Allegro, Adagio, and Allegretto con Varazioni.  I had never heard a Beethoven violin sonata played on period instruments before,   it certainly sounded quite different from how Beethoven’s violin sonatas usually sound.  I guess the fortepiano was still used during Beethoven’s time, so this could have been how Beethoven intended it.

I was able to get most of the music on my iPhone and could follow along.

Chung Shu, Anne and I took the train.  We had dinner at Chipotle’s.