Tony Siqi Yun, piano| December 1, 2023 | House Program

CLASSICAL / SOLOIST SERIES
TONY SIQI YUN
Piano
DECEMBER 1 AT 7:30 PM
CLASSICAL / SOLOIST SERIES
TONY SIQI YUN
Piano
DECEMBER 1 AT 7:30 PM

CLASSICAL / SOLOIST SERIES
TONY SIQI YUN
Piano
DECEMBER 1 AT 7:30 PM
PROGRAM
BACH/BUSONI Herr Gott, nun schleuss den Himmel auf, BWV 617
LISZT Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude, S. 173/3
BEETHOVEN
Piano Sonata No. 21 in C Major, Op. 53, Waldstein
Allegro con brio
Introduzione: Adagio molto
Rondo: Allegretto moderato – Presto
INTERMISSION
BERIO
“Wasserklavier” from Six Encores
BRAHMS Piano Sonata No. 3 in F Minor, Op. 5
Allegro maestoso
Andante espressivo
Scherzo: Allegro energico
Intermezzo: Andante molto
Finale: Allegro moderato ma rubato

PROGRAM NOTES
The admiration Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924)
felt for the music of J.S. Bach can be seen in the
many solo piano transcriptions he made of Bach’s
music. Originally composed for organ, the chorale
prelude that opens this concert (Lord God, Now
Open the Heavens), requires exquisite voicing
and judicious use of pedal to convey the original’s
walking bass line, running sixteenth notes, and
elongated chorale melody. Melodic projection
also lies at the heart of Bénédiction de Dieu dans
la Solitude (The Blessing of God in Solitude) by
Franz Liszt (1811-1886). One of a set of 10 pieces
inspired by the poetry of Alphonse de Lamartine,
the poem at the heart of this piece expresses the
unexpected discovery of faith in God. The way
Liszt constantly shifts the piano figuration to
embrace the repeated melodic lines makes it easy
to hear in the music’s spirituality, a foreshadowing
of Liszt’s own religious conversion when he later
received holy orders at the Vatican.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) wrote 32
piano sonatas and it’s perhaps not surprising that
many of the more popular ones have been given
nicknames for identification, or are referred to
by the sonata’s dedicatee, as is the case with the
Opus 57 Sonata inscribed to Count Ferdinand
von Waldstein. In addition to the enormous
technical challenges Beethoven requires of the
performer in this sonata, it is remarkable how
many novel piano effects are employed that
make this sonata so distinctive. Fine examples
of this sonic originality include the way that the
first movement’s opening theme in solid thirds,
is almost immediately activated with broken
tremolos, and the final movement’s octave
glissandos in both hands in the coda.
Italian composer, Luciano Berio (1925-2003),
was known during his lifetime as a leader of
the avant-garde, but would occasionally write
expressive, short piano pieces. In 1990, he
published some of these piano miniatures as,
Six Encores, with “Wasserklavier” being the
oldest piece, dating from 1965. Its title translates
as “Water Piano,” and the fluidity of the tempo
and rolled chords reflect this.
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), composed and
performed the three piano sonatas he marked
as Opus 1, Opus 2, and today’s towering Opus
5, before he turned 21. He would never again
write a piano sonata and Opus 5, with its fivemovement
design of alternating fast-slow
movements, is the most performed and recorded
of the three. This sonata’s outer movements are
dramatically conceived with an emphasis on
motivic development often employing intensely
chromatic harmonies as heard in the elaborate
realization of the descending stepwise-moving
bassline the opens the first movement. The lyrical
music in these outer movements is often set
apart with beautifully supportive accompaniment
patterns. The central third movement is marked
Scherzo but there is a Viennese waltz quality that
makes the music dance. One of the reasons for
this sonata’s popularity undoubtedly lies in how
the main musical idea from the second movement
is reworked in the fourth movement, which
explains this movement’s subtitle, Rückblick
(Retrospect). This moment of calm is balanced
by the steady build-up in the final movement to a
rapturous coda in F major that continually gains
in velocity and bravura until the dramatic widely
spaced chords at the movement’s conclusion.
©2023 by John Burge for the Isabel
ABOUT TONY SIQI YUN
“Tony is a true poet of the keyboard. Expressive,
and with his own distinct voice, yet elegant and
posied.” — Pianist Magazine
The Canadian-born pianist Tony Siqi Yun, Gold
Medalist at the First China International Music
Competition (2019) and awarded the Rheingau
Music Festival’s 2023 Lotto-Förderpreis, is quickly
becoming a sought-after soloist and recitalist.
During the 2022-23 season, he made his
highly acclaimed subscription debut with the
Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and this season, he joins
Nézet-Séguin on a US Tour with Orchestre

Metropolitain, including an appearance at
Carnegie Hall. Also in 2023-24, he makes debut
appearances at the Colorado Music Festival, the
Aspen Festival, the Vail Dance Festival and with
the Hamilton (ON) Philharmonic, conducted
by Gemma New. Other engagements include
Edmonton Symphony and Orchestra Lumos with
Michael Stern, the Rhode Island Philharmonic
with Joseph Young and the New Jersey
Symphony. Tony has also appeared with the
Cleveland Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Buffalo
Philharmonic, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris
and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.
Tony regularly performs solo recitals in both
Europe and North America. Recent and future
highlights include his debuts at the Hamburg
Elbphilharmonie, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Tonhalle
Düsseldorf, Philharmonie Luxembourg and in
North America at Stanford Live, Gilmore Rising
Stars Series, and 92nd Street Y in New York, with
a return visit to the Vancouver Recital Series.
He is a recipient of the Jerome L. Greene
Fellowship at the Juilliard School where he
studies with Professors Yoheved Kaplinsky and
Matti Raekallio. ●
Give the gift of music
this holiday season with an
Isabel Gift Certificate
in the amount of your choice.
Janina
Fialkowska,
piano
IN THE
NEW
YEAR
MANCHESTER COLLECTIVE
WITH ABEL SELAOCOE
GRYPHON TRIO
CLASSICAL / SOLOIST SERIES
Sunday, Jan 21, 2024, 2:30 pm
Praised for her musical
integrity and refreshing
natural approach, pianist
Janina Fialkowska has
been hailed as “one of
the Grandes Dames of
piano playing” (Franfurter
Allgemeine). A venerated
interpreter of the music
of Chopin, she makes her
long-awaited return to the
Isabel, sharing the music
that made her famous.
SING AND SWING—
A JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER
PRESENTS PRODUCTION
TICKETS:
General Public $45+
Faculty/Staff $41+
Students $10+
GIFT CARDS & TICKETS AVAILABLE AT: queensu.ca/theisabel · 613-533-2424