NEXTET is proud to begin its 2014-15 season with a piano recital performed by the music department's own Timothy Hoft at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 25, in Doc Rando Recital Hall.
The program is the first in a series of recitals dedicated to the music of Ukrainian and Ukrainian-American composers. Hoft also is recording these works for future release. The concert is free and open to the public.
Ukraine is a very old culture. It is the crossroad between Eastern and Western Europe; the breadbasket of Europe; and still an enigma to most outside Eastern Europe. The Sept. 25 concert sheds light on an important part of Ukraine's achievements in contemporary piano music.
Historically in classical music, the piano, and other keyboard instruments prior to the piano, have played an extremely important part as a barometer in the development of music. Many composers used the piano as both laboratory and instrument for some of their most important achievements. Hoft is particularly gifted in bringing such technically, emotionally and intellectually complex music to life.
The concert features Sonata No. 2 by the internationally renowned composer Valentin Silvestrov. In writing about Silvestrov's music, Andrew McGregor of the BBC wrote in 2007: "If you haven't yet encountered the music of Ukrainian composers Valentin Silvestrov, then it is time you did...breathtakingly beautiful." The music of his teacher, the remarkable dean of Ukrainian composers, Boris Lyatoshynsky, is represented by one of his most successful pieces from the turbulent 1920s, the cycle titled "Reflections," an expressionistic masterpiece.
The U.S. premiere of a selection from Valentin Bibik's monumental 37 Preludes and Fugues will introduce the audience to, together with Hindeminth's Ludus Tonalis and Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues, JS Bach.
The younger Alexander Shchetynsky, a student of Bibik's, developed his personal style rooted in modernism but with his unique and special attention to the attractiveness of sound material and to melody as a source of expression.
The program opens and closes with two Nocturnals by Virko Baley, now as much an American composer as Ukrainian. His music reflects both traditions.
