Concert 2

 Tuba and Piano

Sunday, 26 September 2021, at 11.00 a.m.

Slovenian Philharmonic, Slavko Osterc Hall

Performing:

Roland Szentpáli, tuba

Dalma Cseh, piano

Programme:

Benedetto Marcello (adapted by Roland Szentpáli)

SONATA IN F

Luigi Cherubini (adapted by Roland Szentpáli)

SONATA

Luigi Boccherini (adapted by Roland Szentpáli)

CONCERT FOR TUBA AND PIANO (originally composed for the cello)

Allegro Moderato

Adagio

Allegro

Roland Szentpáli

ALLEGRO FUOCO

MELTON

CARMEN FANTASY

With its more intimate chamber music atmosphere, the second concert of this year’s SiBrass cycle is envisaged as the polar opposite of the first. Its central persona will be the multi-talented Hungarian musician Roland Szentpáli, the principal tuba with the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra and a tuba and chamber music professor at the Music Academy in Luzern. Slovene audiences first became acquainted with his compositions at a concert in the 2020 SiBrass cycle. This time round, this master of low brass instruments will be live on stage in a three-fold role – as tuba player, composer, and arranger. He will be accompanied on the piano by another Hungarian musician – Dalma Cseh, adjunct professor at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest, where she teaches in the Woodwind and Brass Department and the Department of Vocal and Opera Studies. The programme will feature the following: in the first part, Szentpáli’s adaptations of compositions by three Italian composers from older periods, and in the second part three of his own works. First in line is Sonata in F Major by Benedetto Marcello, the first of the six sonatas for cello and basso continuo that this Italian master from the Baroque era published in 1732 in Amsterdam as his Opus 1. It comprises four movements in the fast-slow-fast-slow order, which clearly indicates its modelling on Italian church sonatas (sonata da chiesa). Then follows an adaptation of Sonata for Horn and Strings No. 2 by Luigi Cherubini, another Italian composer approximately one century older than Marcello, who made his most noticeable mark in the field of opera, while his broad-ranging creativity reaches into the fields of church, orchestral, and chamber music. His chamber music oeuvre includes six string quartets, six sonatas for harpsichord, a few minor attempts at compositions for various ensembles and instruments, as well as two sonatas for horn and strings composed in 1805, which are dedicated to the French hornist Frédéric Duvernoy. The more interesting of the two sonatas is the second, which was adapted by Szentpáli for tuba and piano and comprises two parts opposite in nature – the slow Largo and the faster Allegro; the latter is primarily intended to enable musicians to show off their technical skills. The series of Szentpáli’s three arrangements for tuba and piano will conclude with a piece by Luigi Boccherini composed in the 1870s, i.e. his Cello Concerto, No. 9 in B-flat Major, G.482. A little more than one century later (in 1895), some further changes in the concerto were made by the German cellist Friedrich Grützmacher in the style of the great Romantic sinfonie concertanti, with explicitly emphasised virtuosity, which solidified its permanent position in the repertoire of cello concerts. Furthermore, in 2019, Grützmacher’s version was adapted by Szentpáli for the tuba (the solo part), two oboes, two French horns, and strings. On tonight’s occasion, the audience will be able to enjoy Szentpáli’s last version adapted for tuba and piano, which comprises Allegro moderato, Adagio, and Allegro movements.

As already mentioned, the second part of the concert will feature original works by Roland Szentpáli. The first of his three compositions is Allegro fuoco, created in 2005 for the final part of a Hungarian brass competition in 2006. Szentpáli’s original design was for tuba and piano; however, while composing he added a string quartet in order to achieve a more voluminous sound. This short composition with elements of Eastern European folk music comprises three parts of different character, which coalesce into one another without a break. On this occasion, we will hear it in the version for tuba and piano. The next composition, Melton 200 from the year 2010, comprises sharper sounds in three movements of contrasting nature with meaningful titles: the rapid and often syncopated Torzo (Eng.: “Torso”), the freely designed Obrekovanje (Eng.: “Gossip”), and the again more rhythmically dynamic Tablete ni več (Eng.: “The Pill Is Gone”). The series, encompassing the three compositions by Szentpáli as well as the entire concert, will conclude with Carmen Fantasy, a composition based on themes from the famous opera by Georges Bizet addressing the story of Carmen, a gypsy femme fatale. The opera, in which the main character first seduces the soldier Don José and subsequently cheats on him with the toreador Escamillo, after which Don José kills her, shocked the Parisian audience upon its premiere in 1875. No one, including Bizet, who suddenly passed away following the 32nd run of the opera, could expect his last creation to become so popular and one of the most frequently performed works in history. Themes therefrom have inspired various music creators, such as Pablo de Sarasate, François Borne, Vladimir Horowitz, and Roland Szentpáli, who tackled motifs from Carmen in his original and unique manner, interwoven with elements from numerous genres, with the common denominator being virtuosity.