Eric Zuber - Yamaha Salon Series Sound Visions - photo exhibit

GetClassical@ Yamaha Piano Salon presents:

Pianist/Composer Eric Zuber

GetClassical’s ”sound vision” presentation at Yamaha’s piano salon features the formidable pianist Eric Zuber, who has been hailed as an “irresistibly fluid” and “illuminating” pianist by the New York Times and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Preludes, the title of the program will include Preludes by Chopin, Debussy, Scriabin and Rachmaninov and will also introduce two world premieres of two contemporary Preludes, one written by composer Sean Chen for the pianist, and one composed by Eric Zuber himself.

5 Preludes from Op. 28: Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)

#6 in B minor

#1 in C major

#15 in D-flat major

#22 in G minor

#3 in G major

3 Preludes from Books I and II Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Bruyeres

Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest (What the West Wind has Seen)

La cathédrale engloutie (The Submerged Cathedral)

Prelude in F-sharp minor (World Premiere) Sean Chen (1988-)

Prelude: Migration Eric Zuber (1985-)

Prelude for the Left Hand, Op. 9 # 1 Alexander Scriabin (1871-1915)

Preludes #1- #7 from Op. 23 Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)

Eric Zuber’s notes:

Prelude in F-sharp minor by Sean Chen

I was very excited when Eric asked me to write a prelude for his program, as I share many of his sentiments about composer-pianists or pianist-composers. Though I value form, counterpoint, and motivic cohesion, I did not want this to be a cerebral or sterile work; I started out by improvising on the piano many different ideas, which ensured that whatever I put down be born out of my ears as well as my familiarity with the instrument. Many ideas were explored, but a small fragment in F# minor stuck with me the most.   The key of F# has many connotations – the slow movements of Mozart’s Concerto K488, Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata, and Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in A come to mind. The main motive, consisting of a descending scale, happens to also evoke a similar affect. Together, they produce a quasi-lamento, even appassionatofeeling. The theme of the second section is more tranquillo and hopeful, but through repetition summons the return of the first theme. Though there is a glimmer of hope for a major ending, the first theme returns, and drags even the hopeful second theme down with it into the depths of F# minor.

Prelude: Migration by Eric Zuber

We have seen over the last year, a great refugee crisis unfold before our eyes, with tens of thousands of people fleeing their home countries. In Latin America, parents send their own children away from their homes so that they might avoid being conscripted into gangs or to escape abject poverty. In the Middle East, many have been forced to abandon their homes to escape the ravages of war or brutal regimes. In Africa, an estimated 3 million refugees have fled political or religious conflicts in countries such as South Sudan and Somalia. There is a staggering human cost to these crises. In just two years, 2014 and 2015, it is now estimated that nearly 7,000 men, women, and children have died on Mediterranean sea routes to Europe alone. While there are no easy solutions, I have often thought deeply about how tragic, and harrowing, it must be to have to make such a journey, especially if it involves one's family.

In Migration, I try to tell a narrative story. The incessant, rolling fifths represent both the passage of time and the footsteps of two migrant families, steady and unwavering, along a moonlit path to the shore where the boat will take them, along with many others, in the dead of night out to sea. Above the footsteps, they can be heard whispering in hushed tones, things both fearful, and at times, hopeful: first the women, then the men in alternating patterns. A teenage boy laments the life he is giving up-- his sister’s offer words of encouragement. The families offer a prayer of hope amid the tears. The work ends as they disappear over a hill and into an unknown future.

With this work, my first finished composition for piano, I hoped to understand and capture, to a very small degree, the terrible frightening and uncertain emotion of two families the night they set out to make this life-altering journey, and to honor the bravery and courage of those all over the world, who out of necessity risked, and sometimes lost, their lives trying to make a better future for themselves and their children.