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INTERVIEW CLIP | Robert Dunand Prize 2024 Excerpt of P. Vladigerov : Bulgarian Rhapsody "Vardar" Violin : SongHa Piano : Noriko Sugiyama Many thanks to Villars Institute and Mei Fa Tan's production team! • About the piece • "A single cry is heard" Момите кръшни песни пеят на български език Едничък глас се там разнася, едничък чуй се вик Ний българи сме с чест и слава Ний кичим нашата държава.. (The girls are singing songs in Bulgarian A single voice is heard there, a single cry is heard We are Bulgarians with honor and glory We adorn our country.. Lyrics by L. Bobevsky) Pancho Vladigerov is a 20th century Bulgarian composer, pedagogue and pianist. He was a founding member of bulgarian contemporary music society, and contributed greatly in translating bulgarian folk elements to traditional classical music through his compositions. He received his first lessons under the tutelage of Dobri Hristov in Sofia, and later furthered his musical education in Berlin, at the Staatliche Akademische Hochschule für Musik (UdK) with Leonid Kreutzer, Georg Schumann and Friedrich Gernsheim. Though nowadays relatively unknown outside Bulgaria, he gained fame in Europe during the 1920s, through multiple publications of his work in Universal Edition, as well as recording LPs with the Deutsche Grammophone. His music was greatly admired by other musicians such as Dmitri Shostakovich, Richard Strauss and Aram Khatchaturian. He also worked as a music director at Deutsches Theatre in Berlin, alongside Max Reinhardt. Vladigerov returned to Sofia in 1930s, to pursue his passion for pedagogy at the State Academy of Music, which is now named after him. His other notable works include the Jewish Symphony, 5 piano concerti and folk song arrangements for voice and choir. The Bulgarian Rhapsody "Vardar" was written in 1923, during Vladigerov's residence in Berlin. One late evening of October 1922, Vladigerov found himself with his close friends in a pub in Berlin. A friend drunkenly sings a song, which Vladigerov immediately proceeds to notate down on a piece of manuscript paper. He was then asked if he could compose a "Bulgarian work" based on this melody, and he has happily agreed to do so, by writing the rhapsody. He later finds out that the tune was in fact not an improvised melody of his friend, instead a popular patriotic Macedonian folksong written by his old teacher, "One can hear a cry". "Vardar" is the name of a river situated in the north Macedonia, and the rhapsody was dedicated "To the Bulgarian youth fighting for independence in Vardar".  A Rhapsody defines itself as a "one-movement work that is episodic yet integrated, free-flowing in structure, featuring a range of highly contrasted moods, colour, and tonality". After an introduction of Hristov's song, the piece unfolds itself in a medley of folk tunes and multiple hora (dances) that are connects to the successive tune in an improvisatory manner. In a typical Bulgarian fashion, there are 6 individual episodes laid out in an open structure. Folk features and techniques such as using a variety of ornamentations, block chord pizzicati to imitate the sound of tambura, and glissando/scordatura to convey the effect of gaida (bagpipe) and gadulka. (Written by SongHa)

B. Bartók : Violin Sonata No.2, Sz. 76 I. Molto Moderato 00:00 II. Allegretto 08:34 Live recording from 2024 Queen Elisabeth Competition, Brussels Flagey, Studio 4 Violin : SongHa Piano : Yukako Morikawa •About the Piece• The father of ethnomusicology, a prodigy pianist and composer, the national treasure of Hungarian music scenes. These titles were all later given to Béla Bartok. While on a holiday in Transylvania, the young Bartok had overheard a nanny singing folk tunes to her children, and this occasion ignited his initial passion for folk music, to which he dedicated himself for the rest of his life to research, collect and transcribe. By the 1920s, Bartok had already been acquainted and influenced by composers such as Debussy, Stravinsky and Strauss. He continued his ethnomusicological research in countries such as Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia, but after the war, the tense political situation in Hungary among its neighbour countries prohibited Bartok to continue his folk music research outside Hungary. Having experienced the impact of the first world war on the division of Hungary as well as witnessing severe destruction of his birthplace Banat, his writing style reached its peak of dissonance, aggression and complexity. The two violin sonatas were written in 1921-1922, following the birth of The Wooden Prince and the Miraculous Mandarine. The sonatas were dedicated to violinist Jelly d'Aranyi as a token of his infatuation over her and her violin playing. They gave successful premieres of the works in London, with the composer himself on the piano, and the reviews and reception by the public were glowing. Bartók claimed that the Second Sonata was his favorite of the two, and that the work was set in the key of C major, though aside from the very last chord at the end, the tonality barely goes near the Key of C major at all. Bartok dropped the traditional tonal practice and classical form in this continuous 2 movement work. Unlike a typical folk tune which utilises only four or five notes, Bartók uses of all 12 notes accessible in Western music in his melodies. His use of fiddling technique such as glissando and portamento, as well as rhythmic pizzicato is frequently implemented throughout the piece. In the midst of its harmonic and structural complexity, the influence of Transylvanian folk is evidently present, though this sonata is definitely not a simple transcription of a naïve Hungarian roma (gypsy) song.  (Written by SongHa)

C. Schumann : 3 Romances for Violin and Piano Op.22 I. Andante Molto 00:00 II. Allegretto 03:26 III. Leidenschaftlich Schnell 06:18 Live recording from September 2023 Seoul Arts Centre, IBK Chamber Hall Violin : SongHa Choi Piano : Youngsung Park

S. Prokofiev : Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op.63 I. Allegro Moderato 00:52 II. Andante Assai 12:19 III. Allegro, ben marcato 22:06 Conductor : Rafael Payare Montreal Symphony Orchestra / OSM Maison Symphonique, Montreal, Canada 04 May 2023 * Second Prize | Pierre-Péladeau and Raymonde-Chopin (CMIM 2023) * Audience Choice award - ICI Musique * André Bachand Award for the Best Performance of an Imposed Canadian Work * Best Interpretation of a Sonata in the Semifinal Award

25 April 2023 Salle Bourgie, Montreal, Canada Violin : SongHa Choi Piano : Carson Becke

I. Allegro Appassionato 00:00 II. Adagio 14:08 III. Allegro 25:58 Salle Bourgie, Montreal, Canada 29th April 2023 Violin : SongHa Piano : Carson Becke • About the Piece • "I will attempt this, for me, unusual combination (of violin and piano) only if both instruments always had seperate themes" - November 1921, from Bartok's letter to Jelly d'Aranyi Until the early 1900s, Hungarian folk had been widely recognised as Romani Gypsy music by the public (as presented in Hungarian Rhapsodies by Liszt). However, when Kodaly and Bartok went on a field trip to collect Magyar folk tunes in 1908, they had realised that the melodies were rather based on pentatonic scales, similar to those of Central Asian and Anatolian folk traditions.  By the 1920s, Bartok had already been acquainted and influenced by composers such as Debussy, Stravinsky and Strauss. He continued his ethnomusicological research in countries such as Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia, but after the war, the tense political situation in Hungary among its neighbour countries prohibited Bartok to continue his folk music research outside Hungary. Having experienced the impact of the first world war on the division of Hungary as well as witnessing severe destruction of his birthplace Banat, his writing style reached its peak of dissonance, aggression and complexity. The two violin sonatas were written in 1921-1922, following the birth of The Wooden Prince and the Miraculous Mandarine. Until then, he had taken a couple of years away from composition, after severe disappointment from an unsuccessful participation in the Hungariam Fine Arts Commission Competition. The sonatas were dedicated to Jelly d'Aranyi as a token of his infatuation over her and her violin playing. She had highly contributed with her suggestions for bowings and violinistic markings. They gave successful premieres of the works in London, with the composer himself on the piano, and the reviews and reception by the public were glowing. The Violin Sonata No. 1 follows a traditional sonata structure, in which there are classic 3 fast-slow-fast movements. A vague sonata form appears in the 1st movement, followed by a slow, lyrical 2nd movement and finishing the work on a high note in a rondo form with fiery coda.   Bartok himself set the sonata in "C-sharp minor” but the tonality is extremely clouded from the beginning. The work expresses its top presence in the composer’s “expressionist” period, when he came closest to the ideals of the Second Viennese School of Berg, Webern and Schoenberg. As demonstrated in his early sketches, he had no intention of considering a typical conversational duet between the two instruments which was common in the genre, and he did so by gifting each of them with very different elements and functions. The balanced concoction of its improvisatory and melodious folk themes, modal and dissonant harmonies, the constant tempi change and various use of rhythmic pattern changes helped Bartok to stamp his own initials in this new style of writing. (Written by SongHa)