Andy Kohn, professor of string bass and music theory, will give a faculty recital March 14 at 8 p.m. The performance is in Bloch Hall at the Creative Arts Center and is free and open to the public.
The program includes:
Reverie (1940), by C. V. [Charles Vaclav] Rychlik (1875-1962). Rychlik, a prodigiously successful violin teacher, composed this piece after hearing Koussevitzky conduct the Boston Symphony on tour in Cleveland in 1940.
Sinfonia, from Cantata 12 (1714), by J.S. Bach (1685-1750). According to Arthur Lourié’s 1931 biography of Koussevitzky, this piece (mistitled there as “Aria”) was one of eight transcriptions performed by Koussevitzky during his active career. Koussevitzky’s performance material has apparently not survived, so this is Kohn's transcription.
Largo, from Serse (1738), by George F. Handel (1685-1759), transcribed by Hans Wolf. Koussevitzky included this piece, probably using this edition, in his concert tour of Italy, 1920-21.
Op. 74, nos. 1 & 2 (1914), by Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (1872-1915). Koussevitzky was a great champion of Scriabin, whose op. 74 was his final completed composition. Despite this transcription’s inclusion in Lourié’s repertoire list, since the manuscript in the Boston Public Library is in ink and pencil and has no performance indications, and no programs including this work has survived, we therefore cannot be certain Koussevitzky ever performed this music, but it might have been included in his Russian tour of 1916, from which no programs have survived.
Yad Vashem (Hebrew: “a place and a name” [Is. 56:5]) is Israel’s memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, a dramatic piece for unaccompanied bass.
One Last Act of Defiance (2008), by Andrew Kohn (b. 1962). This program music recalls a celebration of dying man. His friends and family gathered in the next room, visiting with him one at a time.
Don’t Tell Susan (1992), by Amy Williams (b. 1969). This youthful work was composed for an exhibition of paintings by Susan Rothenberg at the Knox-Albright gallery, Buffalo. A native of Buffalo, Rothenberg’s first solo exhibition was three paintings of horses. “Don’t tell Susan” Rothenberg about the lighthearted puns on horses and riding!
Europe’s Double Tango (2014), by David Mahler (b. 1944). The title refers to James Reese Europe, the African-American serviceman who introduced jazz to France at the end of World War I. The “double” refers to the two keys. This piece was commissioned as the required solo for a competition of the International Society of Bassists in 2015.
Bass Concerto: À Monsieur Serge Koussevitzky (1929) by Yves Chardon (1902-2000). Koussevitzky brought cellist-composer Chardon from Paris to join the Boston Symphony in 1928. The instrumentation (2 horns, oboe, English horn, clarinet in C, bass clarinet, bassoon, contrabassoon) shows the influence of Stravinsky’s Octet, premiered in Paris in 1923 at a concert organized by Koussevitzky.