Faculty Artist Series: Solungga Liu, piano

Program

Three Tone Poems, Op. 5 (1910-12)    |    Charles Tomlinson Griffes (1884-1920)        

• The Lake at Evening
• The Vale of Dreams
• The Night Winds

        Celebrating Stephen Hartke!
from Post-Modern Homages (1984-92)    |    Stephen Hartke (b. 1952)

• Sonatina-Fantasia
• Retumbante
• Gymnopèdie No. 4
• Sonatina DCXL

Tango (1940)     |    Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
La Valse (1919-20)     |    Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Short Intermission

Prelude for the Left Hand, Op. 9, No. 1(1894)     |    Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915)
Ballade, Op. 6 (1894)     |    Amy Beach (1867-1944)

Program Notes:

While not composed as a unified set, my six Post-Modern Homages share some common

features: each was composed for a friend, and each addresses a narrowly defined musical issue, 

either the transformation of aspects of an existing piece of music, or working with strictly limited 

musical means…

Sonatina-Fantasia was composed in honor of George Rochberg's 70th birthday and makes free 

use of his String Quartet No. 1.

Retumbante, composed for pianist Beatriz Roman, is based entirely upon the melody of the 

Brazilian national anthem, treated in an eccentric, but faithful, serial manner.

Gymnopèdie No. 4, dedicated to my wife, Lisa, is a study in seventh chords. Cast in ABA form, 

every vertical sonority of the A section is some inversion of a minor seventh chord, while in the 

B section the major seventh predominates. The gentle lilt of the 3/4 meter and the simultaneously 

fluid yet static harmony put me in mind of Erik Satie, hence the title.

Sonatina DCXL was composed for Donald Crockett on his fortieth birthday. In the tradition of 

the soggetto cavato it uses the notes D and C, and D, H (=B) and C, as its thematic material, and 

is signed at the end with an S and H (=E-flat and B)

Composer’s Bio:

Winner of the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition, Stephen 

Hartke is widely recognized as one of the leading composers of his generation. His work has 

been recognized for both its singularity of voice and the inclusive breadth of its inspiration.

Born in Orange, New Jersey, in 1952, Hartke grew up in Manhattan, where he began his musical 

career as a professional boy chorister, performing with such organizations as the New York Pro 

Musica, the New York Philharmonic, the American Symphony Orchestra, and the Metropolitan 

Opera.

He studied at Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of California at Santa 

Barbara, then worked as advertising manager for several major music publishers. He was a 

Fulbright Professor at the Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil before joining the University of 

Southern California faculty in 1987.

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