Portrait of a Mad Musician: Pianist Henning Vauth

Guest pianist Henning Vauth performs a portrait of a mad conductor, plus one of Mozart’s most popular sonatas and other works on Friday, March 9 at HSU.

German-born Henning Vauth won the Concours Grieg International Competition for Pianists in Norway and the IBLA Grand Prize International Competition in Italy. He has performed at Lincoln Center and major venues in Berlin and Paris.

At HSU he will play Kreisleriana by 19th century composer Robert Schumann, based on writer E.T.A. Hoffmann’s fictions about Johannes Kreisler, an eccentric orchestra conductor “freed from the shackles of society by the ‘madness’ of music.”

Vauth also performs Mozart’s Sonata in C Major, K. 330, described by Albert Einstein as “a masterpiece in which every note belongs—one of the most lovable works Mozart ever wrote.”

He concludes with piano transcriptions of works by Bach (“Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”), Rachmaninoff (“Daisies”), and from Donizetti’s opera Lucia de Lammermoor.

Pianist Henning Vauth performs on Friday March 9 at 8 p.m.in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the Humboldt State University campus in Arcata.  Tickets $8/$3 from the HSU Box Office (826-3928) or at the door.  A Guest Artists concert produced by the HSU Music Department.

Media: Arcata Eye, Humboldt State Now

Program: Henning Vauth, Piano

Kreisleriana, Op. 16 Robert Schumann
1. Äußerst bewegt (Extremely animated) (1810-1856)
2. Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch (Very inwardly and not too quickly)
3. Sehr aufgeregt (Very agitated)
4. Sehr langsam (Very slowly)
5. Sehr lebhaft (Very lively)
6. Sehr langsam (Very slowly)
7. Sehr rasch (Very fast)
8. Schnell und spielend (Fast and playful)

Sonata in C major, K. 330 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
1. Allegro moderato (1756-1791)
2. Andante cantabile
3. Allegretto

Three Transcriptions
“Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” Bach/arr. Myra Hess
(1890-1965)
“Daisies” Sergei Rachmaninoff
(1873-1943)
“Andante Finale de Lucia di Lammermoor” for the left hand only, Op. 13 Theodor Leschetizky
(1830-1915)

Biography

German pianist Henning Vauth serves as Assistant Professor of Music – Piano and Coordinator of Keyboard Studies at Marshall University. A laureate of the Concours Grieg International Competition for Pianists in Norway (Schubert Prize) and the IBLA Grand Prize International Piano Competition in Italy, he has performed at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center in New York, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, Salle Munch in Paris, and Salle Molière in Lyon, France.

He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music, in addition to further degrees in piano performance and pedagogy from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater (Hannover), the Ecole Normale de Musique "Alfred Cortot" (Paris), and Western Michigan University - piano study with Nelita True, Nelson Delle-Vigne Fabbri, and Einar Steen-Nokleberg.

He appears frequently as guest artist at institutions across Europe and the United States and is active as adjudicator for several competitions, including the IBLA Grand Prize International Piano Competition in Sicily, Italy and the Georgia and West Virginia MTNA competitions. He is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda (National Music Honor Society) and MTNA and a former full-time faculty member at Auburn University.

In collaboration with the Institute of Music Physiology and Musicians' Medicine at the HMT Hannover he co-authored articles in the peer-reviewed American journals Human Movement Science (Influence of Practice on the Development of Motor Skills in Pianists, 2009) and Movement Disorders (Quantification of Focal Dystonia in Pianists using Scale Analysis, 2004).

Haydn, Handel, Hovhaness—and More Paganini—with the Humboldt Symphony

On Saturday and Sunday (March 3 and 4), the Humboldt Symphony performs Variations on a Theme by Paganini for Piano and Orchestra, featuring the winner of this year’s student piano concerto competition, Joseph Welnick.

This work by 20th century Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski is one of many by various composers based on Caprice No. 24 by the 19th century Italian violin virtuoso, Nicolo Paganini. HSU audiences can hear internationally renowned violinist Bin Huang play that original Caprice No. 24 on the preceding Friday.

Humboldt Symphony conductor Paul Cummings describes these variations as “high energy, rhythmic and exciting.” He notes that in his extensive piano solo playing, “Joe Welnick has a wonderful command of this music, both technically and expressively.”

The Symphony also performs a concerto for strings by G. F. Handel (“a great example of classic Baroque,” Cummings said) and the first and third movements of Haydn’s London Symphony, No. 104. “It’s his last published symphony, and by far his most frequently performed. It’s in the style of Mozart and early Beethoven.”

But the Symphony’s final selection is off the beaten track: Tower Music by contemporary Armenian-American composer Alan Hovhaness. This piece for wind instruments “has a serene quality,” Cummings said. “Hovhaness has been accused of writing New Age music, and it’s true that he’s highly influenced by eastern musical forms. This piece is based on Armenian folk melodies, and is very expressive and beautiful, but also not predictable. That may be why he’s slowly getting a following.”

Humboldt Symphony performs on Saturday and Sunday, March 3 and 4 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7/$3, free to HSU students, from the HSU Box Office (826-3928) or at the door. Conducted by Paul Cummings, produced by the HSU Music Department.

Media: Humboldt State Now, Arcata Eye, KHSU


Humboldt Symphony Program

Concerto Grosso opus 6 #1 : G.F. Handel

Paganini Variations for Piano Solo and Orchestra : Witold Lutoslawski (1978)

Symphony 104 ("London") Movements 1 and 3: Joseph Haydn

Tower Music for Woodwind and Brass Instruments : Alan Hovhaness

Renowned Violinist Bin Huang Plays Paganini at HSU

On Friday March 2 in Fulkerson Recital Hall, internationally renowned violinist and Paganini Competition winner Bin Huang returns to HSU to play Paganini’s best known work, and again combines with pianist and HSU professor Daniela Mineva on other classical favorites.

On solo violin, Bin Huang performs Paganini’s Variations on an opera aria (“Nel cor piu non mi sento”) by Giovanni Paisiello, and two Paganini caprices including No. 24, his most familiar melody and the basis of many variations by other composers—including a work that the Humboldt Symphony will play on Saturday and Sunday, making it a Paganini weekend at HSU.

Niccolo Paganini was a 19th century Italian violin virtuoso and composer. The international competition named after him is among the most rigorous and most important violin competitions in the world. Bin Huang took first place in 1994.

“It’s a tremendous opportunity to hear an artist of such caliber,” said Daniela Mineva, who joins Bin Huang on Cesar Franck’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, Tchaikovsky’s "Melody,” Massenet’s “Meditation from Thais” and other selections. This is the second HSU Guest Artist concert for the two musicians, and one of a series of promotional concerts in advance of the release of their CD “French Sonatas for Violin and Piano.”

Bin Huang and Daniela Mineva perform on Friday March 2 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets: $8/$3 from the HSU Box Office (826-3928) or at the door. A Guest Artists Series concert produced by the HSU Music Department.

Media: Humboldt State Now, Arcata Eye, KHSU, JPR

Bin Huang and Daniela Mineva: The Program

C.Franck: Sonata for violin and piano
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Paganini Varations for solo violin: Nel cor piu non mi sento

Massenet: Meditation from Thais

Paganini Caprices for solo violin : 1 & 24

Tchaikovsky: Melody

Faure: Berceuse

Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen