An Adventurous Program by Guest Pianist Sang Woo Kang

Internationally renowned pianist Sang Woo Kang performs a concert of contrasts: works by contemporary American composer John Corigliano introducing a Mozart sonata and pieces by Chopin, in an HSU Guest Artist recital on Saturday January 24 at Fulkerson Recital Hall.

 Sang Woo Kang has performed throughout Europe, Asia and South America as well as in New York’s Carnegie Hall. The Los Angeles Times called him a “prodigiously talented pianist with great technical virtuosity and interpretive gifts.” His latest solo album, “Mozart Piano Music: Fugues, Rondos and Fantasias,” was released last month. With degrees from Juilliard and the Eastman School of Music, he currently chairs the Music Department at Providence College.

 At Fulkerson Recital Hall he will perform what Daniela Mineva, HSU professor of piano calls an “adventurous and truly wonderful program.”

 It begins with “Fantasia on an Ostinato” by John Corigliano, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, four Grammy awards and an Oscar for “The Red Violin.” “Ostinato” is a term for an obstinately repeated motif or phrase—in this case, from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. 

 Reviewing a prior Sang Woo Kang performance of this same program, Rorianne Schrade wrote in New York Concert Reviews that he made “sensitive choices” in this “haunting, almost post-apocalyptic” opening piece. 

 Mozart’s Piano Sonata in C major, she wrote, was “dramatic and effective, “ and Sang Woo Kang’s approach to Etude Fantasy, a second Corigliano piece, “was fearless and solid,” while Chopin’s Noctune in D-flat major was “deeply stirring,” and Chopin’s Polanaise-Fantaisie “concluded the program with sweep.”

 Schrade also praised the structure of the program as a whole for the illuminating relationships produced by Sang Woo Kang’s performance of these very different selections.

 “Through these sharp juxtapositions,” Sang Woo notes, “this program also offers an exploration of the range and capabilities of the instrument."

 Pianist Sang Woo Kang performs on Saturday January 24 at 8 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $10 general/$5 seniors, children and students, from the HSU Box Office (826-3928) or at the door. This Guest Artist Series concert is produced by the HSU Music Department. 

Media: Times-Standard Urge, North Coast Journal, Humboldt State Now

Sang Woo Kang: Biography

Cited by the Los Angeles Times as a “prodigiously talented pianist with great technical virtuosity and interpretive gifts,” Sang Woo Kang is an active performer and educator who has presented master classes and recitals in Asia, Central and South America, and Europe. He successfully balances his performance career with teaching at Providence College, where he is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Music.

 Sang Woo’s recent international performances include the Auditorio Piazzolla in Argentina, Bari International Festival in Italy, Sehjong Cultural Center in Korea, multiple venues in Japan and Thailand, the Moulin d’Ande Festival in France, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, and Steinway Hall in NY, to name a few. Upcoming events include chamber, solo, and orchestral concerts in New York, Providence, Chicago, and Boston.

 Sang Woo recorded the Brahms Clarinet Sonatas on the EMI Korea label in 2007 and his performances has been featured on various programs in the US and abroad, including the WXXI, WGBH, and MPBN classical music stations. Sang Woo’s latest solo album, “Mozart Piano Music: Fugues, Rondos and Fantasias,” was released on the NAXOS label in December 2014.

Over the summer, he directs the Piano Institute and Seminar at the Atlantic Music Festival at Colby College, an annual intensive four-week series of concerts and events focused on promotion and performance of new music.

 In addition to his other activities, Sang Woo writes for publications such as the American Record Guide and Clavier Companion.

 Sang Woo is a graduate of Juilliard School and the Eastman School of Music, where he received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree.

Sang Woo Kang: Concert Program and Notes

The Program

Fantasia on an Ostinato by John Corigliano

 Piano Sonata in C major, K. 330  by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
I. Allegro Moderato
 II. Andante Cantabile
 III. Allegretto

 INTERMISSION

 Etude Fantasy by  John Corigliano
I. Left Hand Alone
 II. Legato
 III. Fifths and Thirds
 IV. Ornaments
V. Melody

 Nocturne in D-flat major, Op. 27 No. 2 by Frederic Chopin

 Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat major, Op. 61 by Frederic Chopin

Program Notes by Performer, Sang Woo Kang

 This program is a study in contrasts: dynamic contrasts, contrasts of character, and contrasts of texture. Corigliano’s Fantasia on an Ostinato and Mozart’s Piano Sonata in C major may seem like polar opposites, but through their dissimilarity offer productive resonances. The obsessive rhythms and relentless ostinato of Fantasia on an Ostinato throws Mozart’s lyricism into relief. In the latter half of the program, the extroversion of the Etude Fantasy further serves to emphasize the intimacy and delicacy of the Nocturne in D-flat major. Through these sharp juxtapositions, this program also offers an exploration of the range and capabilities of the instrument.



Program Notes by Composer John Corigliano


Fantasia on an Ostinato (1985)

“The first half of my Fantasia On An Ostinato develops the obsessive rhythm of the Beethoven [Symphony No. 7] and the simple harmonies implicit in the first half of his melody. Its second part launches those interlocking repetitions and reworks the strange major-minor descending chords of the latter part of the Beethoven into a chain of harmonies over which the performer-repeated patterns grown continually more ornate. This climaxes in a return of the original rhythm and, finally, the reappearance of the theme itself.”

 Etude Fantasy (1976)
 My Etude Fantasy is actually a set of five studies combined into the episodic form and character of a fantasy...

The first etude is for the left hand alone—a bold, often ferocious statement which introduces both an opening six-note row (the first notes of the work) and a melodic germs which follows the initial outburst. This etude reaches a climax in which both the row and the thematic germ are heard together, and ends as the right hand enters playing a slow chromatic descent which introduces the next etude: a study of legato playing.

 In the short second etude both hands slowly float downward as a constant cross of contrapuntal lines provides melodic interest. The sustaining of sound as well as the clarity of the crossing voices is important here.

 The third etude, a study on a two-note figure, follows—a fleet development on the simple pattern of a fifth contracting to a third. In this section there is much crossing of hands; during the process a melody emerges in the top voices. A buildup leads to a highly chromatic middle section, with sudden virtuosic outbursts, after which the melody returns to end the etude as it began.

The fourth etude is a study of ornaments. Trills, grace notes, tremolos, glissandos and roulades ornament the opening material (Etude 1) and then develop the first four notes of the third etude into a frenetically charged scherzando where the four fingers of the left hand softly play a low cluster of notes (like a distant drum) as the thumb alternates with the right hand in rapid barbaric thrusts. This leads to a restatement of the opening 6-note row of the fantasy in a highly ornamental fashion.
 
 After a sonorous climax comes the final etude, a study of melody. In it, the player is required to isolate the melodic line, projecting it through the filigree which surrounds it; here the atmosphere is desolate and non-climactic, and the material is based entirely on the melodic implications on the left hand etude, with slight references to the second (legato) study. The work ends quietly with the opening motto heard in retrograde accompanying a mournful two-note ostinato.