PIANO SPHERES: Aron Kallay –Midcentury/Modern

Piano Spheres is a concert series for contemporary and 20th Century classical piano that I have been attending since 2006. It's always worth attending. Aron Kallay is one of the core Piano Spheres artists - https://pianospheres.org/artist/aron-kallay/

Date: December 16 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Venue:Thayer Hall at the Colburn School
200 S Grand Ave., Los Angeles, 90012

Tickets: $25 General $15 Seniors and Students
https://pianospheres.org/event/aron-kallay-midcentury-modern/

No one can agree on the dates for the “Modern” period of classical music. Some sources say 1890-1930 while others 1910-1970. Others still insist that the “Modern” period started in 1900 and is still going on today. Hopefully, in the not-too-distant future, some smart historian will codify our naming conventions. My guess is the term “Modern” will disappear from our discourse, but who knows. Maybe what is modern is yet to come?

The middle of the twentieth century is a fascinating time for musical composition. We had Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School rewriting the rules of music making at the same time as John Cage blowing up the idea of what music actually was…. There was this other thing going on in the ‘40s and ‘50s though, that I quite like. Some composers were looking back to old forms for expression, and seemingly picking up where Liszt and Mahler left off, with their own sometimes nationalist twist. This is where Grażyna Bacewicz’s Second Piano Sonata fits in. The language is her own, but it’s the multi-movement structure of the sonata that grounds it. Prokofiev stands alone amongst composers of this time as someone who kept coming back to the piano sonata in a way not seen since Beethoven. In our own time, his monumental Seventh Piano Sonata should speak to us as a warning about the horrors of war and oppression, and of our ability to withstand and rebuild.

PROGRAM:

Michael Frazier – garrapatero aní (2024) World Premiere – Piano Spheres 30 for 30 Commission

Zanaida Stewart Robles – LA River Scenes (2025) World Premiere – Piano Spheres 30 for 30 Commission

Grażyna Bacewicz – Piano Sonata No. 2 (1953)
Brandon Rolle – Hypnagogia (2025) World Premiere – Piano Spheres 30 for 30 Commission

Sergei Prokofiev – Piano Sonata No. 7 in B-flat Major, Op. 83 (1942)

Driven by Artistry
Mission Statement — “Piano Spheres supports and encourages the composition and performance of major new works for the piano while, mentoring the next generation of emerging pianists. It enlarges the piano repertoire by commissioning new works and sustaining a concert series that focuses primarily on works by contemporary composers.”
Piano Spheres was founded in 1994 by pianist and scholar Leonard Stein, to present the best of contemporary piano music as well as rarely heard treasures from centuries past. Stein, a protégé of Arnold Schoenberg and founding Director of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute, was a champion of new music for more than sixty years as pianist, scholar, teacher, and presenter, both in Los Angeles and abroad. He hand-selected four of his most adventurous, new-music-minded former students from the University of Southern California – Gloria Cheng, Vicki Ray, Mark Robson, and Susan Svrček – to mentor as his colleagues in a unique cooperative venture: a concert series presenting five solo piano recitals programmed by each of the five pianists, all of whom share a fierce dedication to new and unusual music. On September 13, 1994, marking the 120th anniversary of Schoenberg’s birth, Piano Spheres presented its first concert. Since then, it has continued to combine the highest musical standards with a passionate commitment to exploring the music of today, to create the piano repertoire of the future.

The passing of Leonard Stein in 2004 led to a decision to invite a distinguished guest pianist each season to program and perform one concert of the five-concert series, which draws audiences from throughout the region. Among these guest pianists have been composer-pianist Thomas Adès, Jeffrey Kahane, Kathleen Supové, Christopher O’Riley, Ursula Oppens, composer-pianist Terry Riley, Eric Huebner, Joanne Pearce Martin, Liam Viney, the Bugallo-Williams Duo, the Viney-Grinberg Duo, Aron Kallay, Steven Vanhauwaert, Nic Gerpe, Richard Valitutto, and HOCKET.

Critics have called Piano Spheres “A nourishing, lasting LA invention” and one of “our most imaginative, best-planned, courageous and stimulating concert series.” Perhaps the LA Times said it best: “Clearly, Piano Spheres is intent on promoting new musical piano culture, not only by affording a handful of L.A.’s finest [pianists] a regular showcase, but also helping to expand and update the existing solo piano repertoire and offer needed encouragement to young composers.”

To date, Piano Spheres’ core artists and renowned guest artists have presented 830 works for piano by more than 300 composers from across the globe, of which 92 are women and 254 are American. These works include solo, duo piano, piano chamber music, and piano vocal music, comprising 126 premieres, 44 of which were commissioned by PS itself. Past performances are presented both on our website and the Piano Spheres YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@PianoSpheres