BEETHOVEN
THE IMPROVISER
Program 2
BEETHOVEN THE IMPROVISER
Beethoven is known as a giant of composers, but he should also be remembered as one of the great improvisers of his age. There are many stories of his public improvisation duals with rival pianists and memories of him offering improvised ‘portraits’ of friends and dignitaries at parties, and extemporizing brilliant variations on popular tunes of the day. His friends also recount numerous occasions when Beethoven would perform private improvisation sessions when they were ill or in grief. This may help to explain his seemingly endless source of new ideas and also explain his great love for the variation form that permeates all his music. In this program, both of these substantial variation movements are based on themes from popular comic operas. This improvisatory approach may also have inspired his ability to build large formal structures through manipulations of small motives. This technique becomes more dominant in works from his middle period, like in this 6th violin sonata. Beethoven arranged this joyful trio Op 38 for septet as well as clarinet and violin, which shows how flexible and adaptable his musical ideas could be.
10 Variations on 'Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu', Op.121a for Piano Trio (1816)
Violin Sonata No.6, Op.30 No.1 (1802)
Allegro
Adagio molto espressivo
Allegretto con variazioni
INTERMISSION
Variations from Mozart’s opera ; The Magic Flute
'Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen'
for Piano and Cello Op.66 (1798)
Trio in E-flat major, Op.38 (1799 rev. 1803)
Adagio - Allegro con brio
Adagio cantabile
Tempo di Menuetto
Theme con Variazioni. Andante
Scherzo. Allegro molto e vivace - Trio
Andante con molto, Alla marcia - Presto
Özcan Ulucan, vilolin
Poyraz Baltacıgil, cello
Eren Aydoğan, piano
Özcan Ulucan, vilolin
Özcan Ulucan is a Turkish violinist and viola player who was born in Bulgaria. He has studied in Bulgaria, Turkey, UK and Germany with Yfrah Neaman, Viktor Pikaizen, Joshua Epstein and Maxim Vengerov who called him "The most accomplished among my students, he is a true follower of my music philosophy on stage.."
Özcan has performed as solist with the English Chamber Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra London in venues such as Royal Albert Hall London, Konzerthaus Berlin, Wels Festival, Ludwigsburg Festival, Budapest Spring Festival and Amsterdam Concertgebow, and together with Maxim Vengerov and the legendary Maestro Mstislav Rostropovich conducting the Amsterdam Sinfonietta. He has also performed with all of the major orchestras throughout Turkey. He is a founding member of Turkey's premier new music ensemble, the Hezarfen ensemble with whom h has performed numerous premieres. He also performs regularly with his siblings, Birsen and Ayşen Ulucan.
Özcan has two CD recordings under the label of Lila Music in İstanbul. Website: www.ozcanulucan.com
Poyraz Baltacıgil, cello
Poyraz Baltacigil born in 1994, is the Associate Principal Cellist of the Borusan İstanbul Philharmonic Orchestra and also teaches at the Mimar Sinan Conservatory in Istanbul. He is an active solo musician and is the founding member of the Trio Likya. Beginning on the violin and moving to cello, he entered the Mimar Sinan Conservatory in Istanbul in 2005 as a full-time student in Dilbağ Tokay’s class. Graduating in 2015, he was selected as a master student to the class of Jean-Guihen Queyras and subsequently attended masterclases with Yo-Yo Ma, Alexander Rudin, Natalia Gutman, Steven Isserlis, Martin Ostertag, Johannes Moser, Maria Kliegel and Gustav Rivinius.
He has performed as soloist with many orchestras including the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, Presidential Symphony Orchestra, Izmir State Symphony Orchestra, He has been awarded many prizes including the “International Young Virtuosos” in Bulgaria and the “Benyamin Sönmez National Cello Competition” with president of the jury Natalia Gutman. He has also been selected as “The Best Young Musician of the Year 2016” by Andante Classical Music Magazine..
Eren Aydoğan, Piano
Eren Aydoğan began his music education at the age of 7 studying piano with Fahri Pekinel, and continued his studies at the Istanbul State Conservatory with Prof Ova Sünder. He first performed as soloist concert at age 15 playing Lizst’s 1st piano concerto. He graduated from the Istanbul State conservatory at age 16 with an honorary degree, and the same year performed Rachmaninoff’s 2nd piano concerto at Atatürk Cultural Center. He received his master degree from London Trinity College of Music where he worked with Yonty Solomon. Aydoğan has won numerous awards in national and international competitions, and also has had chances to work with artists such as Sergio Perticaroli, Gary Graffman and Stephen Kovacevich. He was a member of the ‘Young Talents on the World Stages’ program of Pekinel sisters. He carried on his studies with Arie Vardi at Buchmann-Mehda School of Music in Tel Aviv. Aydoğan has performed with Cihat Aşkın, Dilbağ Tokay, Sergio Silva Neves, Stjephan Hauser, Lana Trotovsek, Nikolas Trieb, Menahem Breuer and Trio Hermias. He continues to work with Prof. Arie Vardi in Tel Aviv, and is currently on the faculty at Mimar Sinan State concervatory.