BEETHOVEN
THE VISIONARY
Program 1
BEETHOVEN THE VISIONARY
From his early career through his last compositions, Beethoven showed an unstoppable drive to see beyond the boundaries of convention, and to envision new directions in style, structure, harmony, and expression. This C minor trio is the most daring and bold of the set in Opus 1, and his love for sudden surprises and cryptic endings are all on display. The 5th Cello Sonata is the last of his piano/string works and is explosive with its energy and concentrated power. It also looks ahead to the radical and almost relentless fugal writing found in his last compositions. By this time, Beethoven had lost all of his hearing, and his composing process relied fully on his imagination. There is a heartbreaking image describing Beethoven in his last years sitting on the floor pounding on his piano that he had removed the legs from, so that he could feel the vibrations of the music. The craftsmanship that served this inner vision is quite extraordinary in human history. The Op. 96 violin sonata moves away from his turbulent ‘middle’ period and is contemplative, gentle and seems to draw us closer into his intimate expressions of hope, acceptance and transcendence.
Piano Trio in C minor, Op.1 No. 3 (1795)
Allegro con brio
Andante cantabile con 5 variazioni
Minuet/Trio
Finale-Prestissimo
Cello Sonata No.5, Op.102 No.2 (1815)
Allegro con brio
Adagio con molto sentimento d'affetto
Allegro
INTERMISSION
Violin Sonata No.10, Op.96 (1812)
Allegro moderato
Adagio espressivo
Scherzo; Allegro - Trio
Poco Allegretto
Ellen Jewett violin
Gökhan Bağcı cello
Başar Can Kıvrak piano
This concert will be available online free of charge
on December 17 at 21:00 (turkish time) at this link:
Ellen Jewett, violin
Violinist, Ellen Jewett has performed around the world and throughout the US in major venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall and the Kennedy Center, For 11 years Ellen Jewett was a member of the prize-winning Audubon Quartet. Hailed by the New York Times for their “strikingly beautiful, luminescent sound” the quartet performed throughout the US and abroad for 37 years and coordinated an intensive string quartet seminar every summer at the Chautauqua Institute.in NY. Other chamber music collaborations include performances with Yo Yo Ma, Maxim Vengerov, James Buswell, Colin Carr, John O'Conor, James Campbell, Eli Eban, Rusen Gunes, Johannes Moser and Idil Biret. An avid performer of contemporary music, she has performed many premiers and worked closely with such composers as Phillip Glass, Sir Michael Tippett, Leon Kirchener and Kamran Ince and has performed with important NY-based contemporary music ensembles such as Continuum, Sequiter and Ensemble X. She received her BM at Indiana University and MM at the State University of New York, Stony Brook where her major teachers were Joyce Robbins, James Buswell and Josef Gingold. Ellen Jewett has performed as one of the concertmasters of the Borusan Philharmonic and Bilkent Orchestra and is currently the founder and artistic director of Klasik Keyifler, a chamber music festival in Cappadocia. She has served on the faculties of McGill University, SUNY Stony Brook, Ithaca College, and Ankara University. Ms. Jewett has recorded for Centaur, Chandos and recently released a CD of Turkish solo music on Naxos.
Gökhan Bağcı, cello
Bağcı was born in Antalya in 1990 and enjoys a varied career throughout Turkey and abroad. Currently he is the principal cellist of the Gedik Philharmonic Orchestra and is a permanent member of the Borusan Philharmonic Orchestra, both based in İstanbul-Turkey. In 2012 Bağcı joined Turkey's premier contemporary group Hezarfen Ensemble, and has performed many premieres including the Turkish premier of Michael Ellison’s contemporary opera “Mevlana, Say I am” at the Istanbul Festival, and the world premier at the Rotterdam Operadagen. He also performed for the CD recording of this opera. He performed a number of concerts as part of a European tour of Hezarfen Ensemble including the MaerzMusik Festival in Berlin, the Roma Goethe Institute and the Würzburg. Theather am Neunerplatz. Bağcı has attended master classes with artists such as Peter Bruns, Johannes Moser, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Markku Lulojan-Mikkola, Wolgang Boettcher, Ruth Phillips, Mauro Valli, Benyamin Sonmez, Cağ Ercağ, Şölen Dikener and Harald Herzl. As a graduate of Bilkent University, he was a principal cellist of the Turkish Youth Orchestra and was awarded a scholarship to study in Leipzig from the prestigious 'Young Artists on the World Stage" founded by the Pekinel piano duo. He has performed chamber music with Tatjana Masurenko, Emre Elivar, Ellen Jewett, Özcan Ulucan, and Ruşen Güneş, and regularly joins concerts with Klasik Keyifler. He is a founding member of the Trio Ba, and Begoa Ensemble (where he is the letter G). He is the co-artistic director of Klasik Keyifler
Başar Can Kıvrak, piano
Başar Can Kıvrak graduated from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Moscow with the highest distinction- the“red diploma” in May of 2012. Starting lessons at the age of ten, he worked with Ozan Bilen and Emre Şen before being accepted to Bilkent University Music Preparatory High School to study with Namık Sultanov. He earned his undergraduate degree from Bilkent University in 2008 working with Gülnara Aziz. Winning many awards in national and international competitions, Kıvrak was awarded the Third Prize in the Ferdi Statzer Piano Competition held in Istanbul in 2002, the Yamaha Scholarship in 2004, and the Grand Prix in the Second International Young Virtuosos Piano Competition held in Sofia in 2005. Working with Gülsin Onay, he gave a concert at the Gümüşlük International Classical Music Festival in August 2005. He has performed as a soloist with most of the main Turkish orchestras including the Presidential Symphony Orchestra, Çukurova State Symphony Orchestra, Bursa State Symphony Orchestra, Eskişehir Anadolu University Symphony Orchestra, Bilkent Youth Symphony Orchestra, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Tekfen Orchestra, and Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic, and has made recordings for TRT Ankara Radio. Kıvrak is the founding member of TrioBa with who he performed the complete piano trios of Beethoven in the 2016-17 season. He is also the founding member and“B” letter of the BEGOA Ensemble and in 2019 formed the Duo Yin Yang with violist Pınar Dinçer. In 2019 he received his Artist Diploma degree from the Eskişehir State Conservatory and is currently serving on the faculty Yasar University in Izmir.