PROGRAM FOR THE AFTERNOON
Tali Roth - Lament 2020
Albeniz - Granada, Asturias
Pete Wyer- Caprice (dedicated to T. Roth, US Premiere)
Barrios-Choro da Saudade
J.S.Bach - Chaconne in D minor (arrangement T. Roth)
Medina - Malagueña
Piazzolla- Primavera Portena (adaptation T. Roth)
ABOUT THE ARTIST
One of the world’s leading and most charismatic guitarists…
Tali Roth has been hailed by Classical Guitar magazine as "an extraordinary solo and chamber musician” and by The New York Times as a “marvelous classical guitarist”.
Her past engagements include performing on the soundtrack for Woody Allen’s 2010 film, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. Since her Carnegie Hall debut, Ms. Roth has performed as a soloist throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Latin America, Japan and her native country of Israel, appearing in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall with violinist Midori, Alvin Ailey theatre with Douglas Dunn and Dancers in the 92nd St Y Harkness Dance festival, Rose Hall home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Caramoor Center with conductor Giovanni Reggioli, Tel Aviv Henry Crown Hall, Sanremo town Hall at the Internattional Sanremo Guitar Festival, Teatro Presidente in San Salvador with the El Salvador Philharmonic with conductor Sarmientos, Teatro Solis in Uruguay with Polly Ferman and Glamour Tango, Haiyuza Theatre Rappongi , Tokyo with Flamenco Komatsubara and Silvia Duran dance companies, the Susan Dellal center with members of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and at Lincoln Center with members of the New York Philharmonic.
Ms. Roth has performed on stage in the New York Off-Broadway musical production of Nobel Prize Laureate Derek Walcott's The Odyssey and by invitation for the U.N. in Washington for dignitaries such as former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and General Colin Powell. She has won Top Prize in all categories at the Twenty-Third Masterplayers Music and Conductors Competition in Switzerland and the New York Artist International Competition Award.
An avid new music promoter Ms. Roth has recorded Premiere works by composers such as Ami Maayani to the IMP label, Richardo Lorca, conductor and composer German Caceres, composer Mladen Milicevic and more. She has recorded extensively to TV and Radio worldwide and has featured on WQXR, Argentinian 96.7 national radio, Chicago public Dame Myra Myra Hess Series, Canada Public TV, and Los Angeles Hollywood TV to name a few.
Ms. Roth is a graduate of the Jerusalem Rubin Academy (B.M) and The Juilliard School (M.M.) She has led the NYU Guitar Department from 2008-2011, has presented master classes throughout the world and has been a fellowship-teaching assistant at the Aspen Music Festival.
Beethoven 250!
Mark your calendar!
24-hour Celebration of Beethoven on his 250th Birthday!! Join us on December 16, 2020
The Foundation for the Revival of Classical Culture will present a 24-hour celebration of the life of Beethoven on December 16, 2020, his 250 birthday, and we want you—and the whole world—to come to the party!!
The name of Ludwig van Beethoven has over more than two centuries become nearly interchangeable with the Idea of Freedom all over the world. No matter what language is spoken, Beethoven’s music is understood wherever people struggle for something better, in themselves, in others, and in society. His music transcends all boundaries, defies categorization, and insists that nothing—not even deafness—can defeat a person in whom even Death is swallowed up in victory. As pianist Claudio Arrau once remarked, “in Beethoven, there is always a portrayal of the most noble of struggles. And in the end, he wins!”
The 24-hours of Beethoven Celebration will include statements, video tributes of various types, and mostly, his glorious music, celebrating his mind and artistic vision and mission. FFRCC has started organizing tributes from celebrated contemporary artists in many different fields, UN Ambassadors and representatives of nations, and even orchestras from around the world. World-renowned Maestro Gerard Schwarz, who conducted last year’s all-Beethoven concert at Carnegie Hall on Beethoven’s birthday last year, will join other international artists, new and old, in this 24-hour “music marathon.”
The FFRCC invites our audience and friends to join us in this celebration. So that, all over the planet, on December 16, Beethoven’s voice rings out, loudly and clearly, across the whole universe of human experience. In this way, for that day, music can overpower and even swallow up the tones of division and discord that seek to divide us, despite the fact that we are all one human race, that “Allen menschen werden brüder”, “all men shall be brothers.”
CHECK out the daily dose of beethoven!
Check out a curated selection taken from our blog “The Daily Dose of Beethoven”!
DAILY DOSE of BEETHOVEN (April 21, 2020)
In the 4th movement of his Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, Beethoven accomplishes a miracle. It combines the most advanced contrapuntal development, with one of the most the beloved songs in the world: a song that most people know, and everyone can sing.
The song is his setting of a poem, "An die Freude" (Ode to Joy), by the great poet Friedrich Schiller, whose importance to Beethoven we have discussed in several of the Daily Doses. Beethoven once remarked: "In order to set a poem correctly, the composer must rise above the poet... Who can do that in the case of Schiller?”
Beethoven expressed his desire to set this poem to music as early as 1793. The Ninth Symphony was premiered in 1825. What did Beethoven see in this poem that motivated him for over 30 years? What challenges did it posed for him that it took 30 years?
Here are the first 8 lines, in the original German.
An die Freude
Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
Deine Zauber binden wieder
Was die Mode streng geteilt;
Alle Menschen werden Brüder
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
There are a couple of points that are important to know. The first line: “Freude, schöner Götterfunken”, means “Joy, the most beautiful of God's sparks”.
“Götterfunken” (God's sparks), is a word coined by Johann Georg Adam Forster (1754-1794), a German naturalist, ethnologist, travel writer, journalist, and revolutionary, in his tribute to a great American, Benjamin Franklin. What are “God's sparks”? Why, the electricity Franklin was investigating; but also, the divine spark of reason that resides in every human soul, that allows us to make such scientific discoveries! Thus “Götterfunken” is a great pun, which Schiller seized on.
Here are a few quotes from Forster's beautiful tribute to Franklin:
“As long as humanity requires the power of example, we will have the name of Benjamin Franklin. He preached with incorruptible reason of Freedom, Justice, Peace, Brotherly Love, Love and mutual Tolerance...The moral freedom, the holy respect for Reason in every individual human being... we owe to him.
“Benjamin Franklin! Noble shadow! Let your teachings move the peoples of the world, let them know your great, unforgettable example. I hear your voice, I hear your words, I will never forget them! “You, children of Europe! Honor the divine spark (Götterfunken) of Reason within you, and perfect it through its use. Freedom can be achieved by virtue alone. Virtue is possible only through reason."
Thus joy, for Schiller, is the joy of creativity, the joy of making the kind of scientific and artistic discoveries which contribute to human progress; discoveries made possible by the divine spark of reason, of creativity, that resides within every one of us.
Schiller considered substituting "Freiheit” (freedom), for “Freude” (joy). It seems like a higher concept. He stuck with Freude though, because the joy of creativity in art, science, and statecraft, is the very source of freedom.
Continuing on:
Tochter aus Elysium
(Daughter of Elysium)—Elysium, for the Greeks, was where heroes went in the afterlife.
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
(We approach, drunk with fire)—meaning filled with the divine spark, Götterfunken )
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
(Heavenly one, your Holy throne!)
Deine Zauber binden wieder
(Your magic will bring together)
Was die Mode streng geteilt;
(What stern customs have kept apart)
Alle Menschen werden Brüder
(All mankind will become as brothers)
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
(Where your gentle wings abide.)
What a beautiful idea! Schiller is talking about uniting humanity and ending discrimination (what stern customs have kept apart). He does not propose that be done by an artificial means (he was not a Social Justice Warrior), but by the only means possible, that which makes us all human: by developing that divine spark of creativity which resides in each and every human being, regardless of race, creed, or sex.
What could be more joyous, and how big of a challenge was it, to set this poem to music, in a way that the music itself would create that sense of universal brotherhood?! It was a life-long project for Beethoven, but a successful one.
We provide this video of a flash-mob performance in Peru. You will see how people cannot help but become happy! Little kids conduct from lamp-posts. The joy is infectious.