The crowd erupted into cheers and applause in Johnson Theater Sunday at the faculty concert series, after hearing pianist Arlene Kies conclude Mephisto Waltz #1, from author Nikolaus Lenau's Faust.
This was the 10th concert series put on by the university's music department this academic year and incorporated the esteemed Kies, playing on a Steinway piano, combined with the lively sounds of the French horn played by musician and composer Wayne Lu.
"My immediate reaction was exhilaration," said Kies. "It's such a joy to reach the end of a preparatory period and explode."
Kies grew up and had her early training in Providence, R.I. She went on to attend the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston on a full scholarship where she earned B.M. and M.M. degrees in piano performance with honors.
Kies currently resides in Durham.
As a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, Kies studied with Hans Graf in Vienna, Austria. Further studies took her to Sienna, Italy, and eventually back to Boston, where she worked with pianists Russell Sherman and Anthony di Bonaventura. In 1988, she was awarded an Individual Artists Fellowship by the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts.
She has taught at Tufts University, Phillips Exeter Academy( from 1981-1995) and at the University of New Hampshire (since 1995).
In 1999, Ms. Kies released a CD of vocal/piano repertoire with bass-baritone David Ripley. Other recently released CD's include those of vocal/piano repertoire by women composers with soprano Jenni Carbaugh Cook, and another of wind/piano music with the UNH -based trio Sospiri. In January she performed with the double-reed trio and the Dichterliebe of Robert Schumann and Ralph Vaughn Williams' Songs of Travel with Ripley.
In Sept. 2006, she was a featured artist at the University of Rhode Island Great Performances Series and has been invited to return for the 2007-08 season. She also presented a Masters Class for piano students at URI in November, and made presentations in several Rhode Island public schools.
Student Services Assistant Alexis Zaricki said that at Sunday's performance Kies had an average attendance based on the capacity of Johnson Theater. However, she said that the attendance was quite below average compared to what a top caliber performances by Kies should attract. She said she enjoyed the Beethoven pieces, Sonata in D, Op. 28, "Pastoral," played immediately following intermission.
"I enjoyed the horn solos," said Zaricki speaking of Lu's performance during the romance pieces Kies and he performed. "They were not what I expected. Very melodic for the time that they were made."
The two romance pieces were written by Alexander Scriabin and Alexander Glazunov, and followed Kies' interpretation of Beethoven's "Pastoral".
Lu met Kies at a horn festival camp last semester run by well renowned hornist Kendall Betts.
Kies said that the "ultra miniature love pieces" were more robust, compared to the previously played Beethoven Sonata that she described as the "most cerebral" in her program.
Kies began the program playing Robert Schumann's Sonata #2 in G minor, Op. 22, which she said was the more "mercurial" of the pieces.
Following that she played a Sonata written by Lu.
"Lu's was the most unusual," she said. "No one has heard it before," referring to the chords and the rhythms played.
Kies said that the Mephisto Waltz #1 was the hardest to pull off Sunday because of how fast it goes. However, with her speed and her nimble fingers, she repeatedly stroked every possibly key and never faltered.
"You can't afford to get out of control," said Kies.
The Mephisto Waltzes are four virtuoso piano solos composed by Franz Liszt. Liszt made an orchestral version (as No.2 in the Zwei Episoden aus Lenaus Faust) immediately after the completion of the original piano solo
Lu started playing the piano at six years old and the horn at age 10. By 17, he had won his first concerto competition with the Iowa City Youth Orchestra on horn. His orchestral experience includes numerous performances throughout the Midwest with the Champaign-Urbana Symphony, Knox-Galesburg Symphony, Decatur Symphony, Danville Symphony and Prairie Ensemble.
He has a Bachelor's of Music from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Horn Performance and a Master's of Music from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in Horn Performance.
Lu has two solo horn CDs to his credit. As a conductor, he has led the University of Illinois Horn Choir from 1997-1999 with performances throughout the Midwest. He has written for full orchestra, mixed winds, brass choir, horn choir, horn sextet, horn quartet, horn trio, horn and saxophone, horn and flute, horn and piano, unaccompanied horn, unaccompanied alto saxophone, solo harp, string quartet and piano solo.
The concert series had a program note on his horn Sonata in which Lu dedicated the piece to a dear friend, Dr. Jameel Brown, who Lu considers a special person "who has pushed the limits of who he is supposed to be and what he is supposed to accomplish."
"To know him as a friend is inspiration," he wrote.
Lu said that he originally set out to write a horn sonata to perform at his senior recital as an undergraduate. "It was received well at its premiere, but its first movement is the only movement that I have kept from the original horn sonata."
The second movement was written for his sister and the third for his wife.
"Late one night while writing the opening bars of this last movement, my wife left a note on the bathroom mirror to avoid interrupting my train of thought," said Lu. "The note said, 'Whatever you are writing is REALLY cool'."
The next Faculty Concert Series is a UNH Composers Concert scheduled for Friday, Feb. 16 at the Bratton Recital Hall inside the Paul Creative Arts Center at 8 p.m.
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