By Michelle Seitz Staff writer
Horn player Lydia Getgen performed her junior recital on Feb. 12. She was accompanied by lecturer in music Ilya Blinov on piano.
Getgen spent a vast majority of this year learning the pieces and mastering her technique. Most of what she focused on during her lessons with her professor included technique, articulation and phrase shaping.
Getgen then proceeded to rehearse with Blinov in order to, in her words, “understand how the piano accompaniment worked with [her] own part and grow comfortable with the music.”
Getgen performed five different pieces, including her personal favorite, “Laudatio.” Meaning “praise” in Latin, this unaccompanied solo piece was written in 1966 and was inspired by an early Gregorian plain chant.
The piece was also composed to emulate the act of prayer and meditation.
According to Getgen, the piece “was written in such a way that [she] was able to put a lot of [herself] in the music.” The middle of the piece features stopped horn, creating a contrast in color before returning to a melancholy sound and gradually fading out.
Another piece Getgen performed with Blinov was “Nocturno,” which was composed in 1864 by acclaimed French horn player Franz Strauss. It shifts moods frequently, beginning somber before later becoming more aggressive and returning to its original sound.
The piece also showcases both the lower and upper register of the French horn.
The duet then proceeded to play Samuel Adler’s “Sonata for Horn & Piano.” This composition includes three movements. The second movement, “Allegro Scherzando,” features a time signature that varies between driving eighth notes and sudden swaying sections.
The piece concludes abruptly in the lower register of the horn. “Moderato ma con apassionata,” the third movement, is more free-flowing and calm, while allowing Getgen to play parts of it at her own tempo.
The fourth and final movement, “Allegro con fuoco” features a variety of different meters to create a notion of drive and agitation.
The piece concludes with the horn on a high note while the piano plays descending notes.
Next, Getgen and Blinov performed Robert Baska’s horn sonata. Although the piece was originally composed in 1983, it was re-released in 2005.
The 2005 version is in a different key and differs greatly from the original. The duet played the sonata’s second movement, “Very Calm.”
This movement of the piece is calm and tranquil while forming motifs and examining the relationship between tonic and dominant.
The final piece Getgen and Blinov performed together was Bernhard Heiden’s “Sonata for Horn and Piano,” which was composed in 1939 and described as neoclassical but fitting in its era.
The sonata was dedicated to Theodore Snyder, who played in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at the time of which Heiden was conducting. The piece’s third movement, “Rondo: Allegretto,” was a challenge for Getgen and Blinov because of its fluctuating tempo and rhythm.
Traditionally, the French horn has been played in a symphony orchestra and rarely has been featured in pieces on its own. It was not until the twentieth century that solo pieces have been popularized.
First-year Elizabeth Hebert said she felt very moved by the pieces and reffered to the recital, calling it majestic.
