Pianist Marilyn Mangold Garst may be petite in stature, but she packs rockslide power when she performs.
Garst will open the 17th season of the Unitarian Universalist Recital Series on Friday in the Durango Fellowship Sanctuary at 419 San Juan Drive. Her program features works by Joseph Haydn, Franz Schubert, Claude Debussy and, possibly a first, Four Corners performance of music by the 20th-century Croatian composer Boris Papandopulo (1905-1991).
Like many chamber music performances these days, Garst’s program begins with comfortable, crystal-clear works from the Classical Period of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Haydn. Garst will open with Haydn’s Sonata No. 39 in D Major, composed in 1773.
“It’s one of 60 sonatas for keyboard, and it opens with a brilliant allegro, followed by a beautiful, poignant adagio that leads directly into the finale, a presto,” she said.
If you go
WHAT: UUFD Recital Series, Pianist Marilyn Mangold Garst.
WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday.
WHERE: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 419 San Juan Drive.
ADMISSION: $20 adults, $8 students and children. Cash or checks.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit https://tinyurl.com/mr2cvtuw, or contact Marilyn Garst: 85-8668 or mmgarst1940@gmail.com.
Garst will continue with Schubert’s “Four Impromptus.” Moody, often dark and dramatic, the impromptus are more emotional than Haydn’s cut-glass sonata.
“The third Impromptu in G-flat major reveals Schubert at his most pensive and introspective,” she said.
Fans of Garst and the UU Recital Series know that short introductions to the music are a standard part of the protocol and popular with audiences.
After intermission, she will introduce and play four preludes from Debussy’s 1913 “Book 2,” where he incorporated many Impressionistic features: “layers of refined sound, parallel chordal treatments, unusual pedal effects and a full exploration of the piano’s resources,” Garst said. “Debussy gave titles to preludes only at the end of each one.”
The titles illuminate the composer’s inspiration either from nature or literature and are often jaunty, even comical.
Garst chose two works by a relatively little-known 20th-century composer, Papandopulo to close her program. Two of his études may introduce music lovers to an astonishingly virtuosic composer and reinforce her reputation for tackling difficult music.
“Papandopulo was a Croatian composer and conductor who was educated at the University of Zagreb and studied conducting in Vienna,” Garst said. “His piano writing features the use of the extreme outer ranges of the keyboard, evident in both études.”
You can listen to current interpretations on YouTube and be dazzled by performers such as Andrey Gugnin, Javor Bracic and Mia Pečnik. Each interpretation is different but photographed with attention to the wide-spread hands on the keyboard and the virtuosic writing of the études. What is astonishing is that Garst has chosen to close, not open, her program with these showpieces.
You can also read online a dissertation on Papandopulo written by Loreta Kovacic, a doctoral candidate at Rice University. Kovacic examines the life and music of this “unique and relatively unknown composer,” the political climate in which he lived and his compositional style. She claims that his distinctive musical identity combines the great traditions of Western European music, Neoclassicism, and 12-tone methods, plus folk components.
The UU series continues on Feb. 28 with violinists Richard Silvers and Brandon Christensen and pianist Mika Inouye. Clarinetist Lori Lovato, bassist Frank Murry and Garst will give the final recital in the series on May 2.
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
