Sharps and Flatirons – Ars Nova Singers Welcomes Pianist David Korevaar

By Peter Alexander

David Korevaar is an adventurer, in the mountains and on the piano.

Cases in point: A photo of Korevaar on the summit of 13,088-ft. Paiute Peak in the Indian Peaks Wilderness (below); and his performances with the Ars Nova Singers and conductor Tom Morgan this weekend. Friday and Saturday (Feb. 7 and 8, in Boulder and Cherry Hills Village; details below) he will play three pieces that are new for him and that you likely have not heard before.

David Korevaar on the summit of Paiute Peak – photo courtesy of the pianist

One piece on the program is virtually unknown: Cant de les estrelles (Song of the stars) by the  Spanish composer Enrique Granados, written for the unusual combination of piano with organ and choir. In fact, it is unusual enough that Ars Nova was only able to find two venues with a suitable piano and organ that were in tune with one another: Mountain View Methodist Church in Boulder (7:30 p.m. Friday) and Bethany Lutheran Church in Cherry Hills Village (7:30p.m. Saturday).

Cant de les estrelles had its premiere in Barcelona in 1911 on a concert Granados presented of his own music, and then disappeared for nearly a century. The manuscript suffered damage from fire, water and mold, but the music was re-discovered and performed in New York in 2007. When Morgan saw a score, he programmed the Cant de les estrelles on a program titled “Lost/Found,” along with other pieces that were never totally lost but that are obscure today.

One of those is by American composer Dominick Argento, a setting of the Wallace Stevens poem “Peter Quince at the Clavier,” a complex meditation on the power of music and the meaning of beauty. Once one of the leading modernist composers, Argento has fallen from fashion, and “Peter Quince at the Clavier” is not often performed today.

The third choral piece is Renouveau (Renewal) by Lili Boulanger, a celebration of spring that opens with the joyful words “Ladies and gentlemen, it is me—me, Springtime!”—a thought that is always welcome in February. Korevaar will play the piano parts on all three choral works, and add two of Granados’ solo piano pieces from Goyescas, a suite of pieces inspired by Goya’s paintings. The inclusion of the solo piano works is a bow to the 1911 concert that included the premieres of both the Cant de les estrelles and the Goyescas.

“The music is really gorgeous,” Korevaar says of Cant de les estrelles. “One of the reasons to come hear it live, is (that) it’s written for three separate mini choirs, essentially. You get antiphonal stuff happening between the piano in one place, the organ sound coming from somewhere else, and then singers in various places. You get sound from everywhere. It’s pretty spectacular.”

While Korevaar plays and records a highly varied repertoire, he claims no credit for discovering the Granados. “Tom Morgan gets full credit for this one,” he says.

Of the other works on the program, Korevaar calls particular attention to Argento’s piece. “There are not that many real concert works (composed specifically) for piano and choir,” he says. “Peter Quince at the Clavier is a real masterpiece. It’s a really marvelous piece.

“The poem itself is fascinating and complex. It has at its center a kind of gloss on the story of Susana and the elders, but it’s also a reflection on the power and meaning of music. Elissa Guralnick is going to be providing some commentary on the poem before we perform the piece.”

Argento called the piece a “sonatina for mixed chorus and piano concertante,” which describes the role of the piano part but also refers to the fact that the music is structured in four movements. The separate movements correspond to four separate sections in the poem, and also fit the outline of a small sonata, with an opening movement in a medium tempo, followed by a slow movement, a faster scherzo and a closing slow movement.

Lili Boulanger was the younger sister of the famed French music teacher Nadia Boulanger and member of a musical family. The first woman to win the Prix de Rome composition award, she died tragically at only 24 and left relatively few finished compositions.

“It’s  lovely little piece,” Korevaar says of Renouveau, composed when Boulanger was 17. “It’s a very charming poem about spring, and it’s kind of nice to have it in the middle of winter, because we get to have this moment of celebration of all the wonderful things about spring.”

As a musical adventurer, Korevaar is excited about playing with Ars Nova. “The whole program is fascinating,” he says. “I want to call out Tom (Morgan), because he dreamed this up. I came into it with great enthusiasm and excitement because the music is so wonderful.

“It’s going to be a treat.”

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“Lost/Found”
Ars Nova Singers, Tom Morgan, conductor
With David Korevaar, piano

• Dominick Argento: Peter Quince at the Clavier
• Lili Boulanger: Renouveau
• Enrique Granados: Goyescas: Fandango de candil (Fandango by candlelight)
  —Goyescas: La Maja y el ruisenor (The maiden and the nightingale)
  —Cant de les estrelles (Song of the stars)

7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 7
Mountain View United Methodist Church, 355 Ponca Place, Boulder

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8
Bethany Lutheran Church, 4000 E.Hampden Blvd., Cherry Hills Village

In-person and Livestream tickets HERE.