Pianist Laura Kargul premieres lost work Nov. 6


Maine audiences will hear it first!

During a USM concert on November 6, pianist Laura Kargul will present the American premiere of a long-lost work by the 19th century Belgian composer, César Franck. The charming virtuoso showpiece entitled “Souvenirs d’Aix-la-Chapelle,” was discovered by a friend of Kargul who gave her the opportunity to premiere it here.

The concert will begin at 8 p.m. Friday, November 6, 2009, in Corthell Concert Hall on the University of Southern Maine Gorham campus. Tickets are $15 for the general public, $10 for seniors and staff, and $5 for students. Call the Music Box Office at 780-5555 for tickets and information. 

She will repeat the concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, November 21 in the Freeport Performing Arts Center, 30 Holbrook Street. Tickets are $10 for the general public, $7 for seniors, $5 for 18 and under. Call 865-0928 ext. 29 for tickets.

Kargul says she is very excited to perform the work for the first time in the US.

"It's a great privilege to present to the American public, probably for the very first time, this beautiful unknown work,” she says. “As far as we know, until Heribert Koch started to play it in Europe two years ago, it had lain dormant since it was written in 1843. I think it will surprise those who are familiar with Franck's music -- it doesn't sound anything like the later works that have become so popular, like the violin sonata or the symphony. Franck was only 21 when he wrote it, and somehow he came up with sonorities that foreshadow what the French Impressionists like Debussy and Ravel experimented with fifty years later. The piece sheds some light on his early genius and makes his later works all that more interesting."

Kargul – a resident of Freeport -- will begin and close her program with two works based on material borrowed from operas: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s exquisite set of ten variations on an aria by Christoph Willibald Gluck, “Unser dummer Pöbel meint”; and Franz Liszt’s monumental paraphrase of Vincenzo Bellini’s “Norma.”

“These works illustrate in dramatic fashion the development of virtuoso piano technique,” she says, “from 1784 (Mozart) to 1841 (Liszt). Both display the most advanced keyboard techniques of their time, but the modern listener can only marvel at the changes that took place over those sixty years. While Mozart’s figuration certainly dazzles, with its rapid scales, arpeggios, hand crossings and sustained trills, ‘Norma’ represents the absolute pinnacle of technical virtuosity in piano writing – to this day no composer has ever surpassed Liszt’s accomplishment.”

The rest of the program is drawn from two contemporaries of Liszt: Felix Mendelssohn and César Franck. Kargul will celebrate this year’s 200th anniversary of Mendelssohn’s birth by performing three selections from the well-known and well-loved “Songs Without Words,” and finish the set with Liszt’s stunning transcription of Mendelssohn’s “On the Wings of Song” – a work that is also deservedly popular. 

But about that lost work -- although an edition of "Souvenirs d'Aix-la-Chapelle" was put out by the German publisher, Schuberth, at some point during Franck's lifetime, at the time of his death the work was considered to be lost. No manuscript has ever been found, and there is no record of a pianist ever performing the piece (including Franck himself). Kargul notes not even his brother had a copy at the time of Franck’s death. It was not until Kargul’s friend, the German pianist Heribert Koch, recently came upon a copy of the Schuberth edition in the Library of Congress that it again became available to the public. Koch recently performed the work in Europe, but it is doubtful that it has ever been performed in the United States. 

Koch told Kargul that he was looking for this piece specifically because he lives near the city of Aachen, the modern-day name of Aix-la-Chapelle. He checked the Library of Congress early on in his search, but because of a wrong title and other problems, he did not find it. Much later he returned and tried again – and found it.

“Maybe it's the only remaining copy,” he wrote to her. “The fact that this is a printed copy doesn't prove that it ever has been sold (and thus spread).”


Biography of pianist Laura Kargul

Laura Kargul was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, where she began piano studies at the age of six with Rebecca Frohman. She showed early promise, giving her first solo recital at age 11 and performing as a concerto soloist with orchestra at age 13. As a teenager she attended the National Music Camp at Interlochen, where she studied with Nelita True and won a full scholarship to the University of Michigan. Her principal teachers at Michigan were pianists Leon Fleisher and Theodore Lettvin, and she also served as an assistant to conductor Gustav Meier. In master classes she coached with Murray Perahia, André Watts, Gary Graffman and Gilbert Kalish.

After receiving her doctorate in piano performance from the University of Michigan, Dr. Kargul began to concertize internationally. Her European debut in the Netherlands was hailed by the Rotterdams Nieuwsblad as “one of the most remarkable debut recitals recently given in our country.” The following year she played at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw and earned immediate recognition as “a world class pianist: This is playing that belongs on our great concert stages.... almost feverishly inspired, so controlled and so thrilling.” (Haagsche Courant, The Hague) Subsequent solo tours have included concerts in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Serbia, Switzerland and the West Indies. As a guest of numerous international music festivals, Dr. Kargul has appeared at the Schleswig-Holstein, Nordhessen, and Eisenacher Summer Music Festivals in Germany; the Evian Music Festival in France; the Opera Theater and Music Festival of Lucca in Italy; and the Lesvos Arts Festival in Greece. She has recorded for radio in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Jamaica, as well as for PBS radio and national television in the United States. As a collaborative artist she has performed with ensembles such as the Lark Quartet, the Portland String Quartet and the Da Ponte String Quartet in venues such as Music Mountain in Connecticut, and the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. 

Although her repertoire spans from Scarlatti to Rochberg, Laura Kargul has received particular recognition for her playing of the nineteenth century romantics. She is one of few pianists ever invited to give a full recital on Liszt's own Bechstein piano at the Liszthaus in Weimar, Germany and her performances of Liszt have consistently drawn high praise: “Liszt wanted everything from the piano - wildness and fervor, exuberance and humility. Laura Kargul delivers all of it. She is completely absorbed by the music - elegantly floating through the most treacherous passages. It's like childsplay to her... equipped with sparkling brilliance, clean double octaves, and perfectly executed leaps.” (Hessische Allgemeine, Kassel, Germany) At the same time, critics frequently comment upon her unusual versatility and find her performances of works from all periods to be equally compelling: “How convincingly poetic, deeply lyrical and profound, will her playing of Schubert be judged.” (Wiesbadener Kurier, Wiesbaden, Germany) Her recently released solo CD, “Liszt and Ravel: Transcriptions for Piano,” produced by Grammy winner Bob Ludwig of Gateway Mastering, includes the rarely recorded solo piano version of Ravel’s “La Valse,” and the world premiere recording of excerpts from Ravel’s solo piano arrangement of “Daphnis and Chloé.” 

Laura Kargul moved to Maine in 1989 to join the music faculty at the University of Southern, where she now serves as head of the keyboard program. Devoted to teaching, Dr. Kargul has lectured, adjudicated and presented master classes at venues such as the national and international conferences of the European Piano Teachers Association, the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers Association and the National Music Teachers Association in the US. She lives in Freeport with her husband David and fifteen year old son Gabriel.