-My Master's Recital


My only solo recital at the University of Texas at Austin, so I had to make it big: two concerti, a work for bassoon and piano, two improvised jazz standards as part of a trio, and my own arrangement for ten instruments of a piece originally for chamber orchestra.


Carl Maria von Weber - Concerto in F Major, op. 75
One of the most standard bassoon concerti and one of few by a major composer. Heavily influenced by Opera and with its roots in the classical idiom, this piece is straight forward, fun, and extremely in F Major.
Andante ma non troppo
Adagio
Rondo
Alexandre Tansman - Sonatine
A well known and flashy work for bassoon and piano in three movements. Tansman identified himself as a Polish composer, but this work shows a heavy French influence from his time in Paris.
Sonatine - Allegro con moto, Largo cantabile, Presto
Johnny Mercer - Autumn Leaves
The first of the improvised tunes, this real book standard is well known, widely recorded, and has a relaxed enough tempo to lend itself to comfortable soloing.
Autumn Leaves
Sonny Rollins - Pent-Up House
The second improvised tune, this standard is upbeat and features a catchy and straight-forward melody.
Pent-Up House
Antonio Vivaldi - Concerto in F Major, RV485
One of many, many bassoon concerti Vivaldi wrote - but not one of the ones that is widely performed. With Vivaldi's characteristic charm and energy, this concerto follows a fairly straight forward large-scale plan, but with plenty of surprising harmonic interest. The first movement includes a fully chromatic sequence over diminished harmonies, but only for one measure.
Allegro non molto
Andante
Allegro molto
Ottorino Respighi, Transcribed by Jonathan Zepp - Three Botticelli Pictures: II. The Adoration of the Magi
Originally the middle movement from a three movement work for chamber orchestra based on paintings by the Italian renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli, this movement in its original orchestration features the bassoon extremely prominently, with long lyrical solos. The performed transcription is for ten instruments, removing the Double Bass, Piano, Celeste, and Triangle from the original score and reducing the string sections to one on a part. In this reduced form we were able to keep much of Respighi's orchestral coloration, but played as a chamber ensemble as part of this recital.
The Adoration of the Magi


4/5/2011