Join us in welcoming Lyndon Ji to the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation for a solo piano recital. How abstract is this program? In most cases, the answer is: not very. Many of the works in this recital draw inspiration from sources beyond music—visual art, personal memory, spirituality, and cultural tradition—offering listeners many vivid points of connection. The program opens with works inspired by visual imagery. Benjamin Webster’s newly composed Ad Caelum (to heaven) responds directly to Diego Velazquez’s painting ‘Saint Thomas,’ Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Étude-Tableau in E-flat minor suggests a musical “scene,” often imagined as a snowstorm, while Enrique Granados’s monumental El Amor y la Muerte (“Love and Death”), from the suite Goyescas, Op. 11, transforms the dramatic spirit of Francisco Goya’s Los Caprichos into sweeping pianistic expression. A central portion of the program explores French modernism through character pieces by Lili Boulanger, Henri Dutilleux, and Olivier Messiaen, composers known for their distinctive approaches to musical color, atmosphere, and imagery. Their influence extends to Tōru Takemitsu, largely self-taught, but deeply inspired by Messiaen and French musical aesthetics, whose Litany II offers a stark tribute to a close friend. The final portion of the recital turns to contemporary voices. In Rhapsody of Hmong, Zihan Wu draws inspiration from the qeej, a 3,000-year-old Hmong wind instrument which creates resonant sonorities that shape the work’s distinctive musical language. Sam Wu’s cities of ash and dust reflects on a world marked by conflict, offering a meditation on memory, fragility, and resilience. Together, these pieces invite listeners to experience music that is evocative, immediate, and deeply human. They emphasize the enjoyment of sound itself rather than more abstract notions of formalism or structure. Though spanning more than a century, these works share a common thread: they are music shaped by influence—by art, by culture, by personal experience, and by history. Many of them belong to traditions that are still underrepresented in traditional recital programming, from French modernism to works by living composers. Together, they form a program where individual pieces—often brief and characterful—combine into a broader narrative. In considering the role of art in times of uncertainty, the critic Lilly Wei asks: “How can these works of art contribute to a better world? How civilizing are they? How humane? How truthful?” Program: Benjamin Webster Ad Caelum(to heaven) (6-8 min) Sergei Rachmaninoff Etude-Tableau in E-flat minor op. 33-6 (2 min) Enrique Granados El Amor y la Muerte (13 min) Lili Boulanger Prelude in D-flat major (3 min) Henri Dutilleux Le Jeu des contraires (7 min) Olivier Messiaen Ile de Feu 1, Preludes No. 5 & No. 8 (13 min) No. 5: Les sons impalpables du rêve No. 8: Un reflet dans le vent Tōru Takemitsu Litany II (5 min) Zihan Wu Rhapsody of Hmong (8 min) Sam W...
Dedicated to preserving the legacies of Milton Resnick (1917–2004) and Pat Passlof (1928–2011) and to the support of other painters.
