Southeastern Louisiana University

     HAMMOND – Pianist David Evenson, head of the Southeastern Louisiana University Department of Music and Dramatic Arts, will present a piano recital April 5, at 2 p.m. in the Pottle Music Building Auditorium.

     Evenson will perform works by Haydn, Beethoven, Czerny and Liszt. The recital is free to campus and community.

     “The theme of the recital is the most famous ‘musical tree’ in music history,” Evenson said. “Each composer taught the next one on the program -- Haydn taught Beethoven, who taught Czerny, who taught Liszt.”

     Evenson said Haydn’s “Sonata in B Minor” is an example of what has been called his “storm and stress” style, an early precursor to 19th century romanticism. “Beethoven’s ‘Sonata in C Minor, Op. 10, No. 1’ continues the ‘storm and stress’ gesture that Haydn pioneered and shows Beethoven’s debt to Haydn in a number of other ways, including an approach to composition that uses short musical motives to unify.”

     He said the least known piece on the program is Carl Czerny’s “Variations on a Theme of Rode.”

     “Czerny is mostly known as a tireless composer of hundreds of piano exercise pieces (etudes), but his serious compositions are performed with increasing frequency,” he said.
     Evenson called Liszt’s “Sonata in B Minor” “a landmark in piano literature. My hope is that listeners will detect its forerunners, such that the Haydn ‘Sonata in B Minor’ will ‘morph’ into Liszt’s ‘Sonata in B Minor,’ like a developing Polaroid photo.”

     A native of Minneapolis, Evenson joined the Southeastern faculty in 1979 and in 1992 received the university's prestigious President's Award for Excellence in Artistic Activity. He has been head of the Department of Music and Dramatic Arts since 1994.

     Evenson, who began studying piano at the age of nine, received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Indiana University under the tutelage of the late Cuban-American virtuoso Jorge Bolet. He received his doctoral degree from the University of Arizona as a student of the late Ozan Marsh. He also studied in Fontainebleau, France, and at the Chautauqua Festival Music School in New York