[BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Seiji Ozawa, Music Director

One Hundred and Fourth Season, 1984-85

PRE-SYMPHONY CHAMBER CONCERTS

Saturday, 13 October at 6 g**^ Tuesday, 16 October at 6

JEROME ROSEN, violin AZA RAYKHTSAUM, violin MARK LUDWIG, viola SATO KNUDSEN, cello VICTOR ROSENBAUM, piano

BACH Partita in B minor for solo violin, BWV 1002

Allemande Double Courante Double. Presto Sarabande Double

Tempo di Bourree Double

Mr. ROSEN

SCHUMANN Quintet in E-flat for piano and strings, Opus 44

Allegro brillante In modo d'una Marcia. Un poco largamente—Agitato Scherzo molto vivace Allegro, ma non troppo

Mr. ROSEN, Ms. RAYKHTSAUM, Mssrs. LUDWIG, KNUDSEN, and ROSENBAUM

Baldwin piano

Please exit to your left for supper following the concert.

The performers appreciate your not smoking during the concert.

Weekl —

Johann Sebastian Bach

Partita in B minor for solo violin, BWV 1002

Bach's set of six sonatas and partitas for unaccompanied violin are the most extraordinary works ever composed for that severely restricted medium, in that they manage to suggest combinations of melodic lines and contrapuntal complexities that cannot actually be sustained on the instrument. But by a clever manipulation of the violin's technique, the composer and player can fool the listener's ear into resolving what is basically a single line

(with a few extra notes played by multiple stopping) into a full contrapuntal texture. Bach copied out the six works (BWV 1001-1006) into one of his most beautiful manuscripts in the year 1720, but beyond that simple fact we know virtually nothing of their composition or purpose. The partita in B minor, BWV 1002, is, like the other two partitas, freer in character than the three sonatas; like them it is composed entirely of dance movements.

In this particular case Bach pays homage to the art of variation by following each of the dances with a "Double," a variation on the preceding movement. (The term "double" comes from the traditional variation technique that progressively doubles the level of activity from one variation to the next by composing each successive section in the next smaller note value, such as eighth-notes following quarters, sixteenth-notes following eighths, and so on.) Thus each pair (dance + double) reveals Bach's masterly skill at instilling life into the formal dance patterns (especially with the self-imposed restriction of a single violin line) and his genius at reworking the basic material at a still higher level of energy.

Robert Schumann

Quintet in E-flat for piano, two violins, viola, and cello, Opus 44

Schumann wrote this quintet early in the fall of 1842, his "chamber music year." He had just finished the three string quartets, Opus 41, and was soon to turn to the Piano Quartet, Opus 47. Both the string quartet and the piano quartet genres had notable histories, going back to the classical works of Haydn and Mozart, but the piano quintet was an entirely new medium, created single-handedly by Schumann with this, his one contribution to it and his most popular work of chamber music. But clearly the combination of piano and string quartet had its attractions, for he was soon followed by other composers in many countries: Brahms and Reger in , Dvorak in Bohemia, Franck and DTndy in France, Chadwick, Foote, Beach, and Farwell in America, Elgar in England, Shostakovich in Russia.

Up until 1840, Schumann had composed entirely for the piano, and almost entirely in miniature. He always found it something of a strain to think in the large-scale terms necessary for a symphony or a major work of chamber music, but in this quintet he succeeded in reconciling the demands of form and expression as rarely before or after. He was, of course, completely at home with the piano, which was his own instrument, but he also gave the string parts beautiful and expressive things to do, though at times they are almost symphonic in character (and sometimes, it must be admitted, he simply lets the piano take over).

The first movement grows from an upward-leaping, energetic theme that is related by distinct family resemblance to most of the remaining ideas of the movement, including the lyrical piano afterthought that becomes the transition theme and generates in its turn the secondary theme of the movement. The piano functions as forceful leader, but also as subdued accompanist; during the development section the piano tosses off vigorous speeded-up motives from the opening idea against slower-moving chords in the strings, producing a gradual rotation through the tonal universe before rolling around to the tonic and the recapitulation.

The C minor funeral march of the slow movement was almost certainly inspired by Beethoven. Dotted rhythms, played softly but clearly marked with moments of silence between the chords, create a hushed and expectant atmosphere. A lyrical Trio in C major provides contrast of mood but fails to prepare us for the dramatic surprise of the second Trio, a stormy F minor passage against which the viola attempts to recall the funeral march. The minor mode yields to F major for a new statement of the lyrical first Trio, now especially sweet for coming after such an outburst. The funeral march itself returns with a dying fall and longer periods of silence, recalling the Beethoven of the Eroica Symphony and the Coriolan Overture. The dramatic turn of the second Trio was an afterthought, suggested to Schumann by Mendelssohn, who sight-read the piano part in a private performance held in December 1842 (Mendelssohn was deputizing for Clara Schumann, who was ill and unable to take part). The original second Trio was in A-flat major and surely lacked the dramatic energy that the minor key imparts to the definitive version.

The scherzo is built on rushing scales, punctuated by heavy chords and syncopated cadences. The first Trio features a canon between first violin and viola with a theme built on a descending fifth, a motive prominent from the beginning of the quintet. The second Trio, again suggested by Mendelssohn, changes the meter from 6/8 to 2/4 for a striking contrast of mood. The final coda of the scherzo firmly re-establishes the tonic key of

E-flat, which is necessary in part because the finale opens in a distant key and only works around to the tonic after two full statements of the theme.

The entire last movement carries on a wide-ranging modulation, and even the recapit- ulation (like the opening of the movement) begins outside the home key. But in order to make up for all this distant traveling (and also, no doubt, to provide a heady climax),

Schumann creates a fugato, working in all the themes of the last movement; then, in a massive fugal coda, he combines the opening themes of the first and last movements in a memorable moment that sets off a splendidly vigorous free fugue to bring the quintet to its resonant conclusion.

— Notes by Steven Ledbetter

Jerome Rosen conductor, and keyboard player with the , and he was an eight-time Jerome Rosen started playing violin at five and member of the Casals Festival Orchestra. An piano at six, and majored in mathematics and active performer of solo and chamber music, philosophy as an undergraduate at Western he is now a violinist and keyboard player with Reserve University in Cleveland while con- the Boston Symphony. tinuing his musical studies. Before his appoint- ment as assistant concertmaster of the BSO and concertmaster of the Boston Pops in Aza Raykhtsaum 1972, Mr. Rosen was associate concertmaster of the Detroit Symphony, and conductor and BSO violinist Aza Rayktsaum was born in musical director of the Oak Park Symphony in Leningrad and began studying the piano at age Michigan. His violin teachers included Ivan five, taking up the violin a year later at the Galamian, Josef Gingold, and Rafael Druian. suggestion of her teacher. Ms. Raykhtsaum For seven seasons, Mr. Rosen was a violinist, majored in violin at the Leningrad Conserva- tory, where she studied with the renowned the Houston Symphony as a first violinist, and Ryabinkov. She became concertmaster of the then became a member of the Boston Sym-

Leningrad Conservatory Orchestra and a first phony Orchestra in 1982. Ms. Raykhtsaum violinist in the Leningrad Philharmonic before teaches privately and performs chamber coming to the United States in 1980, joined music frequently in the Boston area.

Mark Ludwig

Originally from Philadelphia, violist Mark chamber orchestra composed mainly of mem- Ludwig joined the Boston Symphony Orches- bers from the Philadelphia Orchestra and the tra at the beginning of the 1982-83 season. Curtis Institute of Music. Principal violist of He received his bachelor of music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music Orchestra during the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, the 1979-80 season, Mr. Ludwig has also where he studied with Joseph de Pasquale, and played for the Philadelphia Opera Company, he has had orchestral and ensemble coaching the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, and the with such eminent musicians as Joseph Silver- Philadelphia Pops. He has been on the teach- stein, Raphael Bronstein, Norman Carol, Felix ing faculty for viola and violin at the Agnes

Galimir, and Alexander Schneider. Before join- Irwin School in Rosemont, Pennsylvania, and ing the Boston Symphony, Mr. Ludwig was co- the Episcopal Academy in Devon, Pennsyl- principal violist of the Kansas City Philhar- vania. He currently teaches privately in the monic; he has also been principal violist and Boston and Cambridge area. soloist with the New Chamber Players, a

Sato Knudsen

Born in Baltimore in 1955, cellist Sato tra, Mr. Knudsen was associate principal cel-

Knudsen joined the Boston Symphony Orches- list of the San Antonio Symphony; prior to tra in 1983. His teachers included David that, he performed with the Boston Pops, Soyer at Bowdoin College and Stephen Geber, Boston Opera Company, New Hampshire Robert Ripley, and Madeleine Foley at the Symphony, and Worcester Symphony. As cel-

New England Conservatory of Music; he was list with the Anima Piano Trio, he performed also a member of the Piatigorsky Seminar in in Carnegie Recital Hall, Jordan Hall, on Los Angeles and a fellowship student for two WQXR-FM in New York, and WGBH-FM in summers at the Music Center. Boston, as well as throughout New England. Before joining the Boston Symphony Orches-

Victor Rosenbaum

A piano student of Leonard Shure and a cum solo recitals, appearances with such orchestras laude graduate of Brandeis University, Victor as those of Atlanta and Indianapolis, and tours Rosenbaum did graduate study in theory and as far abroad as Brazil and Japan, Mr. Rosen- composition at Princeton University. Also an baum is pianist with the Wheaton Trio, has accomplished conductor, he was invited to join been guest artist with the Vermeer Quartet, the New England Conservatory faculty in and has collaborated with such artists as 1967; he became chairman of the piano Roman Totenberg, Scott Nickrenz, Lawrence department there in 1973, and he is currently Lesser, and Leonard Rose. Mr. Rosenbaum's director of the chamber music program. In master classes, lecture-demonstrations, and 1979 he became head of the piano program at workshops for teachers and students are often North Carolina's Eastern Music Festival; he presented in conjunction with concert was visiting professor of piano at the Eastman appearances. School of Music in 1983-84. In addition to