Oscar Shumsky

BEETHOVEN Sonata No. 9 for Piano and Violin OSCAR SHUMSKY - Violin CHARLES CURTIS - Cello BARBER EARL WILD - Piano Sonata for Cello and Piano IN CONCERT 1979 TCHAIKOVSKY Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello Beethoven •Barber •Tchaikovsky OSCAR SHUMSKY, Violin • CHARLES CURTIS, Cello • EARL WILD, Piano IN CONCERT 1979 Disc I Disc II BEETHOVEN - Sonata No. 9 for Piano and (36:25) TCHAIKOVSKY - Trio for Piano, Violin (43:23) Violin in A Major Op. 47 ‘Kreutzer’ and Cello in A minor Op. 50 1 Adagio sostenuto - Presto - Adagio 13:30 1 Pezzo elegiaco (Moderato assai - Allegro giusto) 18:20 2 Andante con Variazione 14:27 2 A. Tema con Variazioni (Andante con moto) 17:53 3 Finale (Presto) 8:15 Var. I. L’istesso tempo Var. II. Più mosso Oscar Shumsky, Violinist Var. III. Allegro moderato Var. IV. L’istesso tempo Earl Wild, Pianist Var. V. L’istesso tempo Var. VI. Tempo di Valse Var. VII. Allegro moderato Var. VIII. Fuga BARBER - Sonata for Cello and Piano Op. 6 (18:28) Var. IX. Andante flebile ma non tanto Var. X. Tempo di Mazurka Var. XI. Moderato 4 Allegro ma non troppo 8:16 5 Adagio - Presto - Adagio 4:14 3 B. Variazione finale e Coda 7:03 6 Allegro appassionato 5:55 (Allegro risoluto e con fuoco - Andante con moto) Charles Curtis, Cellist Oscar Shumsky, Violinist Earl Wild, Pianist Charles Curtis, Cellist • Earl Wild, Pianist Total Time 54:53 Total Time 43:23 – 2 – i LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) j Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47 ‘Kreutzer’ Mystery surrounds most of Beethoven’s works that carry fanciful titles and the Violin Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Opus 47 is no exception. Of his ten sonatas for the instrument only two have nicknames, and we are left wondering if this work’s popularity was a contributing factor in the per- manent affixing of the title ‘Kreutzer.’ What we do know is this: Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766-1831) was a French violinist who first met Beethoven in 1798. However, it was another man, the mulat- to violinist George Polgreen Bridgetower (c.1780-1860), who would give the first performance with the composer at the piano on May 24, 1803 at the Auergarten Hall in Vienna. Though Beethoven was thoroughly impressed by Bridgetower, who even helped to make improvements to the violin part, there was a falling out between the two after which Beethoven dedicated the sonata to Kreutzer who, ironically, never even played the work. It was with this piece that Beethoven sealed the fate of the violin sonata as a concert work. Through his ten sonatas for the instrument, composed over a relatively short period of fifteen years between 1797 and 1812, he slowly brought the medium out of the private salon and into the performance hall. In the Kreutzer, Beethoven’s ninth contribution to the genre, he enlarged the role of the violin and piano to concert proportions. The piano writing is no less involved or demand- ing than a solo sonata for the instrument, and the level of the violin’s importance is no less than that of a concerto. The outer movements of the work are both marked ‘presto,’ suggesting a bril- liance not present in violin sonatas of the late eighteenth century. These movements display Beethoven’s intellectual mastery and feature dazzling virtuoso writing for both of the performers. Also not previously explored is the level of dialogue between the violin and piano that plays such an important role in this work, which is immediately evident in the first movement. The second movement is perhaps the enigma of this sonata. Both in style and content, the theme and variations seem mismatched with the sonata’s grand outer movements. There is no doubt that Beethoven fully explores the theme’s potential and, in what is the longest of the three movements, shapes the variations to a satisfying dramatic arch; however, he curiously allows the violin’s importance to diminish, as in the works of many earlier composers. The first half of the theme is played by the piano alone, and in Variation I the violin’s role is reduced to providing brief – 3 – ‘bird-calls;’ this is the first of many moments in which he appears to be writing a piano sonata with obbliga- to violin. Variation II, while possessing a charming quality and simplistic beauty, seems more like a tech- nique exercise than a mature development of the theme, and in the minor mode Variation III the violin seems only to add color to the piano harmonies. Variation IV shows the violin engaging in brief dialogue with the piano despite much trill and pizzica- to figurations; the remainder of this final variation continues on in much the same manner, and though the piano shows an evolution of the theme, the violin is never truly allowed to make any significant contributions. Beethoven used all three movements of the Kreutzer to further exploit the development of his use Ludwig Van Beethoven of unconventional tonal centers. In the four measure introduction, the unsupported violin majestically establishes the work in the vibrant key of A Major; however, the first movement quickly shifts modally to the minor, and though A remains the tonal center throughout the rest of the movement, it is in the minor - not the major - that the movement is destined to end. As if adding to the con- fusion, Beethoven then chose to keep the second theme group in E Major, a peculiarity if we are in minor mode as the second theme group is traditionally in the relative major key. Beethoven favored third relationships in his music and let these harmonic relationships dictate his musical structures. Such is the case of his choice of F Major for the theme and variations of the second movement. This kind of tampering with the tonal structure was common in Beethoven’s musical output during this period, and he slowly but consistently pushed the audience - and other composers - toward the acceptance of such practices. In later works he would progress even farther, using third relationships within individual movements, such as in the Waldstein Piano Sonata, Op. 53 where one can find more than a few similarities with the Kreutzer. The Waldstein Sonata was composed only a year later. The first movement of the work, in C – 4 – Major, has a second theme group in E Major. The bare triadic texture of this theme is very similar to that of the Kreutzer’s second theme, also in E. Beethoven also originally intended to compose a Rondo for the slow movement of the Waldstein that was very similar in style to the Variations of the Kreutzer, but would eventually discard the idea in favor of the more appropriate half slow-movement, half introduction-to-the-finale that was composed for the piano sonata’s premiere. One may even say that Beethoven was moving toward a sense of the progressive tonality that we see in the works of later composers, starting with Schubert who would compose some of the first works to begin in a major key only to end in the minor mode, through Mahler’s progressive tonality over the course of an entire symphonic work. The Kreutzer Sonata, in its daring virtuosity and formal experimentation, points the way toward many of Beethoven’s own subsequent masterpieces, as well as those of later Austro-German composers. i SAMUEL BARBER (1910-1981) j Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 6 On October 1, 1924 the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania opened its doors to students for the first time. The first to enter was Max Aronoff, a violin student who would later play viola in the famous Curtis String Quartet and eventually join the faculty as a professor. The second student through the doors was a lanky, fourteen-year-old high school student named Samuel Barber. The educational philosophy of the institute was stated in the school’s catalogue written my Mary Curtis Bok, daughter of a prominent publisher and founder of the school of music. She stated: It is my aim that earnest students shall acquire a thorough musical education, not learning only to sing or play, but also the history of music, the laws of its making, languages, ear-training and music appreciation. They shall learn to think and to express their thoughts against a background of quiet culture, with the stimulus of contact with artist- teachers who represent the highest and finest in their art. The aim is for quality of the work rather than quick, showy results. – 5 – This was the standard which would govern the nine years Barber spent in his studies at Curtis both during and after high school. He would immediately engross himself in three areas of study, excelling in both piano (studying with Isabelle Vengerova from 1926-31) and voice (with Emilio de Gogorza from 1926-30), but perhaps most importantly in his study of composition with Rosario Scalero (from 1925-34). Among many other things, Barber would learn to take advantage of the aid offered by his fellow students to familiar- ize himself with the idioms and possible uses of the various instruments, a practice he would not aban- don throughout his career. It was in this manner that he became friends with Orlando Cole, a young cello student at Curtis. When asked of his initial Samuel Barber impressions of Barber, Cole recalls: He was born in West Chester, PA., a town near Philadelphia, and he came to Curtis when the school first opened in 1924; he was fourteen and I was sixteen.

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