Sunday, May 10, 2015, 3pm Zellerbach Hall

Christian Tetzlaff, violin , piano

PROGRAM

Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in G major, Op. 78 (1879) Vivace ma non troppo Adagio Allegro molto moderato

Anton Webern (1883–1945) Four Pieces for Violin and Piano, Op. 7 (1910) I. Sehr langsam II. Rasch III. Sehr langsam IV. Bewegt

Brahms Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano in A major, Op. 100 (1886) Allegro amabile Andante tranquillo — Vivace Allegretto grazioso (quasi Andante)

INTERMSSION

PLAYBILL PROGRAM

Webern Four Pieces for Violin and Piano, Op. 7 (1910) I. Sehr langsam II. Rasch III. Sehr langsam IV. Bewegt

Brahms Sonata No. 3 for Violin and Piano in D minor, Op. 108 (1886–1888) Allegro Adagio Un poco presto e con sentimento Presto agitato

Christian Tetzlaff and Lars Vogt appear by arrangement with CM Artists.

This performance is made possible, in part, by Patron Sponsors Margot and John Clements. Funded, in part, by the Koret Foundation, this performance is part of Cal Performances’ KIJL–KIJM Koret Recital Series, which brings world-class artists to our community. Steinway piano provided by Steinway & Sons, San Francisco. Cal Performances’ – season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

CAL PERFORMANCES PROGRAM NOTES

Johannes Brahms (AHCC–AHIG) He returned to Goethe’s “land where the lemon The Three Sonatas for Violin and Piano trees grow” six times thereafter for creative in - spiration and refreshment from the chilling Brahms’s three violin sonatas are works of his Viennese winters. On his way back to Austria fullest maturity. In 1853, he had written a from Italy in May 1879, he stopped in the lovely scherzo for a collaborative sonata (Schumann village of Pörtschach, on Lake Wörth in and Albert Dietrich chipped in with the other Carinthia, which he had haunted on his annual movements) for , but during summer retreat the preceding year. “I only the following 27 years, he began and destroyed wanted to stay there for a day,” he wrote to his at least four further attempts in the genre. friend, the surgeon Theodor Billroth, “and (Brahms was almost pathologically secretive then, as this one day was so beautiful, for yet about his sketches and unfinished works, and another. But each day was as fine as the last, and he refused to release any music that was not of so I stayed on. If on your journeys you have in - the highest quality. He simply burned anything terrupted your reading to gaze out of the win - he did not want others to see. Little, therefore, dow, you must have seen how all the mountains is known about his methods of composition.) round the lake are white with snow, while the Brahms had long been wary of the difficulty in trees are covered with delicate green.” Brahms combining the lyrical nature of the violin with succumbed to the charms of the Carinthian the powerful chordal writing that he favored countryside and abandoned all thought of re - for piano, and it was only with the turning immediately to —he remained Klavierstücke , Op. 76, completed in 1878, that in Pörtschach for the entire summer. It was in he developed a keyboard style lean enough to that halcyon setting that he composed his accommodate the violin as a partner. His Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano. Violin Sonata No. 1 dates from 1879; the other The First Sonata is a voluptuously songful two sonatas followed within eight years. His and tenderly expressive musical counterpart of reasons for concentrating on the violin and his sylvan holiday at Pörtschach. His faithful piano genre at that time in his life may have friend and correspondent Elisabeth von had a personal as well as a musical aspect—as Herzogenberg told him that the work “appeals each of these works was finished, it was sent as to the affection as do few other things in the a sort of peace offering to Joachim, from realm of music.” In his biography of the com - whom he had been estranged for some time. poser, Peter Latham noted, “Brahms has writ - Brahms, it seems, had sided with Joachim’s ten nothing more gracious than these three wife, the mezzo-soprano Amalie Weiss, in the sonatas, in which he never seeks grandeur, and couple’s divorce proceedings, and bitter feel - woos rather than compels.” Brahms himself al - ings were incited between the old friends, lowed that the First Sonata was almost too in - though Joachim never wavered in his support timate for the concert hall. The work is one of and performance of Brahms’s music. The rift his most endearing creations, and it did much was not fully healed until Brahms offered to dispel the then widely held notion that his Joachim the Double Concerto in 1887. music was academic and emotionally austere. “[The First Sonata] must have won Brahms al - Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. GH most more friends than any of his previous Composed in JPOQ. Premièred on November P, compositions,” judged J. A. Fuller-Maitland. JPOQ, in Bonn, by violinist Robert Heckmann The Sonata No. 1 is, throughout, warm and and his wife, pianist Marie Heckman-Hertig. ingratiating, a touching lyrical poem for violin and piano. The main theme of the sonata-form Brahms was inspired by his first trip to Italy, in first movement, sung immediately by the violin the early months of 1878, to write his glowing above the piano’s placid chords, is a gentle and autumnal Piano Concerto in B-flat major. melody lightly kissed by the Muse of the

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Viennese waltz. Its opening dotted rhythm Brahms to join him in the ancient Swiss town (long–short–long) is used as a motto that re - of Thun , 25 kilometers south of Bern in the curs not just in the first movement but later as foothills of the Bernese Alps. Brahms rented a well, a subtle but powerful means of unifying flower-laden villa on the shore of Lake Thun in the entire work. The subsidiary theme, flowing the nearby hamlet of Hofstetten, and settled in and hymnal, is structured as a grand, rainbow- for a long, comfortable summer. The periods shaped phrase. The Adagio has a certain rhap - away from Vienna were not merely times of re - sodic quality that belies its tightly controlled laxation for Brahms, however, but were really three-part form. The piano initiates the princi - working holidays. Some of his greatest scores pal theme of the movement, which is soon (the Violin Concerto; Second, Third and adorned with little sighing phrases by the vio - Fourth symphonies; Piano Concerto No. 2; lin. The central section is more animated, and Variations on a Theme by Haydn ; Tragic recalls the dotted rhythm of the previous move - Overture , and many others) had been largely ment’s main theme; the principal theme returns realized at his various summer retreats in ear - in the violin’s double stops to round out the lier years. The three summers he spent at Thun movement. Brahms wove two songs from his (1886–1888) were equally productive: the Op. 59 collection for voice and piano (1873) Violin Sonatas Nos. 2 and 3, C minor Piano into the finale: Regenlied (“Rain Song”—this Trio, Second Cello Sonata, Gypsy Songs, work is sometimes referred to as the “Rain” Choral Songs (Op. 104), Lieder of Op. 105– 07, Sonata) and Nachklang (“Reminiscence”). The and Double Concerto were all written there. movement is in rondo form, and, in its Brahms composed the Second Violin Sonata, scherzando quality, recalls the finale of the Op. 100, in Hofstetten during the summer of B-flat Piano Concerto, written just a year be - 1886; he gave the work an informal reading at fore. Most of the movement (whose main Widmann’s house (along with the new Cello theme begins with the familiar dotted rhythm) Sonata and the C minor Trio) before he re - is couched in a romantic minor key (it turns turned to Vienna in the fall. The Sonata’s for - brighter during one episode for a return of the mal première was given on December 2, 1886, theme from the second movement, played in in Vienna by violinist Joseph Hellmesberger double stops by the violin), but moves into a lu - and the composer. Brahms began the Third minous major tonality for the coda. Violin Sonata, Op. 108, at Hofstetten during the summer of 1886, but composed most of Sonata No. B in A major, Op. A@@ the score during his sojourn two years later. Composed in JPPN. Premièred on December K, The Sonata’s première was given on JPPN, in Vienna, with Joseph Hellmesberger as December 22, 1888, in Cologne, by the com - violinist and the composer as pianist. poser and the celebrated Hungarian violinist, composer, and pedagogue Jenö Hubay. Sonata No. C in D minor, Op. A@H The A major Violin Sonata is one of Composed in JPPN–JPPP. Premièred on Brahms’s most limpidly beautiful creations. It December KK, JPPP, in Cologne, with Jenö has been nicknamed “Thun,” for the place of its Hubay as violinist and the composer as pianist. composition, and “Meistersinger,” because of the resemblance of its opening motive to For many years, Brahms followed the sensible Walther’s “Prize Song” in Wagner’s opera, but practice of the Viennese gentry by abandoning the most appropriate appellation was suggested the city when the weather got hot. He spent by Robert Schauffler: “Song.” Schauffler’s so - many happy summers in the hills and lakes of briquet not only notes the score’s richly lyrical the Salzkammergut, east of Salzburg, but in nature but also recognizes Brahms’s use of sev - 1886 his friend Joseph Widmann, a poet and eral of his own songs as thematic material for librettist of considerable distinction, convinced the work: the first movement quotes Komm

CAL PERFORMANCES PROGRAM NOTES bald! (“Come Soon,” Op. 97, No. 5 ) and Wie and made them a mainstay in the repertory of Melodien zieht es (“It Goes Like Melodies,” the superb court orchestra at Meiningen dur - Op. 105, No. 1), while the finale recalls bits of ing his tenure there as music director from Auf dem Kirchhofe (“In the Churchyard,” 1880 to 1885. Violin and piano share equally Op. 105, No. 4), Meine Lieder (“My Songs,” the thematic material of the opening move - Op. 106, No. 4), and Meine Liebe ist grün (“My ment: the violin presents the principal subject, Love Is Green,” O p. 63, No. 5), a ll of which a lyrical inspiration marked by long notes that were composed by the time of the Sonata and give way to quick neighboring tones; the later gathered (except for Meine Liebe ) into col - piano’s arching second theme is superbly con - lections. So taken was Brahms’s friend structed from a two-measure motive of step - Widmann with the sunlit tenderness of this wise motion followed by a hesitant work that he was inspired by it to write a ballad dotted-rhythm gesture. The development sec - which begins, “There, where the Aar [the river tion is largely occupied with a discussion of running past Thun] glides softly from the lake the main theme. A full recapitulation and an down to the little town which it washes, where ethereal coda grown from the main theme many a noble tree spreads its shadow, I rolled close the movement. deep in the long grass and slept, and dreamed The Adagio is one of Brahms’s most endear - through the bright summer day, dreams so de - ing creations, an instrumental hymn of deli - licious that I could hardly describe them....” cately dappled emotions, touching melody, and The opening movement of the A major suave harmonies. The third movement (which Sonata is a full sonata structure (the piano ini - the score instructs should be played “ con sen - tiates both the principal and subsidiary timento ”) replaces the traditional scherzo with themes), though it contains little of the dra - an intermezzo of precisely controlled intensity matic catharsis often found in that form. This and masterful motivic development. The is rather music of comforting tranquility and sonata-form finale resumes the darkly expres - warm sentiment that is as immediately acces - sive eloquence of the opening movement with sible as any from Brahms’s later years. The its impetuous main theme. A chordal subject Andante , with its episodes in alternating tem - initiated by the piano provides contrast, but pos, combines the functions of slow move - the unsettled mood of the first theme remains ment and scherzo, a structural modification dominant through the remainder of the move - Brahms had also tried in the F major String ment. “Perfect as each movement of the three Quintet, Op. 88. (Brahms was not alone in this Violin Sonatas is,” wrote Karl Geiringer, “they sort of formal experimentation. César Franck seem, in this last movement, to have reached did a similar thing in the second movement of their culminating point.” his D minor Symphony, written just two years after this Sonata.) The finale confirms the per - vasive lyricism of the entire work to such a de - Anton Webern (AHHC–AIDE) gree that the composer’s correspondent Four Pieces for Violin and Piano, Op. G Elisabeth von Herzogenberg was moved to say, “The whole Sonata is one caress.” Composed in JQJI; revised in JQJL. Premièred on April KL, JQJJ, in Vienna, by violinist Fritz * * * Brunner and pianist Etta Jonas-Werndorff.

The D minor Violin Sonata was dedicated After serving his apprenticeship with to Hans von Bülow, a musician of gargantuan Schoenberg, Webern developed a style that is talent celebrated as both pianist and conduc - unique in the history of music: Nowhere else tor, who played Brahms’s compositions widely is the essence of the art concentrated to such

PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES a high degree. The whole of his mature cre - The aphoristic Four Pieces for Violin and ative work—31 numbered compositions pro - Piano, Op. 7, were composed during summer duced over almost four decades—takes less 1910 at Preglhof, the Webern family country than three hours to perform and fits comfort - estate in Lower Carinthia, where the com - ably onto three compact discs (as does poser had retreated after quitting an irksome Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier ). The longest is the job conducting operetta at the civic theater in Cantata No. 2, Op. 31, which runs to 14 min - Teplitz, Czechoslovakia. Violinist Fritz utes. Only three others take more than ten Brunner and pianist Etta Jonas-Werndorff minutes; the shortest is just two minutes. Since gave the première in Vienna on April 24, almost all of Webern’s works contain more than 1911; the work, with its brief duration and its a single movement, the individual spans of small ensemble, was among Webern’s most music are very short: the extreme example, No. frequently heard during his lifetime. The full 4 of the Orchestral Pieces, Op. 10, is just six score was published by Universal Edition in measures long and can be played in 20 seconds. 1922, but the first movement had been in - As with all performing arts, however, it is not cluded in the March 1912 issue of Der Ruf , the simply the time that a piece takes but what hap - short-lived journal of the Academic Society pens during that time that is paramount, and for Literature and Music in Vienna; it was the Webern packed more musicality, meaning, and first music of Webern to appear in print. The peerless technical mastery into these tiny mas - Four Pieces are among Webern’s most suc - terpieces than their durations would seem to cinct movements—the longest is 24 measures, allow. The English composer and critic the shortest is just nine—but follow the tradi - Humphrey Searle wrote, “Webern can say more tional grouping, slow–fast–slow–fast. in two minutes than most other composers in ten.” Schoenberg allowed that Webern could © KIJM Dr. Richard E. Rodda express “a whole novel in a sigh.”

CAL PERFORMANCES ABOUT THE ARTISTS

the 1985 –1986 academic year to work with Walter Levine at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and also spent two summers at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. Mr. Tetzlaff has been in demand as a soloist with most of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, establishing close artistic partnerships that are renewed season after season. Mr. Tetzlaff has performed with the i z z

a orchestras of Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, t r e B

Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, Los a i g r Angeles, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Washington, o i G D.C., and Toronto, among many others in An artist known for his musical integrity, North America, as well as with the major technical assurance and intelligent, com - European ensembles, including the pelling interpretations, Christian Tetzlaff is Philharmonic, London Symphony, London internationally recognized as one of the most Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony important violinists performing today. Orchestra, , Rotterdam From the outset of his career, Mr. Tetzlaff Philharmonic, and the Royal Concertgebouw has performed and recorded a broad spec - Orchestra of Amsterdam. trum of the repertoire, ranging from Bach’s Highlights of Mr. Tetzlaff’s 2014–2015 sea - unaccompanied sonatas and partitas to 19th- son in North America include appearances century masterworks by Mendelssohn, with the Boston Symphony, both in Boston and Beethoven, and Brahms; and from 20th- at Carnegie Hall, as well as return engagements century concertos by Bartók, Berg, and with the , Montreal, Shostakovich to world premières of contempo - Seattle, and Pittsburgh symphonies; appear - rary works. Also a dedicated chamber musician, ances at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart he frequently collaborates with distinguished Festival and Chicago’s Grant Park Music artists including , Lars Vogt, Festival; opening New York’s 92nd Street Y’s and and is the founder of 2014–2015 season with a performance of the the Tetzlaff Quartet, which he formed in 1994 complete Bach unaccompanied Sonatas and with violinist Elisabeth Kufferath, violist Hanna Partitas; and duo-recitals with Lars Vogt in Weinmeister, and his sister, cellist . Santa Fe, Berkeley, La Jolla, and Santa Barbara. Music occupied a central place in the Internationally, Mr. Tetzlaff serves as the Tetzlaff family’s life, and his three siblings are Artist-in-Residence with the Berlin all professional musicians. Born in 1966, Philharmonic, appears with the Munich Mr. Tetzlaff began playing violin and piano at Philharmonic, London Symphony, and age six, but pursued a regular academic edu - Vienna Symphony, and is the featured soloist cation while continuing his musical studies. on tours with the Swedish Radio Orchestra He did not begin intensive study of the violin in Europe and with the Deutsche until making his concert début playing the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen in Asia. Beethoven Violin Concerto at age 14 and at - Mr. Tetzlaff was a 2010–2011 Carnegie Hall tributes the establishment of his musical out - “Perspectives” artist, an initiative in which look to his teacher at the conservatory in musicians are invited to curate a personal Lübeck, Uwe-Martin Haiberg, who placed co ncert series in Carnegie and Zankel halls equal stress on interpretation and technique. through collaborations with other musicians Mr. Tetzlaff came to the during and ensembles. Mr. Tetzlaff’s “Perspectives”

PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS series included an appearance with the Boston Symphony during which he played concertos by Mozart and Bartók as well as the New York première of a new concerto by Harrison Birtwistle; a playing-conducting performance with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s; a performance with the Ensemble ACJW, led by Sir Simon Rattle; a concert with the Tetzlaff Quartet; and a duo recital with violinist . He also led a professional training workshop for young violinists and pianists, culminating in e d

a young artist’s concert. e o r B Mr. Tetzlaff’s highly regarded recordings re - x i l e flect the breadth of his musical interests and F include solo works, , and con - Lars Vogt has established himself as one of the certos ranging from Haydn to Bartók. His re - leading musicians of his generation. Born in cent recordings include the complete Bach the German town of Düren in 1970, he first Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin for the came to public attention when he won second Musical Heritage and Haenssler labels; prize at the 1990 Leeds International Piano Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Competition, and he has enjoyed a varied ca - Vienna Philharmonic and for reer for nearly 25 years. His versatility as an Deutsche Grammophon; the Schumann and artist ranges from the core classical repertoire Mendelssohn violin concertos with Frankfurt of Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, and Radio Orchestra and Paavo Järvi for Edel Brahms to the romantics Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Classics; Jörg Widmann’s Violin Concerto, and Rachmaninoff, through to the dazzling written for Mr. Tetzlaff, with the Swedish Lutosławski concerto. Mr. Vogt is now in - Radio Symphony Orchestra and Daniel creasingly working with orchestras both as Harding for Ondine; the two Shostakovich conductor and directing from the keyboard. Violin Concertos with the Helsinki His recent appointment as Music Director of Philharmonic and John Storgaards for the Royal Northern Sinfonia at the Sage, Ondine; and Berg’s Lyric Suite and Gateshead, from the 2015–2016 season re - Mendelssohn’s Quartet, Op. 13 with the flects this new development in his career. Tetzlaff Quartet for the CAvi-music label. The During his prestigious career, Mr. Vogt has three Brahms piano trios, with cellist Tanja performed with many of the world’s great or - Tetzlaff and pianist Lars Vogt, will be released chestra s, including the Royal Concertgebouw in 2015, also on the Ondine label. Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Mr. Tetzlaff currently performs on a violin Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, London modeled after a Guarneri del Gesù made by Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Boston German violin maker Peter Greiner. In honor Symphony, Dresden Staatskapelle , NHK of his artistic achievements, Musical America Symphony, and Orchestre de Paris. He has named Mr. Tetzlaff “Instrumentalist of the collaborated with some of the world’s most Year” in 2005. prestigious conductors, including Sir Simon Mr. Tetzlaff’s recordings are available on the Rattle, Mariss Jansons, Claudio Abbado, and Virgin Classics/EMI, Hännsler, Ondine, Andris Nelsons. His special relationship with Decca, and CAvi-music labels. the Berlin Philharmonic has continued with

CAL PERFORMANCES ABOUT THE ARTISTS regular collaborations following his appoint - near Cologne. Known as “Spannungen,” the ment as their first ever “Pianist in Residence” concerts take place in an art nouveau hydro - in 2003–2004. electric power station, and its huge success has Recent performance highlights in North been marked by the release of ten live record - America include appearances with the ings on EMI. Other chamber projects include Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras; the New recitals with Ian Bostridge at the Edinburgh York and Los Angeles philharmonics; the Festival and with Klaus Maria Brandauer in Chicago, Toronto, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Vienna, and trio recitals with Christian and National, Houston, and Atlanta symphonies; Tanja Tetzlaff in Paris, Berlin, Salzburg, the Minnesota Orchestra and the National Arts and Zurich. Centre Orchestra in Ottawa; a recital at New Mr. Vogt is a passionate advocate of making York’s 92nd Street Y; and duo recitals with vio - music an essential life force in the community. linist Christian Tetzlaff in New York, Chicago, In 2005, he established a major educational Boston, Philadelphia, Montreal, Atlanta, program named “Rhapsody in School,” which St. Paul, and Quebec City. Highlights of his brings his colleagues to schools across 2014–2015 season include appearances at the and Austria, thereby connecting Tanglewood and New York’s Mostly Mozart fes - children with inspiring world-class musicians. tivals; performances with the Boston and Mr. Vogt is also an accomplished and enthu - Pittsburgh symphonies; a recital in siastic teacher and in 2013 was appointed Philadelphia; and duo recitals with Mr. Tetzlaff Professor of Piano at the Hannover in Santa Fe, La Jolla, Berkley, and Santa Barbara. Conservatory of Music, succeeding Karl- Internationally, highlights of Mr. Vogt’s Heinz Kämmerling, his former teacher and 2014–2015 season include the opening of the close friend. Royal Northern Sinfonia’s season in April As an EMI recording artist, Mr. Vogt made 2015, conducting Beethoven and Brahms fol - 15 discs for the label, including Hindemith’s lowed by a program of Janáček, Schumann, Kammermusik No. 2 with the Berlin and Dvořák; concerto performances with the Philharmonic and Mr. Abbado, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de France, Vienna Schumann, Grieg, and the first two Beethoven Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, and Salzburg concertos with the City of Birmingham Mozarteum Orchestra, as well as the London Symphony Orchestra and Mr. Rattle. Recent Philharmonic under Yannick Nezet-Seguin, recordings include solo works of Schubert for both in London and on tour in Germany; CAvi-music; Mozart concertos with the South American appearances in São Paolo, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra for Oehms; a Brasília, Mexico City, and Bogota; and a return solo Liszt and Schumann disc on Berlin visit to for concerts with the New Japan Classics; and Mozart sonatas with Mr. Tetzlaff Philharmonic under Daniel Harding. for Ondine. Mr. Vogt enjoys a high profile as a chamber Mr. Vogt’s recordings are available on the musician and in June 1998, founded his own Berlin Classics, EMI Classics, Ondine, Oehms chamber festival in the village of Heimbach Classics, and CAvi-music labels.

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