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Home , Afanasy Fet, Bavarian State Orchestra, Efrem Zimbalist, Elektra (opera), Feuersnot, Freundliche Vision

th SEASON PROGRAM NOTES 47 Week 2 July 21–27, 2019 Sunday, July 21, 6 p.m. The marking for the first movement is of study at the University of California, San Monday, July 22, 6 p.m. unusual: Allegramente is an indication Diego, in the mid-1980s that brought a new more of character than of speed. (It means and important addition to his compositional ZOLTÁN KODÁLY (1882–1967) “brightly, gaily.”) The movement opens palette: computers. for Two & , Op. 12 immediately with the first theme—a sizzling While studying with Roger Reynolds, Vinko (1919–20) duet for the violins—followed by a second Globokar, and Joji Yuasa, Wallin became subject in the viola that appears to be the interested in mathematical and scientific This Serenade is for the extremely unusual song of the suitor. These two ideas are perspectives. He also gained further exposure combination of two violins and a viola, and then treated in fairly strict . to the works of Xenakis, Stockhausen, and Kodály may well have had in mind Dvorˇ ák’s The second movement offers a series of Berio. The first product of this new creative Terzetto, Op. 74—the one established work dialogues between the lovers. The viola mix was his , composed for these forces. Kodály appears to have been opens with the plaintive song of the man, between 1986 and 1988. attracted to this combination: in addition and this theme is reminiscent of Bartók’s Wallin wrote Stonewave in 1990, on to the Serenade, he wrote a trio in E-flat parlando style, which mimics the patterns commission from the Flanders Festival, major for two violins and viola when he was of spoken language. The first , taking during a time when, he once explained, a teenager, although he didn’t include that the part of the woman, laughs at the man’s he was “deeply involved in some peculiar work in his official catalog. appeal: the violin replies to his heartfelt mathematical formulas called fractals,” The period when he wrote this Serenade song with a rising series of chirping grace which are used “in the fast-growing field was an extremely difficult one for Kodály. notes in a passage Kodály marks Ridendo of chaos theory.” The sound world of The post– political turmoil in (“Laughing”). The main theme of the first Stonewave, he added, “is not one you would Hungary seemingly subsided when a popular movement makes a reappearance in the associate with math books. The steady, revolt established a democratic government, course of this movement, which leaves the insistent pulse, and the use of sequences put and Kodály took a position as deputy director poor second violin in an accompanying squarely up against each other or divided by of the Academy of Music in Budapest. The role throughout. (It has virtually nonstop long rests, suggest an invisible ritual.” liberal government was short-lived, however: tremolos.) The brilliant final movement Originally for solo percussion, Stonewave a repressive right-wing regime overthrew it rounds things off by invoking the old also exists in versions for three percussionists after only four months and cracked down on Hungarian recruiting , the verbunkos, (as heard on tonight’s performance) and six anyone who’d held a position of authority at several points. Eo˝ sze believes this percussionists. under it. The new government wanted to movement “confirms the understanding —Greg Hettmansberger fire Kodály altogether, but a stout defense by between lover and mistress, the light- Bartók and Dohnányi prevented this. Instead, hearted banter between viola and violin (1770–1827) the new regime could only put him on leave developing into a song of satisfied love; Piano Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 97, “Archduke” for a year, and it was during that year that and the tale is brought to an end with an (1810–11) he composed the Serenade. invigorating dance.” One might expect music written under —Eric Bromberger The archduke of this trio’s nickname was such circumstances to be anguished or Archduke Rudolph von Habsburg (1788– bitter, but quite the opposite is true. Kodály’s ROLF WALLIN (b. 1957) 1831), youngest brother of Emperor Franz II. Serenade is vibrant music—a clear symbol Stonewave for Three Percussionists (1990) Rudolph studied piano and composition with of his ability to separate external events Beethoven beginning around 1804, when from his art. Like so much of the best music Rolf Wallin was born in Oslo, and his he was 16, and Beethoven remained fond of of Kodály and Bartók, the Serenade fuses studies at the Norwegian Academy of Rudolph throughout his life. classical forms with Hungarian musical Music melded with his experience as a Rudolph was ultimately destined for idioms. Beyond this, the music appears to performer in experimental jazz and rock the church, and it was for his elevation to tell a story, and Kodály scholar László Eo˝ sze groups. Eventually these forays outside archbishop that Beethoven composed the believes this Serenade is literally just that: a the traditional classical realm influenced Missa solemnis. Beethoven dedicated several love song—a serenade sung by a suitor to a Wallin’s compositions for performance-art of his greatest works to Rudolph, including woman—and Eo˝ sze has made out what he and dance-theater groups, such as Passage the Fourth and Fifth Piano , the feels is the program behind the music. Nord and Scirocco. He completed his first “Hammerklavier” Sonata, and the Grosse major work, Id, in 1982, but it was his year Fuge, as well as this trio. For his part,

Program notes for Music at Noon concerts are sponsored by Barbara & Ronald Balser with thanks to the gifted Festival musicians who inspire us all. Rudolph became one of Beethoven’s most and imaginative rhythms. The music flies to Tuesday, July 23, Noon generous and reliable patrons, furnishing its close on a coda marked Presto. him with a substantial annuity for many —Eric Bromberger (1797–1828) years and maintaining a collection of his Quartettsatz in C Minor, D. 703 (1820) manuscripts. Rudolph, however, did not long survive his teacher; he died four years after One need only be exposed to a single Beethoven, in 1831, at age 43. masterpiece of Schubert—the String Quintet Beethoven sketched this trio in 1810 and in C Major, either of the song cycles, the composed it during March 1811, shortly No. 9, or the impromptus for before beginning work on his Seventh and piano—to wonder what else he might have Eighth . He was 40 years old blessed us with if he’d lived longer than a and nearing the end of the great burst of scant 31 years. Still, it’s hard not to adopt a creativity that has come to be known as glass-half-full (or more!) perspective when his “heroic” era, the period that began with you contemplate what he did produce. the “Eroica” Symphony in 1803 and ended It’s a little puzzling, though, that Schubert in about 1812 with the Eighth Symphony. left more than one great work unfinished Beethoven was growing increasingly deaf for reasons that can’t be attributed to his at this time—an unsuccessful performance early death in 1828. His two-movement of the “Archduke” Trio in 1814 was his Symphony No. 8, the rightly called final public appearance as a pianist—and “Unfinished,” dates from 1822, and he went he would soon enter the six-year period on to write the hour-long Ninth Symphony. of relative inactivity as a composer that Similarly, we have the Quartettsatz, D. 703. preceded his late style. Clearly this work was intended to be a full The “Archduke” Trio seems well-named, quartet, since some 40 bars of an Andante for there is something noble about this also exist in manuscript. (It was listed as music, something grand about its spacious his Quartet No. 12 when it was eventually proportions and breadth of spirit. At a length published in 1870; this was thanks to none of nearly 45 minutes, it’s longer than most other than Brahms, who had acquired of Beethoven’s symphonies, but, unlike the the manuscript and saw to the work’s symphonies, it’s quite relaxed: it makes its posthumous premiere in 1867.) way not by unleashing furious energy to Much like the “Unfinished” Symphony’s fight musical battles but by spinning long, two movements, the Quartettsatz (“Quartet lyric, melodic lines. It’s as if Beethoven is Movement”) leaves us fully satisfied showing that there’s more than one way to emotionally. While the agitated opening write heroic music. is firmly rooted in the key of C minor, the The nobility of this music is evident from principal materials are quite sunny, mostly in the opening instant of the Allegro moderato, A-flat major. But the not-quite-10-minute where the piano quickly establishes the journey never resolves a sense of unease or music’s easy stride. (It’s characteristic of this hint of tragedy. It had been four years since music that both outer movements should Schubert wrote his last quartet in 1816, be marked Allegro moderato rather than the and it’s almost as if the Quartettsatz was expected Allegro.) The piano also introduces Schubert’s breakthrough into expressive the slightly square second theme, and this depths that would move him out of the sonata-form movement develops easily considerable shadow of Beethoven’s middle over its lengthy span. Strings open the huge quartets. Scherzo, with the piano quickly picking up Apparently, Schubert didn’t see things their theme. Particularly striking here is the this way, however. The quartet remained trio section. Its deep chromatic wanderings incomplete, and it would be another four alternate with an exuberant waltz and years until he composed his final three furnish the material for the coda. masterful string quartets, including the The gorgeous Andante cantabile is a set of celebrated “Death and the Maiden” Quartet variations on the piano’s expressive opening (which the Festival presents on August 7). Of subject. These variations proceed by making course, there’s been speculation as to why this simple melody more and more complex: Schubert never completed this work, with the music appears blacker and blacker on perhaps the most outrageous suggestion the pages of the score before it falls back to being that he felt the rest of the quartet end quietly, proceeding without pause to the couldn’t match the greatness of this single concluding Allegro moderato. Full of energy, movement. this rondo-finale is also full of good humor

2 2019 Program Notes Week Two Biographer Maurice Brown writes that “Utmost delicacy,” “Transitory,” and “Dying briefly, but he returned to America for good the Quartettsatz is “the only movement in away.” in 1938. His increasing success writing music Schubert’s instrumental work prior to the 1. Heftig bewegt (“Moving vehemently”): This for the silver screen assured a good living for ‘Unfinished’ Symphony which prepares us first movement begins fiercely with snapping him and his wife, Luzi, and their children, but for the greatness which bursts forth in that pizzicatos and dry col legno cracks. Soon the Korngold’s father, Julius (who was a noted symphony.” Not to mention all the other plays the brief thematic cell that will music critic), hated the fact that his son had masterpieces that burst into creation in the recur throughout the entire work in various all but abandoned “serious” composition. By final four years of this genius’s life. Thank forms. The movement goes through great the mid-1940s, the composer’s father was heavens he wrote so quickly. dynamic extremes, ending with a barely increasingly ill, and Luzi took the lead in —Greg Hettmansberger audible pizzicato stroke. nudging Korngold to write for the concert 2. Sehr langsam (“Very slow”): Here the hall. What neither of them knew was that, (1883–1945) viola immediately sounds the theme, which after a decade of working for Warner Five Movements for String Quartet, Op. 5 undergoes very slow transformations Brothers, Korngold—even though he had (1909) before the music dies away on a second won two Oscars—was himself becoming violin phrase marked “Hardly audible.” This increasingly disenchanted. Webern wrote these five brief movements movement is only 14 measures long and is In his definitive biographyThe Last in 1909, when he was 25 and working as muted throughout. Prodigy, Brendan G. Carroll writes that an operetta conductor in Austria. He’d 3. Sehr bewegt (“Moving rapidly”): Over a Korngold’s reentry into the world of non- just completed four years of study with rapid cello pizzicato, the upper strings flit film composition was unexpected: Schoenberg, and his music was moving and sing, with the first violin breaking into toward a free . waltz-like fragments before the sudden rush For Christmas 1944 . . . [Luzi] got a The Five Movements are instrumental to the close. This movement, which might be surprise: the final sketch of a new string miniatures. In the score, Webern suggests considered the scherzo of the piece, lasts 40 quartet. ‘Erich was his old self again. they should last about eight minutes in total, seconds. The desire to write had returned. I had but most performances run closer to 10 or 4. Sehr langsam (“Very slow”): Violin tremolos known nothing of the quartet; he had 12 minutes. In the same year that Webern open this 13-measure slow movement, which carefully avoided playing even a note of wrote these tiny pieces, Mahler was writing very softly extends the theme and ends with it on the piano.’ his 80-minute Ninth Symphony, Ravel his a tiny brush of violin sound. opulent Daphnis and Chloé, and Stravinsky 5. In zarter Bewegung (“With delicate When he embarked upon his film-score his Firebird, employing what that composer movement”): This is the longest of the work’s career, Korngold made a very prescient himself called a “wastefully large” . five movements. It opens quietly with the move: he stipulated in his contract that he Webern’s Five Movements can be understood thematic cell in the cello; moves very quietly could reuse any material he composed for as a movement away from those extremes of to a sudden, modest climax; and then dies Warner Brothers. His Opus 34 quartet was length and and toward a fierce away on a sustained chord. The variety of the first of many works that would draw concentration of materials. sound in this final movement is particularly upon some of that glorious material—after This isn’t to say that Webern is unconcerned impressive. all, with his nearly two dozen film scores, with color. Far from it. These brief pieces —Eric Bromberger he’d composed the rough equivalent of 20 use almost every known string technique: symphonies! pizzicato, harmonics, col legno (bowing with (1897–1957) The first movement of this quartet is the wood of the bow), and ponticello (bowing String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 34 surprisingly understated—for a time. The on top of the bridge). (1945) first theme winds its way through the Listeners usually dismayed at the prospect movement compellingly and is contrasted of hearing Webern will find these pieces The Austrian composer Eric Wolfgang Korngold with a lovely second subject, while the quite approachable. They’re now a century enjoyed almost unbelievable success from development finally brings some of the old, and many of today’s film scores—which a very early age. Artur Schnabel regularly storminess that can be more typical of the give audiences no trouble—are written in performed his Second Piano Sonata all over post-Romantic style. The second movement, a much more difficult idiom. Those new to Europe (Korngold composed the piece when he the Scherzo, is full of the dissonant intervals the Five Movements can approach them by was 13), and both Mahler and of a seventh, which, as Carroll writes, provide listening for the variety of sound Webern were thoroughly impressed with the prodigy. “a grotesque dance-like accompaniment to produces or his treatment of thematic motifs It seemed that, at least among those who the shrill melody that would have delighted (tiny thematic cells that appear in many favored the post-Romantic style over that of Prokofiev.” It’s in the trio section that we get guises). These motifs recur throughout the Stravinsky or Schonberg, Korngold would be our first throwback music, which Korngold Five Movements and are modified slightly the toast of Europe. Unfortunately, the rise of recycled from his recent score to the film as they proceed, though the pieces are Hitler changed all that. Between Two Worlds. so short that they lack real development The invitation, in 1934, from Austrian- The slow movement is completely reworked sections. And anyone who thinks of Webern born director to come to from the love music heard in film The Sea as a detached and emotionless composer Hollywood and work on the score for his film Wolf (originally played on the harmonica!). should see his careful instructions to the A Midsummer Night’s Dream couldn’t have Marked “Sostenuto. Like a Folk Tune,” the performers: “With tenderest expression,” been timelier. Korngold went back to sonority of a string quartet adds a rich depth

3 2019 Program Notes Week Two of expression. The rowdy finale opens with Wednesday, July 24, Noon While quite obvious in context, it’s worth insistent octaves, and once more Korngold mentioning the pronounced difference draws upon what had been a recent (1810–56) between the vocal style in the third song, Hollywood endeavor for the second subject: Frauenliebe und leben (A Woman’s Love “Ich kann’s nicht fassen, nicht glauben” a theme from the filmDevotion , which had and Life), Op. 42 (1840) (“I Cannot Grasp It, Believe It”)—the yet to be released. woman’s almost breathless response to the —Greg Hettmansberger Frauenliebe und leben was the last song man’s having proposed—and the numbed cycle Schumann composed before he monotone of the final song, “Nun hast married 21-year-old Clara Wieck, and the du mir den ersten Schmerz getan” (“Now work was intended as a wedding present You Have Caused Me My First Pain”), as for his bride-to-be. But Schumann surely the widow pours out her bitterness at the didn’t picture Clara as he set the texts of man’s passing. As most music lovers know, Adelbert von Chamisso (1781–1838), as she life imitated art all too closely: Robert was the most famous female piano virtuoso Schumann died in an asylum only 16 years in Europe, and the subject of Chamisso’s after composing this work. poems is a woman whose feelings of pride —Greg Hettmansberger are derived entirely from being a wife and mother. (1840–93) It’s more likely that, from a purely Five Songs: aesthetic point of view, Schumann thought “Sred’shumnogo bala” (“Amidst the Roar of of this cycle as a counterpart to the the Ball”), Op. 38, No. 3 (1878) recently completed Dichterliebe (A Poet’s “Moy geniy, moy angel, moy drug” (“My Love), which is based on poems by Heinrich Spirit, My Angel, My Friend”) (1857) Heine (1797–1856) that stand out for their “Kaby znala ja” (“If Only I Had Known”), bitterness and irony. Chamisso’s texts, on the Op. 47, No. 1 (1880) other hand, have been criticized for being “Uzh gasli v komnatakh ogni” (“The Fires naïve. But Chamisso was a true intellectual in the Room Had Gone Out”), Op. 63, with significant linguistic gifts. His collected No. 5 (1887) verses went through 17 published versions “Zakatilos’ solntse” (“The Sun Has Set”), in as many years, and the poems set by Op. 73, No. 4 (1893) Schumann were acclaimed by the German women of Schumann’s time. Anyone who’s fallen under the spell of The only significant difference between Tchaikovsky’s matchless lyricism in his major the originals and Schumann’s musical works—particularly the symphonies, the versions is that Chamisso ended his series ballets, and the orchestral piece Romeo and with the woman in advanced age, drawing Juliet—will be thrilled that there’s a large consolation from the sense of continuity trove of smaller lyrical delights to be found afforded by children and grandchildren. in his songs. Tchaikovsky composed more Schumann’s final song ends with a long than 100 songs, and they span virtually his postlude, with the woman reminiscing over entire career, often giving us added insight her “lost happiness.” Schumann’s choice is into the major works that immediately key to understanding his overall structure precede or follow their composition. and motivic links. “Amidst the Roar of the Ball”—from It’s not surprising that this cycle begins Tchaikovsky’s Six Romances, Op. 38, which and ends with a ring motif, but there are he dedicated to his younger brother, subtle connections throughout the eight Anatoly—is the composer’s second-most songs, as when the fourth song, “Du Ring an recorded (and probably performed) song, meinem Finger” (“You Ring on My Finger”), surpassed only by “None but the Lonely imparts a fleeting recollection of the second, Heart.” The song’s untitled text is by Aleksey “Er, der Herrlichste von allen” (“He, the Most Tolstoy (1883–1945), and it’s thoroughly Wonderful of All”). Also notable is the fact autobiographical. Tolstoy wrote it in 1851, that the first five songs are all in flat keys; after first seeing the woman he would when the sixth, “Süßer Freund, du blickest marry at a masquerade ball in St. Petersburg. mich verwundert an” (“Sweet Friend, You The poem was published in 1856, and Look at Me in Wonder”), turns to G major Tchaikovsky was drawn to it (along with (a sharp key), the freshness is palpable. This some other Tolstoy verse) in 1878. It’s a bit is also the part of the cycle that marks the odd to reconcile the scene and expression division between youth and courtship and of this song with the knowledge that, just the maturity of matrimony and motherhood. a couple of months earlier, Tchaikovsky attempted suicide following his disastrous 4 2019 Program Notes Week Two attempt at marriage. In this cherished rarely found anything he could use—but one the most popular of all of Strauss’s lieder. chestnut, Tchaikovsky creates a reverie via a of Ratgauz’s poems “especially begs to be set It’s the second of the six songs that make kind of slowed-down waltz, the 3/8 meter to music.” He couldn’t say when he’d get to up his Opus 17, and it’s set to a poem by propelling the B-minor key. the task of setting it, as he was completing Adolf Friedrich von Schack (1815–94). In his “My Spirit, My Angel, My Friend” holds the his “Pathétique” Symphony, but Ratgauz three-volume definitive biography of Strauss, distinction of being Tchaikovsky’s earliest didn’t hesitate to send more poems at once. writes: work that’s still performed today. Composed Tchaikovsky ultimately set six of them, which in 1857, it remained unpublished until 1940. were published as his Opus 73. With ‘Ständchen’ we come face to face The text is from the first poem in a set of “The Sun Has Set” is the fourth of those with the most popular of Strauss’s four titled To Ophelia, written in 1842 by the six poems, and, although we know that songs. So often has it been heard in Russian poet Afanasy Fet. The poem, which Tchaikovsky would be dead within months its orchestral form that it is easy to is untitled, evokes an artist’s personal muse, of writing this work, the title doesn’t reflect forget that the instrumentation is not and Tchaikovsky cast the verses in a 3/4 a gloomy omen. Instead, we have an almost by Strauss at all, but . Other Larghetto tempo in C minor. perky, bolero-like piano part with another arrangements for piano and solo duet, Tchaikovsky’s Seven Romances, published E-major setting in 9/8 time in a leisurely salon orchestra, etc., quickly followed, as his Opus 47, immediately followed his Andantino. and the song could well claim to have Six Duets, and both works were something —Greg Hettmansberger made Strauss’s name into a household of a respite from the rigors of completing word singlehanded. That it is a the The Maid of Orleans. The first RICHARD STRAUSS (1864–1949) masterpiece can be of little doubt. song in that set, “If Only I Had Known,” is Six Songs: based on an 1858 poem by Aleksey Tolstoy “Ständchen” (“Serenade”), Op. 17, No. 2 Certainly, Strauss didn’t shy away from of the same name. The poem is the lament (1885–87) its popularity or from Mottl’s arrangement. of a sadder-but-wiser young woman. The “Traum durch die Dämmerung” (“Dream in He recorded the work twice: in 1941 emotional journey from the innocence of the Twilight”), Op. 29, No. 1 (1895) ( the orchestral version with the first love to the anger of heartbreak and “” (“A Pleasant Vision”), and Julius the final despair is dramatically underlined Op. 48, No. 1 (1900) Patzak) and in 1942 (playing the piano by the song’s piano part, and yet the piano “Schlechtes Wetter” (“Terrible Weather”), part alongside Lea Piltti for a radio bookends the song with a tripping phrase Op. 69, No. 5 (1918) broadcast). that makes us wonder if the young woman “Nachtgang” (“A Walk at Night”), Op. 29, “Traum durch die Dämmerung” (“Dream would chase after her lover all over again. No. 3 (1895) in the Twilight”) is the first of the three Another set of six romances, Tchaikovsky’s “” (“Dedication”), Op. 10, No. 1 songs that make up Strauss’s Opus 29, which Opus 63, features text by a man whose (1885) was published in 1895 and is a setting of poems are signed simply “K. R.” That man, it poems by Otto Julius Bierbaum (1865–1910). turns out, was the Grand Duke Konstantin The establishment of the German lieder Strauss had contacted Bierbaum in 1892 Konstantinovich, a grandson of Emperor tradition began with Schubert, during regarding possible opera projects but Nicholas I. Although Tchaikovsky wrote that fertile time when the Classical style ultimately set several of his poems instead. his Opus 63 in 1887, his relationship with was winding down and was All three of the Opus 29 songs were written the Grand Duke goes back to 1880, when about to explode. Specifically, even though in a single day, and there’s an amusing the younger man insisted on meeting the Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven all wrote anecdote about the first one, which centers already famous composer. Tchaikovsky was lieder, we can say that the major tradition on a man who prepares to meet his lover at reluctant to agree to the meeting, but the began in 1811, when Schubert composed twilight. In the book The Lieder of Richard two hit it off and wound up corresponding “Gretchen am Spinnrade” (“Gretchen at the Strauss, author Alan Jefferson writes: for the rest of Tchaikovsky’s life. The fifth Spinning Wheel”) at the astonishing age of song of the set, “The Fires in the Room Had 14. Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, and Mahler all We are told that Strauss was at work on Gone Out,” is a tender look back at life by a built upon Schubert’s legacy (which includes the composition of this song soon after long-established couple. (Some translations more than 600 songs), although none his marriage to , when use “The Lights” rather than “The Fires,” eclipsed him. she came into his study [in , implying that candles and lamps have Richard Strauss was the last of the great where they lived] and announced that been extinguished rather than an actual lieder composers. Like Schubert, he wrote she wished to be taken for a walk. When fire.) Tchaikovsky sets the verses in a 4/4 his first songs very young—at the age of six! Strauss mildly pointed out that he was Andantino, in the “bright” key of E major. (Although it took a few more years before composing and preferred not to be While Tchaikovsky had long sought to find he really hit his stride.) While it’s true that, interrupted, she said that she would his own verses that he thought would be following the success of his 1905 opera give him twenty minutes and no more. suitable to set to music, as his fame grew, he didn’t write as many songs as he Punctually returning, she found him he was frequently sent unsolicited material previously did, in the penultimate year of ready to go out. The was finished. by unknown poets. Such was the case in his life, he wrote lieder that was published August 1892, when Tchaikovsky received a posthumously as . There’s the ring of truth in this story, as letter and a couple of poems from 24-year- More than 60 years earlier, he wrote the Harold Schonberg, in his classic book The old Daniil Ratgauz. Tchaikovsky replied that, first song on today’s program, “Ständchen” Lives of the Great Composers, says: despite the number of such requests, he (“Serenade”), which, for generations, was 5 2019 Program Notes Week Two [Pauline] was a grasping, strong, it’s on the “grown-up darling daughter” Wednesday, July 24, 6 p.m. determined woman, once a singer, who who’s sleepily lounging in the warm—and went through life without thinking dry—cottage. TO ¯ RU TAKEMITSU (1930–96) much about other people’s feelings, In “Nachtgang” (“A Walk at Night”), Rain Tree for Percussion Trio (1981) least of all her husband’s.…[Strauss] Strauss once again turns to verse by told the Viennese critic Max Graf that Bierbaum. Alan Jefferson, in The Lieder of The forces that shaped the creative powers as a young man he had a tendency to Richard Strauss, writes: “‘Nachtgang’ is a of To¯ ru Takemitsu were certainly varied and dissipate and make nothing of himself. dark song, though not grim; solemn, though far less traditional than those associated Pauline cured him of that. ‘Richard, not mournful; easy to follow melodically with most composers. Even the great go compose!’ she would scream, and when sung, though almost atonal at sight. 20th-century radicals such as Schoenberg, Strauss would shrug his shoulders, leave The key signature is A-flat major, which is Stravinsky, and Bartók were all grounded in his game of skat (his favorite pastime), how it begins and ends; but in between we conservatory training before blazing their and go to the workroom. migrate.” This is one song that Strauss never individual paths. felt like orchestrating, so the version with Takemitsu graduated from Keika High Perhaps we need to thank Frau Strauss, piano that we hear today is the only extant School in Tokyo in 1948, and while it’s since her genius husband may not have version. significant to note that he studied privately produced all he did, had if not been for the Today’s sampling of the delights of with Yasuji Kiyose, he was largely self- discipline she imposed! Strauss’s lieder concludes with the first taught. In 1951, he co-founded a Tokyo- Strauss wrote “Freundliche Vision” (“A song Strauss published, “Zueignung” based composers’ group known as the Pleasant Vision”) the same year he wrote (“Dedication”), which is based on a poem Experimental Laboratory, whose purpose was his first opera, , and it’s the first of by Hermann von Gilm (1812–64). Musically, to create new music that combined modern five songs published as Strauss’s Opus 48. It’s Strauss does some wonderful things in this compositional techniques with Japanese based on a poem by Bierbaum, and its words song with the words “habe dank” (“I am modalities. But almost at once, Takemitsu suggest an ambiguity in our apprehension grateful” or “have thanks”). While the poem began writing for films, scoring the work of of reality. The key signature says D major, is set in three regular stanzas, the music is directors such as Kurosawa and Shinoda. but the melody opens in C-sharp major the same in each for only the first four bars. It’s worth noting that the piece that and in a rhythm that seems disconnected Each stanza ends with the words of thanks, launched Takemitsu’s international from the piano part. The critics weren’t and, in the first instance, Strauss pauses the reputation was the 1967 work November impressed with this song, going so far as to vocal line and moves from the opening C Steps, scored for a Japanese lute (biwa) suggest that Strauss had composed a piano major to A minor. In the second stanza, the and a traditional (the shakuhachi) accompaniment and then fit a melody over words come more quickly and in F major. accompanied by full orchestra. That same it, but the composer thought highly of it. In the third stanza, there’s a rapid series year saw the publication of New Sounds He included it in two programs in New York: of modulations before the final and most for Woodwinds, a compendium of timbral one for a performance at in passionate utterance. techniques compiled by the Italian composer 1904 and one at The Town Hall 1921. He also —Greg Hettmansberger Bruno Bartolozzi. Suddenly, Takemitsu saw orchestrated the song in 1918. new and vital links between modern Western “Schlechtes Wetter” means what you techniques and certain Japanese traditions probably think it means: “terrible weather.” that had been in place for centuries. With the explosion of Strauss’s opera Takemitsu wrote the first of his works Salome in 1905, followed in relatively with “Rain Tree” in its title in 1981, and he quick succession by two more operatic scored it for three percussion players. He masterpieces— (1908–09) and Der subsequently wrote his Rain Tree Sketch in Rosenkavalier (1911)—Strauss stopped 1982 and Rain Tree Sketch II—dedicated to writing lieder for a dozen years. When he , who was a great influence finally returned to it, he produced no fewer on Takemitsu—in 1992. Both of those later than four published sets: his Opuses 66, works are for piano, although the original 67, 68, and 69. “Schlechtes Wetter” is the 1981 version parenthetically allows for fifth and last song in Opus 69. The text in three keyboard players in lieu of three that opus is by two writers, but the last percussionists. two songs are based on poems by Heinrich In the original percussion version, the Heine (1797–1856). In general, these songs percussionists play, respectively, marimba have a more modern and lighter touch than and three crotales, marimba and three Strauss’s earlier works do. Heine’s poem in crotales, and, between the two, vibraphone “Schlechtes Wetter” does indeed paint a and 10 crotales. The score is prefaced by quick sketch of dreary weather (the piano a quote from Kenzaburo¯ O ¯ e’s story The persistently patters a raindrop effect through Ingenious Rain Tree: most of the song), but the real focus isn’t on the old lady who’s trudged through the It is called the ‘Rain Tree’ because it rain to buy ingredients for a cake; instead, seems to make rain. Whenever it rains

6 2019 Program Notes Week Two at night, throughout the following simple theme that then develops elaborately. The massive opening Allegro is built on morning the tree makes drops fall from It’s here that Beethoven most often expands three separate theme groups, all developed all its richly growing leaves. While the his harmonic palette by double-stopping; in some detail. The solemn pulse of quarter other trees quickly dry out after the the resulting sonority goes far beyond the notes at the very beginning recurs in several rain, the Rain Tree, because its leaves no usual sound of the string trio. guises throughout the movement, which bigger than fingertips grow so closely The Scherzo has a nice rhythmic spring, alternates the home key of G minor with together, can store up raindrops in its surprising accents, and subtle (and very lengthy passages in D major. For all its leaves. Truly an ingenious tree! quick) exchanges between the instruments. breadth and nobility, this movement often —Greg Hettmansberger The trio dances lightly before the return of seems turbulent and troubled, and after a the opening material and a sudden close lengthy recapitulation it draws to a quiet LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) on three quiet chords. The Finale makes close that resolves none of its tensions. String Trio in C Minor, Op. 9, No. 3 (1797–98) clear its connection to the string quartet While Brahms originally called the second immediately, as Beethoven would later use movement a scherzo, he later changed that Brahms once complained to a friend: “You its opening theme almost verbatim in the name to : Allegro ma non troppo, have no idea how the likes of us feel when finale of his first quartet. Throughout this reflecting its gentler, less extroverted nature. we constantly hear a giant like him marching movement, Beethoven broadens sonorities This movement brings a sharp change of behind us.” The “giant” was Beethoven, and with the addition of a fourth note to his sound. The strings are muted, and their Brahms was so daunted by the example of chords. The delicate ending of so powerful a silvery color and swung rhythms provide a Beethoven’s symphonies that he put off work is particularly impressive; the surging mysterious, dark texture in pleasing contrast writing one of his own until he was 43. But energy of the opening triplets is gradually to the powerful first movement. The trio the young Beethoven had a pair of giants of contained, and the music swirls to a close section, marked Animato (“Animated”), his own to contend with. Haydn had brought that is stunning in its understatement. seems to surge with new energy, though the symphony, and Mozart the piano Beethoven thought highly of his set of here Brahms retains the rocking 9/8 meter of concerto, to astonishing levels, and both had three string trios, calling them “the best of the outer sections. written magnificent cycles of string quartets. my works” when they were published in The Andante con moto returns to the Haydn, in fact, was still writing those 1798. By then he was deeply engaged in mood of the opening movement, but the quartets when the young Beethoven arrived writing his first set of string quartets, and in center section brings a surprise: Brahms in Vienna. Beethoven’s first compositions that form he would go on to produce some moves into shining C major, and the music in the Austrian capital were chamber music of the greatest music ever written. It’s hard marches smartly in the piano as the strings pieces, but, in his early years there, he not to feel that writing these trios offered provide stinging accents. The sense of a carefully avoided writing string quartets. him the opportunity to prepare quietly for sturdy march is preserved here despite the In 1797–98, five years after arriving in writing quartets: after completing this set of music’s 3/4 meter. Vienna, Beethoven composed a set of three three, he never again returned to the form. The concluding Rondo alla Zingarese: trios for strings. The most famous of these —Eric Bromberger Presto (“Rondo in Gypsy Style: Fast”) is the is the third, which is performed on tonight’s most striking of the movements. Brahms concert. Beethoven’s choice of C minor for (1833–97) first encountered Hungarian music at the works of unusual has often been in G Minor, Op. 25 (1861) age of 15, when Hungarian refugees fleeing noted, and this trio is no exception. Compact Russian rule had crossed on their (it’s 20 minutes long) but powerful, this Like Mozart and Beethoven before him, way to America. It was a case of love at music is full of stinging accents, explosive Brahms didn’t make the move to Vienna first hearing, and this fiery finale, with its energy, and sharp dynamic contrasts. But all at once. From his native Hamburg, he quick episodes and sudden tempo shifts, more intriguing is the way this trio often paid several visits to that fabled city before is saturated with Gypsy music. The basic quietly turns into a string quartet. By asking settling there in the early 1860s, when he rondo theme is built on a series of three-bar one or more of the players to double-stop was in his late 20s. The Piano Quartet in phrases, and along the way the episodes their strings, Beethoven can add an extra G Minor was among the works he used to are by turn sultry, playful, swaying, fiery, voice, enriching and broadening introduce himself to Vienna. and languorous. Brahms rips the music to sonority in a way that’s impossible in a Composed between 1857 and 1861, the its close with a sizzling coda marked Molto simple trio. It’s as if, while writing for a quartet had already been performed in presto (“Very fast”). string trio, he’s secretly preparing to write Hamburg, with at the piano. Many have felt that the drama and broad for a string quartet. Reaction in Vienna was mixed: some critics scope of this quartet are more appropriate The Allegro con spirito opens with a were enthusiastic, but one called the work to the resources of an orchestra than a piano quietly descending line that will recur “an offense against the laws of style.” Exactly quartet, and in 1937 —an throughout the movement, but the quiet of what he meant by that is unclear, for already admirer of Brahms—orchestrated this music. the first few bars immediately gives way to evident in this music is the great Brahmsian Schoenberg joked that he had created a blast of energy; such surges will be typical nobility, particularly in the sober, serious first “Brahms’s fifth symphony,” but there’s a of the entire trio. Beethoven asks for repeats movement. This quartet is also big music— measure of truth in the remark. For those of both exposition and development in this not just because of its length, but because of interested in hearing this music in its sonata-form movement before a coda drives its air of gravity as well—and the wonderful orchestral form, it’s been frequently recorded fiercely to its massive concluding chords. “Gypsy” finale is fired by Brahms’s lifelong and is readily available. The Adagio con espressione is built on one passion for Hungarian music. —Eric Bromberger 7 2019 Program Notes Week Two Thursday, July 25, Noon FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN (1810–49) adopted city of on February 16, 1848. Barcarolle in F-sharp Major, Op. 60 Well into the final stages of the illness that (1756–91) (1845–46) would claim his life, his playing, based on Sonata in C Major, K. 330 (ca. 1783) contemporary accounts, rarely rose above When you hear the name “Chopin,” the the level of pianissimo. Over the past two centuries, this lovely little typical association is the word “piano.” And —Greg Hettmansberger sonata has tied scholars in knots because for practically any music lover that’s caught no one can figure out when Mozart wrote Chopin fever (all it takes is a nocturne RODION SHCHEDRIN (b. 1932) it. It’s part of a group of three sonatas or two, a polonaise, and a sprinkling of Two Polyphonic Pieces (1961) (K. 330–332) that were for years believed to be hooked for life), it’s not a to have been written during Mozart’s 1778 simple association of composer and keyboard Rodion Shchedrin was born in visit to Paris, and scholars were able to but a recognition that this composer on December 16, 1932, and has enjoyed a trace all sorts of French influences in them. changed his beloved instrument forever. dazzling career as a composer as well as a But then evidence seemed to suggest that There’s evidence that Chopin knew from pianist and organist. One writer went so they were written two years later, in 1780, young adulthood what his destiny was—or, far as to dub him “the in Munich, where Mozart had gone for at least, what his ambitions were. In 1831, he of Soviet Russia.” His most famous work the premiere of his opera . More wrote about his “perhaps too audacious but is probably his stunning arrangement of recently, the best guess is that they were noble wish and intention to create for myself themes from Bizet’s opera for composed during Mozart’s first years in a new world.” In The Lives of the Great percussion orchestra. He’s also well known Vienna, probably in late 1783. Efforts to date Composers, critic and musicologist Harold for his six piano concertos—three of which the manuscript paper, to find references to Schonberg notes: he played back-to-back during a concert, in this music in Mozart’s correspondence, and May 1974, with conductor Evgeny Svetlanov to trace stylistic influences have all come to As a pianist [Chopin] created a style that and the USSR Symphony Orchestra. In his nothing—and none of it really matters, for dominated the entire second half of the personal life, Shchedrin was married to the this music is timeless. The Sonata in C Major and was not substantially Moscow-born ballerina Maria Plisetskaya for is light, graceful, delicate music, and Alfred changed until Debussy and Prokofiev 57 years, until her death in 2015 at the age Einstein was exactly right when he called it came along. It was a style that broke of 89. “one of the most lovable works Mozart ever sharply from everything that went Shchedrin’s catalogue of solo piano music wrote.” before it. For the first time the piano is a rich—and relatively neglected—trove The delicacy is evident from the first became a total instrument: a singing of works, only gradually becoming better instant of the Allegro moderato. Much of instrument, an instrument of infinite known in the West. The first of hisTwo the writing for the right hand here is high color, poetry, and nuance, a heroic Polyphonic Pieces, the Two-Part Invention, and fast, and this music needs a pianist with instrument, an intimate instrument. is two minutes of the kind of charm that a very supple touch to make the runs, trills, blinds us to its hypnotic power. The second, echo effects, and chains of 32nd notes ring Chopin achieved this in less than 20 the Basso Ostinato, on the other hand, has properly. The exposition is straightforward, years and across a wide range of short become a tour-de-force favorite of several but Mozart surprises his listener by opening pieces, which sometimes indicated mood pianists—with the emphasis on the “force.” the development with an entirely new or function and even occasionally dictated Though the dynamic range is wide, the theme, wistful and full of chromatic shading. structure beyond basic A-B-A scaffolds. lingering memory is of marcato chords and Gradually he makes his way back to the While he did write two piano concertos triplet figures. Soon the level is quieter, with opening material, and the movement ends and three piano sonatas, there’s a sense the final climax all the more powerful for its quietly. of self-consciousness about them. Chopin initial restraint.—Greg Hettmansberger Mozart rarely used the marking Cantabile, only expressed himself fully when he turned so we should be alert for an unusually lyric his back on the Classical structures over FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797–1828) movement when he does. The Andante which Mozart and Beethoven had cast such Drei Klavierstücke (Three Piano Pieces), cantabile is music of quiet nobility. Mozart daunting shadows. D. 946 (1828) simply alternates two poised and singing In his Opus 60, we see that Chopin themes, one in F major and the other in was able to take what was essentially a Despite living a tragically short life, Schubert F minor; the shading in the minor-key musical cliché—the barcarolle of Venetian contributed multiple masterpieces in nearly episodes is particularly memorable. The gondoliers—and elevate it to the level of a every genre. (He kept taking a crack at concluding Allegretto stays within the gentle masterpiece. The 12/8 meter immediately opera and never quite pulled it off, and the character of the entire sonata, but this establishes the gentle rocking we expect in concerto form apparently held no attraction movement bubbles over with high spirits. Is this kind of musical picture, but only Chopin for him.) As is very well known, he not only this a rondo or a sonata-form movement? could lead us through a magical journey of contributed to lieder, he set the standard for Again, no one knows, and it doesn’t matter. and subtle variations to a climax it—and he essentially created the song cycle. The singing second subject is yet one more that seems unlikely to be contained by the There was no shortage of great chamber pleasure in a sonata full of delights. banks of a canal. music works either, and many argue that —Eric Bromberger Perhaps revealing the high regard he had his late Quintet for Strings in C Major is the for this work, Chopin included it on the greatest chamber work ever composed. program for his last public appearance in his When it comes to solo piano music, 8 2019 Program Notes Week Two Schubert’s sonatas hold a unique place in Allegro. There’s only one trio, and Schubert Saturday, July 27, 5 p.m. the repertoire. Partisans adore his late trilogy delights from start to finish in filling the of piano sonatas, but those works have never pages with syncopated rhythms. JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685–1750) enjoyed the same popularity as Beethoven’s. —Greg Hettmansberger Sonata No. 1 in G Minor, BWV 1001 Where the shorter forms are concerned, (ca. 1720) however, Schubert gave us numerous gems, including the delicate Moments musicaux. Bach’s six works for unaccompanied violin— The two sets of impromptus (four each in three sonatas and three partitas—form one D. 899 and D. 935) are mirrors of expression of the pinnacles of the violin literature. The and completely natural structures. works, which he wrote when he was in his Which brings us to D. 946. Usually referred mid-30s and serving as (music to as Drei Klavierstücke (Three Piano Pieces), director) to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, some scholars believe that Schubert intended are supremely difficult for the violinist and, these works to be part of another set of in some senses, supremely difficult for the four impromptus. (He died six months after listener. They weren’t published until 1817– he composed them.) As usual, there’s just 28, a century after they were composed. enough evidence to give opposing viewpoints In this music, Bach had to deal with the some validity, and the fact that so much fact that, unlike a , of Schubert’s music wasn’t published until a violin can’t really play more than two decades after his death plays into the notes at once. Within that limitation, a mystery. composer must find a way to provide a Johannes Brahms ended up with Schubert’s harmonic foundation for an essentially autograph manuscripts for these works. linear instrument over the span of an He prepared and edited the three pieces extended work. Bach solved this problem by for publication in 1868, although his name suggesting the harmonic accompaniment doesn’t appear in the printed version. Some with rolled chords, broken chords, multiple contend that Brahms made an arbitrary stopping, and a complex polyphonic decision to put the three works into one set, interweaving of voices. The effect of as there are blank pages following the end sounding a chord and then leaping away to of the second piece, and the third piece is resume the melodic line in another register written on entirely different paper. In any can seem stark, almost fierce, and many case, D. 946 has generally been neglected listeners have found this music, amazing compared to the earlier sets of impromptus, as it is, very difficult listening. In the 19th although, in the last generation or so, more century, Mendelssohn and Schumann wrote and more great pianists have programmed piano accompaniments for these works. They and recorded this work. saw what Bach was getting at musically but The first of the three pieces is marked felt the violin was inadequate and wanted Allegro assai and is set in duple time (but to “help” the music along by completing the with a preponderance of triplet figures that harmonies. lend it the feeling of 6/8 meter). The most These works aren’t sonatas in the classical interesting aspect of this piece, which is in sense of the term, with contrasts of themes E-flat minor but moves to the major, is that and within movements, but they Schubert wrote two trios (inner contrasting do conform to a specific sequence. The first sections) but crossed out the second one. In movement is slow and solemn, somewhat recent years, however, it’s become somewhat in the manner of a prelude; the second is a common for pianists to play the full original fast fugue; the third, usually more lyric, is version. the one movement in a contrasted key; and The second piece, in E-flat major, is one of the last is a fast movement in binary form, those long-breathed structures that challenges somewhat like dance movements. the performer’s powers of interpretation if all The Sonata in G Minor heard on this the repeats are observed. The opening material evening’s program opens with a somber is given in two sections—each repeated—and Adagio. While fully written out, this there are again two trio sections, which are— noble music gives the impression of you guessed it—each repeated. This piece is in being improvised as it proceeds, and Bach 6/8 time, with the first trio keeping the same decorates the slow melodic line with florid meter and moving between C minor and C embellishments (including, at several major, with the second trio marked Alla breve points, 128th notes). The movement’s heavy and featuring A-flat minor and B minor. chording and rich sonorities have led some The closing piece of the set is both the to believe that Bach was attempting to shortest and most brisk, moving in a 2/4 duplicate the sound of the organ. 9 2019 Program Notes Week Two After the stately gravity of the opening very distinguished names—Szigeti, Kreisler, in ternary form, and its middle section movement, the Fuga bristles with nonstop Enesco, and Thibaud—as well as two whose recalls the opening Allemande. Ysaÿe sets energy. The fugue itself is in three voices, fame has not endured: Mathieu Crickboom this movement in the unusual meter 5/4 and Bach eases the polyphonic complexity and Manuel Quiroga. So fascinated was and then changes meters constantly in the with interludes of 16th-note passagework Ysaÿe by the idea of adapting these sonatas breathless final seconds. and arpeggiated figurations. One of Bach’s to individual performers that he composed —Eric Bromberger finest fugues, this has always been a great this music almost overnight. He went up to favorite of violinists—Henryk Szeryng often his room with instructions that he wasn’t to JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685–1750) performed it as an encore. be disturbed (meals were sent up to him), Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004 (1720) The Siciliana, as its name suggests, probably and when he came down 24 hours later, he originated in Sicily. Bach understood it to had sketched all six pieces. Bach composed his sonatas and partitas be a slow dance in compound time. Here he Ysaÿe dedicated his Sonata No. 4 in for Prince Leopold, during the brief middle preserves the swaying effect of the original in E Minor to (1875–1962), one period of his life when he lived and worked the dotted rhythm of the very opening, and of the best-loved violinists who ever stepped in Cöthen. Unlike many other Bach works, this dotted figure returns throughout—though onto a stage. Though virtuoso performers these exist in an autograph copy, which is it’s sometimes buried within the harmonic have a reputation for jealousy and egotistic dated 1720. The official title of the collection texture. For this movement, Bach moves into rivalry, Ysaÿe and Kreisler were quite good translates to Six Solos for Violin without B-flat major, the relative major of the home friends. Kreisler, 17 years younger, had grown Accompaniment, Book One. The second key. up idolizing Ysaÿe. In 1899, when Kreisler book comprised a similar set of works for The concluding Presto is a blistering rush was 24, Ysaÿe heard the young man play, cello. In Bach’s original grouping, the sonatas of steady 16th notes. Such an unvaried and it was his turn to be astonished. The and partitas alternate. progression might, in other hands, quickly two became friends and colleagues, and Bach may have had a particular performer become dull, but Bach’s often surprising they often played string quartets together in mind when he wrote these works, including subdivisions of phrasing and bowing give at informal gatherings. Kreisler returned Cöthen’s own concertmaster, Josephus this movement unexpected variety. There’s Ysaÿe’s dedication of this sonata to him by Spiess, but the music certainly makes clear a brief flash of D major at the beginning dedicating an unaccompanied violin work that whoever played these works needed of this second part, which proceeds with of his own—the Recitativo and Scherzo- to possess a formidable technique. Similar unremitting energy to the massive final Caprice, Op. 6—to Ysaÿe. works, of course, existed—most notably ones chords. Kreisler wasn’t known for his performances by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber and Johann —Eric Bromberger of Bach (though he recorded the Double Paul von Westhoff—but nothing had ever Concerto in D Minor with Efrem Zimbalist been written for solo violin that made the EUGÈNE YSAŸE (1858–1931) in 1915). He did, however, compose several demands on the soloist that Bach’s works Sonata in E Minor, Op. 27, No. 4 (1923) pieces “in the manner of” various Baroque did. Structurally, there are some similarities composers, and Ysaÿe makes a nod in this among the works: all three sonatas conform Eugène Ysaÿe was one of the finest violinists direction by including two movements (the to the four-movement (slow-fast-slow- of all time, famed for his profound (and Allemande and Sarabande) that are part of fast) format of the sonata da chiesa (church original) musical intelligence, consummate the 17th-century instrumental suite. sonata), while the partitas are a little more technique, and rich sound. A student of Though the work’s titles may have unpredictable in their groupings of dance Vieuxtemps and Wieniawski, Ysaÿe was a come right out of Bach, its slow-slow- movements. true champion of new music: he premiered fast sequence of movements didn’t. The Mention the Partita No. 2 to knowledgeable Franck’s and Chausson’s Poème introduction of the Allemande alternates listeners, and they’ll immediately think of (both of which were dedicated to him), and powerful gestures with delicate, almost the work’s Chaconne. That movement is so his eponymous quartet premiered Debussy’s haunting passagework, and the main subject transcendent in its power and compelling in String Quartet. Ysaÿe was also a conductor of this music is in the unexpected meter any competent realization that it’s no wonder (he led the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra of 3/8; its noble melodic line and powerful it’s so frequently performed in its original from 1918 to 1922) and a composer who chording do sound distinctly “Bach-like.” version and in various transcriptions for wrote eight violin concertos, two , and The Sarabande features a one-measure other instruments (including solo piano, with many shorter works. So greatly admired was “ghost” theme that repeats throughout Brahms’s famous version for the left hand Ysaÿe as a man and an artist that his funeral as a sort of ground bass; Ysaÿe encases leading the way). in 1931 became an occasion for national this within music that grows increasingly Indeed, it’s difficult to do justice to the mourning in his native Belgium. complex and then falls away to a near-silent bulk of the work preceding the Chaconne, Ysaÿe’s set of six sonatas for close. The Finale is the most overtly Bach- which serves as the work’s great finale. unaccompanied violin dates from 1924. like of the three movements. It has some Certainly, it made sense to Bach to avoid all When composing this set, he had two goals of the same perpetual-motion quality of multiple-stopping technique in the opening in mind: he wanted to write a cycle of six the last movements of all three of Bach’s Allemande. The Courante is, by Bachian sonatas for unaccompanied violin in the unaccompanied sonatas, yet it also manages standards, an unassuming movement, but manner of Bach’s music for solo violin, to sound like the music of Fritz Kreisler the following Sarabande is given a unique and he wanted each sonata to capture the (which makes a very pleasing combination). codetta, which links to the Gigue. Who but individual style of a well-known violinist. The Rather than being in the binary form Bach Bach could have conceived that these mere list of the sonatas’ dedicatees includes some favored for such movements, this one is dance forms could set the stage for his 10 2019 Program Notes Week Two Chaconne, a quarter-hour of 64 variations of a four-bar phrase? With a central D-major ERIC BROMBERGER earned his doctorate section sandwiched between massive in American literature at UCLA and taught D-minor traversals, the final statements are for 10 years before quitting to devote even given new harmonies. There was no end himself to his first love, music. A violinist, to the man’s powers of invention. Mr. Bromberger writes program notes for —Greg Hettmansberger the Minnesota Orchestra, Washington Performing Arts at The Kennedy Center, San Francisco Performances, University of Chicago Presents, the La Jolla Music Society, the San Diego Symphony, and many other organizations. He’s been a pre-concert lecturer for the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 1999.

GREG HETTMANSBERGER has contributed criticism and features to the Los Angeles Times, L.A. Weekly, the Los Angeles Daily News, Performing Arts, and the Santa Barbara News-Press, and he was a staff writer for the , for which he’s written two yearbooks. This is his 24th season writing program notes for the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. He currently contributes articles to Madison Magazine and writes the blog WhatGregSays at whatgregsays.com.

JENNIFER RHODES (supertitle translations) holds a PhD in Italian and comparative literature. Her research focuses on sites of interchange between literature, music, and the visual arts. Her current book project explores the influence of on the modern European novel. Ms. Rhodes teaches literature at Columbia University and has been a member of The Titles Department since 2000.

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