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Home , Barbara Nissman, Yefim Bronfman

CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS PROGRAM NOTES

Tuesday, October 11, 2011, 8pm (1833–1897) in the October 23 edition of his journal, Neue Zellerbach Hall Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5 Zeitschrift für Musik (“New Journal for Music”): “It seemed to me that there would and indeed Composed in 1853. must suddenly appear one man who would be Yefim Bronfman, piano singled out to articulate and give the ideal ex- In April 1853, the 20-year-old Johannes Brahms pression to the tendencies of our time, one man set out from his native Hamburg for a concert who would show us his mastery, not through PROGRAM tour of Germany with the Hungarian violin- a gradual process, but, like Athene, spring ful- ist Eduard Reményi. The following month ly armed from the head of Zeus. And he has in Hanover they met Joseph Joachim, whom come, a young man over whose cradle Graces Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5 (1853) Brahms had heard give an inspiring perfor- and Heroes stood guard. His name is Johannes mance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto five Brahms.” Brahms was inspired by Schumann’s Allegro maestoso years earlier in Hamburg. Brahms was at first unstinting advocacy, and he threw himself Andante espressivo somewhat shy in the presence of the celebrated into the composition of a new F minor Piano Scherzo: Allegro energico virtuoso, but the two men warmed to each other Sonata, his third work in the form in two years, Intermezzo (Rückblick): Andante molto when the young composer began to play some of which he played for Robert and Clara “from his Finale: Allegro moderato ma rubato his recent music at the piano. Before the inter- head” on November 2, the eve of his departure view was done, Joachim had been overwhelmed from Düsseldorf. Brahms then made his way to by his visitor: “Brahms has an altogether excep- Leipzig, the center of European music publish- (1811–1886) Selections from the Twelve Transcendental tional talent for composition, a gift which is fur- ing, where, with Schumann’s blessing and the Etudes (1826, 1837–1838; rev. 1851) ther enhanced by the unaffected modesty of his instant renown imparted by the Neue Zeitschrift character. His playing, too, gives every presage article, his first two Piano Sonatas, a set of six IV. Mazeppa: Allegro of a great artistic career, full of fire and energy.... songs and the Scherzo in E-flat minor were ac- XI. Harmonies du Soir: Andantino In brief, he is the most considerable musician cepted by the prestigious firm of Breitkopf und XII. Chasse-Neige: Andante con moto of his age that I have ever met.” The following Härtel; they were issued in December as, respec- summer Brahms and Joachim spent eight weeks tively, Opp. 1–4. By the end of the year, Brahms at Göttingen, discussing music, studying scores, had completed the notation of his Third Piano INTERMISSION playing chamber works together, and setting the Sonata, and the score was published as his Op. 5 foundation for a creative friendship that would by the Leipzig firm of Senff in February 1854 last for almost half a century. Joachim learned of with an appreciative dedication to Countess (1891–1953) Piano Sonata No. 8 in B-flat major, Op. 84 Brahms’s desire to take a walking tour through Ida von Hohenthal, who had acted as his host- (1939–1944) the Rhine Valley, and he arranged a joint re- ess in Leipzig and who also hired the compos- cital to raise enough money to finance the trip. er’s younger brother, Fritz (a piano teacher in Andante dolce Along with the proceeds of the gate, Joachim Germany and Caracas, known in his later years Andante sognando gave Brahms as a parting gift several letters of as “the wrong Brahms”), as music tutor for her Vivace introduction, including one to Robert and Clara children. The F minor, the largest of his key- Schumann in Düsseldorf. board works, was Brahms’s last piano sonata, On the last day of September 1853, Brahms though the following year he did attempt a so- met the Schumanns for the first time. “Here is nata for two pianos that was eventually trans- Funded by the Koret Foundation, this performance is part of Cal Performances’ one of those who comes as if sent straight from formed into the Piano Concerto No. 1. 2011–2012 Koret Recital Series, which brings world-class artists to our community. God,” Clara recorded in her diary. Brahms The F minor Piano Sonata was among the spent a delightful month in Düsseldorf, see- creations upon which Brahms’s fame was found- This performance is made possible, in part, by Patron Sponsors Peter and Donna Zuber. ing the Schumanns almost every day, sharing ed—, one of the era’s most es- meals, talking, joining their family walks, and teemed piano virtuosos, immediately took it into Cal Performances’ 2011–2012 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. playing music with them. Robert was simply her repertory and performed it with great suc- overwhelmed by Brahms’s talent, a convic- cess across northern ; Eduard Hanslick, tion that he shared with the musical world in the leading music critic of the time, said that his famous article New Paths, which appeared “it belongs to the most inward experiences

6 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 7 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES that recent piano music has to offer”; Richard nature that loom so large in Schumann’s output. accomplished on his instrument. To that end, could flatter himself that he could approach Specht believed that the work and its immedi- Ominous, sometimes demonic, it is one of the Liszt undertook a thorough transformation of being able to perform them.” Liszt returned ate companions “are the most wonderful begin- most vehemently expressive pieces that Brahms his old Op. 1 Etudes in 1837, and produced one yet again to the Transcendental Etudes, in 1851, ning ever made by any master”; and Brahms’s ever wrote, and his sense of Classical formal pro- of the most awesome documents of instrumental when he alleviated some of their technical dif- modern biographer Malcolm MacDonald said priety required him to balance it with a sedate virtuosity of the Romantic century—the Twelve ficulties, tightened their formal structures, and that “it stands with Liszt’s B minor Sonata and central Trio that glides smoothly along in an al- Transcendental Etudes. added poetic titles to all but two of them. (Both the Grande Sonate of Alkan as one of the three most hymnal manner. Liszt’s Op. 1 Etudes found their principal in- the 1837 and 1851 versions were dedicated to greatest piano sonatas of the mid-19th century.” Instead of proceeding directly to the fi- fluences in the finger-exercising teaching pieces Czerny.) Even in this “simplified” final form, Even the redoubtable , after nale, Brahms next inserted a movement titled of his teacher and the lyrical effu- the version usually heard today in the concert hearing Brahms play the Sonata in recital in Intermezzo, which “looks back” (Rückblick) to sions of fashionable Italian opera. (Liszt’s doz- hall, the Transcendental Etudes remain among Vienna in January 1863, is said to have “over- the Andante by transmuting its theme into a ens of arrangements, paraphrases, fantasias and the most imposing technical and interpretative whelmed him with praise,” and pronounced tragic threnody accompanied by the cadence of reminiscences on operatic themes were among challenges in the piano’s realm. that the Sonata “shows what may still be done distant funeral drums. Though he did not as- the most popular numbers on his recitals.) He Mazeppa is associated with the Polish noble- with the old forms, provided that one knows cribe a literary reference to this sullen music, it had originally intended to produce a cycle of 48 man Ivan Stepanovich Mazeppa (1644–1709), how to treat them.” may perhaps be related to an entry in a notebook numbers which, like the two books of Bach’s who served during his younger years as a page The F minor Sonata is remarkable for the wherein he collected poems that struck him as Well-Tempered Clavier, would include two piec- at the court of King John Casimir of Poland, way in which Brahms harnessed the surging suitable for songs, in which the earlier lines from es in each of the major and minor keys (C ma- where he had an affair with the wife of an older Romantic language of his youthful style into Sternau were followed by the next stanza of the jor, A minor; F major, D minor; B-flat major, courtier. The furious count had Mazeppa tied the logical constructions of Classical form. poem: If ye knew how soon, How soon the trees are G minor, etc.), but he completed only twelve naked to a wild horse which was sent racing (This was precisely the quality that so excited withered, And the wood is bare, How soon comes movements, giving them no titles except for into Ukraine. For three days, the horse gal- Schumann’s admiration.) It is this masterly bal- the dreary day When the heart’s beat is dumb. The their tempo markings. He took up the Etudes loped across the steppes before succumbing to ance of ardent emotional expression and intel- finale, blended from elements of rondo and so- again in 1837, by which time his affair with the exhaustion. Mazeppa was rescued and restored lectual formal necessity—of heart and head— nata forms, is built upon the contrast between Countess Marie d’Agoult, wife of the equerry to health by Cossacks, and eventually became that imparts such power to this music. Also evi- the tensely rhythmic opening theme and two to the Dauphin of France, had progressed to their chief. In order to win Ukrainian inde- dent here is Brahms’s ability to blend rigorous lyrical melodies revealed in later episodes of the the point of the imminent birth of their second pendence from , he fought with Charles counterpoint with singing lyricism, a technique movement. The Sonata ends with a brilliant, child, an event that they chose to await among XII of Sweden against Czar Peter the Great at that generates the thematic material of the sona- major-key coda whose flamboyant virtuosity the Italian lakes—Cosima, later the wife of the Battle of Pultowa. Byron and Victor Hugo ta-form opening movement: a dramatic, leaping documents the technical panache that marked both Hans von Bülow and Richard Wagner, was immortalized Mazeppa’s exploits in romantic motive as principal subject; and a chordal strain Brahms’s pianism as a young man. born at Como on Christmas Eve. In addition poems, Pushkin made him the central figure in (to which the leaping motive in the bass acts to the inspiration provided by the enrichment the drama Pultowa (which served as the basis of as accompaniment) as complementary theme. of his family life and the spectacular northern Tchaikovsky’s opera Mazeppa), Horace Vernet These two expressive states—drama and lyri- Franz Liszt (1811–1886) Italian scenery, Liszt may also have returned to painted two depictions of Mazeppa, the Russian cism—contend in the development section be- Selections from the Twelve Transcendental the genre of the Étude out of a certain sense of author Bulgarin made a novel of the subject, and fore the recapitulation of the themes, somewhat Etudes professional pride and one-upmanship, since Mazeppa figured in Voltaire’sHistory of Charles abbreviated, closes the movement. Frédéric Chopin had issued his Op. 25 Études the Twelfth. Liszt reworked this movement into The tenderly eloquent Andante is headed Composed in 1826 and 1837–1838; revised in 1851. earlier that year with a dedication to none other his Symphonic Poem No. 6 in 1851. The lovely with lines by the German poet Sternau: The than Countess d’Agoult. Liszt retained the the- Harmonies du Soir (“Evening Harmonies”) con- evening falls, the moonlight shines, Two hearts, In 1826, when, at the age of 15, Liszt was be- matic materials and key structures of his earlier jures a peaceful evening scene through which joined in love, Embrace each other blissfully. ing displayed in Paris as a child prodigy by pieces (he added a title to only one—Mazeppa, tolls the sound of distant bells. Chasse-Neige This poignant nocturne (which may have been his father, he composed a set of Twelve Etudes. associated with Victor Hugo’s swashbuckling (“Hunt—Snow”) is an almost Impressionistic sketched as early as 1852 in Hamburg) extends The pieces were published in Marseilles as his poem about the 16th-century Polish hero), but evocation of a winter landscape. across a sonata form modified so that the second Op. 1 the following year with a dedication to created in his Études d’Exécution Transcendante theme of the exposition, a quiet melody in sweet Mlle. Lydie Garella, then one of his most fa- piano works of almost symphonic breadth whose sixths divided equally between the two hands, vored piano duet partners. Five years later, in difficulty of performance led is replaced in the recapitulation by a haunting- Paris in 1831, Liszt heard Nicolò Paganini play to call them “Sturm- und Graus-Etuden [‘Studies ly beautiful strain of folkish simplicity in full for the first time, and he spent the next several of Storm and Dread’], suitable for perhaps only chords. TheScherzo is Brahms’s tribute to the years trying to find keyboard equivalents for ten or twelve players in the whole world.” Hector Florestan-esque character pieces of impetuous the dazzling feats that the legendary violinist Berlioz believed that “no one else in the world

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Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) was very noticeable.” By 1941, Prokofiev had left polyphonic settings. Its sonata form rises to a Piano Sonata No. 8 in B-flat major, Op. 84 Lina and was living with Mira, who proved to level of considerable intensity in the develop- be a devoted and caring companion until the ment section, but the pervading nature of the Composed in 1939–1944. Premiered on December 30, composer died twelve years later. Lina, a French movement’s exposition and recapitulation is of a 1944, in Moscow by Emil Gilels. national, became caught up in Stalin’s terrible character that matches the music’s performance political machine, and was arrested on trumped- instruction: dolce (“sweetly”). The second move- Prokofiev returned to Russia from his years in up charges of espionage in 1948. (A year before, ment, Andante sognando (“dreamily”) is a lovely the West in 1933, and by 1939, when the Eighth the Supreme Soviet issued a retroactive decree instrumental song with just enough prickly har- Sonata was conceived, he had become the lead- forbidding Soviet citizens to marry foreign na- monic piquancies to keep it from lapsing into ing composer of his country with works written tionals, thus suddenly annulling the Prokofievs’ unabashed nostalgia. The finale is in a large in what he called “a style in which one could marriage. Mira and Sergei formalized their re- three-part form, with two subjects in each of the speak of Soviet life.” Lt. Kijé, Peter and the lationship with a civil ceremony on January 13, outer portions (a rippling triplet strain and an Wolf and Romeo and Juliet are among the best- 1948.) Lina was released, and returned to the energetic passage seeded by a bounding octave known realizations of his populist art. Many of West in 1972, always claiming to be the com- motive) surrounding a central section which Prokofiev’s efforts during the early years of the poser’s only legitimate wife. It was at the begin- includes reminiscences of themes from the Second World War continued in the same vein, ning of his new life with Mira that Prokofiev first movement. including the Piano Sonatas Nos. 6, 7 and 8, conceived his Sonatas Nos. 6, 7 and 8; he dedi- all begun in 1939, but completed, respectively, cated the Eighth Sonata to her. © 2011 Dr. Richard E. Rodda in 1941, 1942 and 1944; inevitably, they were Large parts of the Sonata No. 8 were dubbed the “War Sonatas.” These three works sketched in 1939, but Prokofiev then set the were his first contributions to the piano sonata score aside until the summer of 1944, when he genre in 16 years, and the revitalization of his completed it at the “Composers’ Home” run by interest in the form may well have been inspired the Soviet government at Ivanovo, 50 miles west by his recently conceived love affair with Mira of Moscow. He tried out the new work for the Abramovna Mendelson. Prokofiev first met Composers’ Union that October, after returning Mira during the summer of 1939 while vaca- to Moscow, but his previously fearsome piano tioning alone at Kislovodsk in the Caucasus. technique had slipped badly into disrepair by She was 24 at the time, just completing her stu- that time, and he entrusted 28-year-old Emil dent work at the Moscow Institute of Literature, Gilels with the public premiere, given in the and he was exactly twice her age, 48. They first Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory on worked together on fashioning an opera libretto December 30, 1944. The Sonata inspired con- from Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s comedy The siderable praise from press and public alike, and Duenna, but something in addition to shared it was honored with a Stalin Prize, First Class literary interests further drew them together, the following year. and during the following months, they became The Eighth Sonata is regarded as one of more than just friends. Prokofiev, stealing time Prokofiev’s greatest contributions to the genre, from his wife, Lina, and his two sons, sought “the richest of all—an abundance of riches,” ac- out situations to meet Mira, and by the spring cording to the eminent Soviet Sviatoslav of 1940, he had fallen in love with her. A fam- Richter. Barbara Nissman, another leading in- ily friend of the Prokofievs reported at that time terpreter of Prokofiev’s piano music, called the seeing the composer walking with a young Sonata “a masterwork of the 20th-century key- woman she did not recognize. What surprised board literature; it expands the sonata, not only her more than the woman’s presence, however, in terms of structure but as a total concept; it was the unfamiliar expression on Prokofiev’s is the equivalent of a large-scale symphony for face—happy and relaxed and lighthearted. “He piano.” The composer’s claim that the work had always been rather grim and serious,” she is “primarily lyrical in character” is borne out said, “but after meeting Mira, he became more by the opening movement, which exhibits an affectionate and friendly. The change in him abundance of fine melodies couched in rich

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efim bronfma n Cincinnati and Saint Louis and Brahms’s sec- Welser-Möst and David Zinman. Summer en- released his two-piano recital (with Emanuel Y is widely regarded ond with the orchestras of Atlanta, New York gagements have regularly taken him to the ma- Ax) of works by Rachmaninoff, which was fol- as one of the most tal- and Los Angeles. He also made return con- jor festivals of Europe and the . lowed in March 2005 by their second recording ented virtuoso certo appearances in Seattle, New Jersey, He has also given numerous solo recitals of works by Brahms. Two thousand eight saw performing today. His Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal in the leading halls of North America, Europe the release of the Tchaikovsky Trio in A minor commanding tech- and Washington. With long-time friend and and the Far East, including acclaimed debuts at with partners and Truls Mørk and nique and exceptional collaborator , he appeared in in 1989 and Avery Fisher Hall in a Schubert and Mozart disc with the Zukerman lyrical gifts have won duo recital in Princeton, Kansas City, Chicago, 1993. In 1991, he gave a series of joint recitals with Chamber Players. him consistent critical Boston and Carnegie Hall. in Russia, marking Mr. Bronfman’s A devoted chamber music performer, acclaim and enthusi- In Europe, he toured with the Vienna first public performances there since his emigra- Mr. Bronfman has collaborated with the astic audiences world- Philharmonic, playing the concerto written tion to Israel at age 15. That same year, he was Emerson, Cleveland, Guarneri and Juilliard wide, whether for his Dario Acosta for him by Mr. Salonen. In partnership with awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, one quartets, as well as the Chamber Music Society solo recitals, his orchestral engagements or his Berlin’s Staatskapelle and all of the highest honors given to American instru- of . He has also played cham- rapidly growing catalog of recordings. three Bartók concertos were again featured in mentalists. In 2010, he was honored as the re- ber music with Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Lynn Mr. Bronfman’s 2011–2012 U.S. season be- programs in Berlin, Vienna and Paris. Return cipient of the Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Harrell, Shlomo Mintz, Jean-Pierre Rampal and gins with the Chicago Symphony’s opening Gala engagements in Europe included the Berlin Performance from Northwestern University. Mr. Zukerman, and tours regularly in duo with conducted by , followed by return Philharmonic, Royal , Israel Widely praised for his solo, chamber and Mr. Ax. engagements to the orchestras in Los Angeles, Philharmonic, London Symphony, Frankfurt orchestral recordings, he received a Grammy Yefim Bronfman immigrated to Israel with Boston, , Toronto, Portland and Radio and Munich Philharmonic. Award in 1997 for his recording of the three his family in 1973, and made his international Kansas City, and a residency with the Cleveland Orchestral highlights of the 2009–2010 Bartók piano concertos with Mr. Salonen and debut two years later with and Orchestra in Miami, Cleveland and New York season included two performances at the the . His discography the Montreal Symphony. He made his New focusing on the concertos and chamber music of Tanglewood Festival with the Boston Symphony also includes the complete Prokofiev piano so- York Philharmonic debut in May 1978, his Brahms. A recital tour in winter will culminate under and natas; all five of the Prokofiev piano concertos, Washington recital debut in March 1981 at the with Carnegie Hall, followed by the world pre- and the ’s first European nominated for both Grammy and Gramophone Kennedy Center and his New York recital debut miere of Magnus Lindberg’s concerto, commis- tour with Music Director Alan Gilbert. As awards; and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concertos in January 1982 at the 92nd Street Y. sioned for him by the New York Philharmonic, “Artiste Étoile” in residence at the Lucerne Nos. 2 and 3. His most recent releases are Mr. Bronfman was born in Tashkent, in with whom he will tour the West Coast in Festival, he appeared with a wide range of rep- Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the , on April 10, 1958. In Israel, the spring. ertoire in recital, chamber music and with the Mariss Jansons and the Symphonieorchester he studied with pianist Arie Vardi, head of the In Europe, he will complete a two-season London Philharmonia under Mr. Salonen, the des Bayerischen Rundfunks; a recital disc, Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University. project of the three Bartók concertos with the Lucerne Academy Orchestra and Pierre Boulez, Perspectives, to complement Mr. Bronfman’s In the United States, he studied at the Juilliard Philharmonia Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by designation as a Carnegie Hall “Perspectives” School, Marlboro and the Curtis Institute, in London, Spain, Brussels and give recit- Zubin Mehta. In summer 2009, he was the fea- artist for the 2007–2008 season; and recordings and with , and als in , Vienna, Frankfurt, Milan tured soloist at the Berlin Philharmonic’s annu- of all the Beethoven piano concertos as well as . and Lucerne. In partnership with Emmanuel al Waldbühne concert conducted by Sir Simon the Triple Concerto together with violinist Gil Yefim Bronfman became an American citi- Pahud he will visit Spain, Turkey, Denmark and Rattle and televised live throughout Europe. Shaham, cellist Truls Mørk and the Tönhalle zen in July 1989. London, where he will return in the spring for Similarly, in summer 2010, he soloed with the Orchestra Zürich under David Zinman for the concerts with the London Symphony conducted Vienna Philharmonic under Franz Welser- Arte Nova/BMG label. by Michael Tilson Thomas, followed by a tour Möst at their televised outdoor concert from His recordings with Isaac Stern include with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Schönbrunn Palace. Both performances are now the Brahms violin sonatas from their afore- Rundfunks and Mr. Salonen. In recognition of available on commercial DVDs. mentioned Russian tour, a cycle of the Mozart the 75th anniversary of the Israel Philharmonic, Mr. Bronfman works regularly with an il- sonatas for violin and piano, and the Bartók he will join the orchestra in two orchestral con- lustrious group of conductors, including Daniel violin sonatas. Coinciding with the release of certs and in a solo recital in December. Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph the soundtrack, Mr. Bronfman His 2010–2011 U.S. season highlights in- von Dohnányi, Charles Dutoit, Christoph was featured on his own Shostakovich album, cluded recitals in Los Angeles and San Francisco Eschenbach, Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, performing the two piano concertos with the as well as performances of Tchaikovsky’s first Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Los Angeles Philharmonic under Mr. Salonen piano concerto with the orchestras of Houston, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Yuri Temirkanov, Franz and the Piano Quintet. In 2002, Sony Classical

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