CHRISTIAN TETZLAFF, Solo Violin Minutes. I Was Afraid It Was Too
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PRINCETON UNIVERSITY CONCERTS 12/13 ABOUT THE PROGRAM minutes. I was afraid it was too long, swaying rhythms provides contrast as the Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 7:30PM Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall but it was quite all right, at least for me.” second theme; the development section Koussevitzky’s premiere of the Concerto is a free continuation of the chaconne CHRISTIAN TETZLAFF, Solo Violin for Orchestra in Boston the following variations. The movement achieves formal week (which the composer was too weak closure with the altered versions of the Eugène YSAŸE Sonata No. 1 for Unaccompanied Violin to attend) greatly helped to fuel the main and second themes that occupy the (1858-1931) in G Minor, Op. 27, No. 1 momentum of Bartók’s growing acclaim. recapitulation. The second movement is Grave: Lento assai The Solo Violin Sonata was the last work a fugue on a chromatic subject, a tour de Fugato: Molto moderato Allegretto poco scherzando: Amabile that Bartók completed before his death force for both composer and performer, in Finale con brio: Allegro fermo in New York on September 26, 1945. His which the single voice of the violin is made final two compositions, the Third Piano to imply four intertwining polyphonic Johann Sebastian BACH Sonata No. 3 for Unaccompanied Violin (1685-1750) in C Major, BWV 1005 Concerto and the Viola Concerto, were put lines through double-stops, quick shifts of Adagio into their finished forms by his friend and register, and subtle gradations of melodic Fuga disciple Tibor Serly. emphasis. Melodia traces an arching, Largo melancholy song in its outer sections, while Allegro assai Rather than using the easily accessible the hushed central passage, verdant with — INTERMISSION — idioms of his other American works, rustling trills and whispered high notes, Bartók revived the advanced melodic is the kind of twittering “night music” György KURTÁG Selections from Signs, Games and Messages and harmonic techniques of the Quartets that Bartók favored for many of his slow (b. 1926) Hommage à J.S.B. In memoriam Tamás Blum Nos. 3 and 4 and the two Violin and movements. The closing Presto, in the Vivo Piano Sonatas for this piece, though here form of a rondo, uses as its main theme a The Carenza Jig the formal architecture places the most murmuring, moto perpetuo strain which Doloroso Garzulyéknak Zank-Kromatisch difficult matters in the opening movement is interrupted by two extended episodes of and passes on to easier things as the work folkish character, the first syncopated and Béla BARTÓK Sonata for Unaccompanied Violin unfolds. The first movement is a formal dance-like, the second lyrical and nostalgic. (1881-1945) Tempo di ciaccona [chaconne] hybrid, taking as its main subject a craggy All three themes are tumbled together in Fuga: Risoluto, non troppo vivace Melodia: Adagio chaconne (a set of continuous variations the energetic coda. Presto on the theme’s harmonic skeleton — the most famous movement of Bach’s ©2013 Dr. Richard E. Rodda Christian Tetzlaff appears by arrangement with C/M Artists New York. unaccompanied violin compositions follows this procedure) placed into a full Recordings available on the Virgin Classics/EMI and Hänssler recording labels. sonata structure. A lyrical melody in Princeton University Concerts is tremendously grateful to Mr. Tetzlaff for agreeing to step in to replace Julia Fischer on short notice. -12- PRINCETON UNIVERSITY CONCERTS 12/13 ABOUT CHRISTIAN TETZLAFF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY CONCERTS 12/13 ABOUT THE PROGRAM ABOUT CHRISTIAN TETZLAFF academic education while continuing His health declined enough to make public 8th. Later that month, back in New York his musical studies. He did not begin appearances impossible after 1943. His City, he was able to attend a well-received n artist known for his musical intensive study of the violin until making chief disappointment, however, was the concert by the brilliant Yehudi Menuhin Aintegrity, technical assurance and his concert debut playing the Beethoven almost total neglect of his compositions at Carnegie Hall that included his Violin intelligent, compelling interpretations, Violin Concerto at the age of 14 and by the musical community. At the end Concerto and Violin Sonata No. 1. Shortly Christian Tetzlaff is internationally attributes the establishment of his musical of 1942, he lamented, “The quasi boycott thereafter, Menuhin, long a champion of recognized as one of the most important outlook to his teacher at the conservatory of my works by the leading orchestras Bartók’s music, proposed to the composer violinists of his generation. in Lübeck, Uwe-Martin Haiberg, who continues; no performances either of old a commission for an unaccompanied placed equal stress on interpretation and works or new ones. It is a shame — not for violin sonata. Bartók was concerned that From the outset of his career, Mr. Tetzlaff technique. Mr. Tetzlaff came to the United me, of course.” It is to the credit of ASCAP his health would make writing the piece has performed and recorded a broad States during the 1985-86 academic year to (American Society of Composers, Authors difficult, but when ASCAP arranged for spectrum of the repertoire, ranging work with Walter Levin at the University and Publishers) that they provided money him to take a rest cure that winter at from Bach’s unaccompanied sonatas and of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of for the health care that enabled Bartók to Asheville, in the mountains of western partitas to 19th century masterworks by Music and also spent two summers at the continue composing to the very end of his North Carolina, he accepted Menuhin’s Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Brahms; Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. life. offer. On January 30, 1944, Bartók wrote to and from 20th-century concertos by his old friend the violinist Joseph Szigeti, Bartók, Berg and Shostakovich to world Mr. Tetzlaff has been in demand as a soloist During the last months of Bartók’s life, “At present, I feel in the best of health, no premieres of contemporary works. Also a with many of the world’s leading orchestras there were a few signs that his fortunes fever; my strength has returned. I take dedicated chamber musician, he frequently and conductors, establishing close artistic were improving. Performances of his fine walks in the woods and mountains; collaborates with distinguished artists partnerships that are renewed season after works, which had been woefully infrequent actually, I climb the mountain (of course, including pianists Leif Ove Andsnes, Lars season. Mr. Tetzlaff has performed with the since his arrival in America in 1940, were only with due caution). Last March, my Vogt and Alexander Lonquich and is the orchestras of Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, occurring with more regularity, and in weight was 87 pounds; now it is 105. I founder of the Tetzlaff Quartet, which he Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, Los early 1943, he received a commission for grow fat. I bulge. I explode. You will not formed in 1994 with violinist Elisabeth Angeles and Toronto, among many others an important composition — the Concerto recognize me.” The salubrious surroundings Kufferath, violist Hanna Weinmeister and in North America, as well as with the for Orchestra — from Sergei Koussevitzky, allowed Bartók to finish the Sonata by his sister, cellist Tanja Tetzlaff. major European ensembles including the music director of the Boston Symphony. March 14th. When the work was premiered Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony, An ASCAP-sponsored stay at a sanatorium at Menuhin’s Carnegie Hall recital on Born in Hamburg in 1966, music occupied Orchestre de Paris, Vienna Philharmonic, at Saranac Lake in upper New York State November 26, 1944, in the presence of the a central place in his family and his three Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Royal fortified Bartók’s strength enough so that composer, the audience applauded it, the siblings are all professional musicians. Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. he could work on the new orchestral critics carped, and Bartók allowed, “It was Mr. Tetzlaff began playing the violin and piece, over which he labored doggedly a wonderful performance. The Sonata has piano at age six, but pursued a regular Highlights of Mr. Tetzlaff’s 12/13 season until the score was finished on October four movements and lasts about twenty -2- -11- PRINCETON UNIVERSITY CONCERTS 12/13 ABOUT THE PROGRAM PRINCETON UNIVERSITY CONCERTS 12/13 ABOUT CHRISTIAN TETZLAFF steady tread of a funeral procession that years later had already begun to erode his in North America include appearances Professional Training Workshop for young rises to a shrill cry before ending with an health. Adding to the trial of his medical with the New York Philharmonic, the violinists and pianists, culminating in a attenuated but deeply expressive lament. condition was the Second World War Pittsburgh, New World and Montreal young artist concert. The pointillistic Vivo was composed for raging in Europe, a painful torment to Symphonies, the St. Paul Chamber solo cello in 1961 and arranged for violin Bartók’s ardent Hungarian patriotism. Orchestra and a three-concert chamber Tetzlaff’s highly regarded recordings in 1992. The Carenza Jig, modeled on the Upon leaving his homeland, he not only music project at the 92nd St. Y in New reflect the breadth of his musical interests lively dance that is a staple of traditional relinquished the native country so dear to York City. European highlights include and include solo works, chamber music Irish and Scottish music, was named for him, but also forfeited the secure financial return visits to the Berlin and London and concertos ranging from Haydn to the young daughter of a family Kurtág and professional positions that he had Philharmonics, Bavarian Radio Symphony Bartók. His recent recordings include visited in Cornwall, England in 1989. earned in Budapest.