Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Oct. 4, 2015, page PAGE 2 BIG ARTS 2020-2021 Series Sunday, January 24, 2021 TIMOTHY CHOOI, violin MICHELLE CANN, piano attr. VITALI Chaconne in G minor (11’) BEETHOVEN Sonata No. 8 in G major, Op. 30, No. 3 (19’) Allegro assai Tempo di Minuetto, ma molto moderato e grazioso Allegro vivace — INTERMISSION — FRANCK Sonata in A major (28’) Allegro ben moderato Allegro Recitativo — Fantasia: Ben moderato — Molto lento Allegretto poco mosso CHEN GANG Sunshine on Tashkurgan (7’) Jan. 24, 2021, page Notes on the Program by Dr. Richard E. Rodda Chaconne in G minor Attributed to Tomaso Antonio Vitali Born March 7, 1663 in Bologna. Died May 9, 1745 in Modena. Tomaso Vitali’s father, Giovanni Battista, was an important figure in the development of Italian instrumental music and a leading musician in Bologna, where Tomaso was born on March 7, 1663. Tomaso learned composition and violin from his father, and went with him to Modena when Giovanni joined the court musical establishment of the Estes family in that city in 1674. Tomaso’s talent blossomed quickly in Modena: he was playing violin in the court orchestra by 1675, and was later appointed its concertmaster; he remained in the employment of the Estes until 1742, just three years before his death in Modena. In 1706, Vitali was honored with membership in the distinguished Accademia Filarmonica of his native Bologna. His creative output consists principally of four volumes of trio sonatas in the style of Corelli issued in Modena between 1693 and 1701, but his posthumous fame rests almost entirely on the well-known Chaconne in G minor, though his authorship of that work has been questioned. The Chaconne was unpublished and virtually unknown until Ferdinand David, the concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and dedicatee of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, published it in the second volume of his Hoch Schule des Violinspiel (“Advanced School of Violin Playing”) in 1867. David had discovered the piece in a manuscript in the Saxon State Library in Dresden, which also provided several other compositions for his tutor. Later research has shown that the Dresden manuscript, in which the Chaconne was titled “Parte del Tomaso Vitalino,” had been prepared sometime between 1710 and 1730 by Jacob Lindner, the music copyist at the Dresden court. “Parte,” a contemporary term signifying variations over a short, unchanging bass motive, describes the form of the piece and “Vitalino” — “little Vitali” — suggests that the author was Giovanni Battista Vitali’s son, Tomaso. (No composer of that time named “Vitalino” has been discovered.) Doubts arose, however, because of the Chaconne’s wide-ranging harmonic peregrinations, a characteristic of neither Baroque music in general nor Tomaso Vitali’s work in particular. Such an advanced practice was initially attributed to David and his 19th-century sensibility, but it is original in the Dresden manuscript. In sum, the Chaconne in G minor is now generally attributed to Tomaso Vitali — at least until a more unequivocally identifiable composer comes to light. The chaconne is an ancient variations form in which a short, repeated chord pattern is decorated with changing figurations and elaborations. The Chaconne in G minor offers the violinist one of the most imposing technical challenges in all of Baroque music; it is sometimes cited as a predecessor of the majestic Chaconne that closes Johann Sebastian Bach’s Partita No. 2 for Unaccompanied Violin. Sonata No. 8 in G major, Op. 30, No. 3 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Composed in 1802. In the summer of 1802, Beethoven’s physician ordered him to leave Vienna and take rooms in Heiligenstadt, today a friendly suburb at the northern terminus of the city’s subway system, but two centuries ago a quiet village with a view of the Danube across the river’s rich flood plain. It was three years earlier, in 1799, that Beethoven first noticed a disturbing ringing and buzzing in his ears, and he sought medical attention for the problem soon thereafter. He tried numerous cures for his malady, as well as for his chronic colic, including oil of almonds, hot and cold baths, soaking in the Danube, pills and Jan. 24, 2021, page herbs. For a short time he even considered the modish treatment of electric shock. On the advice of his latest doctor, Beethoven left the noisy city for the quiet countryside with the assurance that the lack of stimulation would be beneficial to his hearing and his general health. On October 6, 1802, following several months of wrestling with his diminishing hearing (as well as a constant digestive distress and the wreck of a recent affair of the heart — the thought of Beethoven as a husband threatens the moorings of one’s presence of mind!), Beethoven penned the most famous letter ever written by a musician — the “Heiligenstadt Testament.” Intended as a will written to his brothers (it was never sent, though he kept it in his papers to be found after his death), it is a cry of despair over his fate, perhaps a necessary and self-induced soul-cleansing in those pre-Freudian days. “O Providence — grant me at last but one day of pure joy — it is so long since real joy echoed in my heart,” he lamented. But — and this is the miracle — he not only poured his energy into self-pity, he also channeled it into music. The Symphonies Nos. 2-5, a dozen piano sonatas, the Fourth Piano Concerto and the Triple Concerto, Fidelio, three violin and piano sonatas (Op. 30), many songs, chamber works and keyboard compositions were all composed between 1802 and 1806. Beethoven completed the three Op. 30 Sonatas for Piano and Violin by the time he returned from Heiligenstadt to Vienna in the middle of October 1802. The Sonata No. 3, in G major, is the most compact and cheerful such piece in Beethoven’s creative output. The main theme of the opening sonata-form movement balances, in good Classical fashion, a frisky motive in rolling scale steps with a more lyrical idea. The second theme is full of incident, with mercurial shifts of harmony, a half-dozen thematic fragments, sudden changes of dynamics and sharply accented notes. The trills and bustling rhythmic activity that close the exposition are carried into the development section, which provides only a brief formal deflection before a full recapitulation of the exposition’s materials rounds out the movement. Though the second movement is marked to be played “in the tempo of a minuet,” this is music grown from song rather than dance, sweet and lyrical and gracious, that returns to its lovely opening strain throughout in the manner of a refrain. The closing movement is a genial rondo whose sunny vivacity and sparkling passage work recall Haydn’s Gypsy rondos. Sonata in A major César Franck (1822-1890) Composed in 1886. Premiered on December 16, 1886 in Brussels by violinist Eugene Ysaÿe and pianist Léontine Bordes-Pène. Franck first considered writing a violin sonata in 1859, when he offered to compose such a piece for Cosima von Bülow (née Liszt, later Wagner) in appreciation for some kind things she had said about his vocal music. He was, however, just then thoroughly absorbed with his new position as organist at Ste.- Clotilde, and was unable to compose anything that year except a short organ piece and a hymn. (His application to his duties had its reward — he occupied the prestigious post at Ste.-Clotilde until his death 31 years later.) No evidence of any work on the proposed sonata for Cosima has ever come to light, and it was not until twenty years later that he first entered the realm of chamber music with his Piano Quintet of 1879. Franck’s next foray into the chamber genres came seven years after the Quintet with his Sonata for Violin and Piano, which was composed as a wedding gift for his friend and Belgian compatriot, the dazzling virtuoso Eugene Ysaÿe, who had been living in Paris since 1883 and befriending most of the leading French musicians; Ysaÿe first played the piece privately at the wedding ceremony on September 28, 1886. In tailoring the Sonata to the warm lyricism for which Ysaÿe’s violin playing was known, Franck created a work that won immediate and enduring approval, and which was instrumental in spreading the appreciation for his music beyond his formerly limited coterie of students and local devotees. The formal premiere, given by Ysaÿe and pianist Léontine Bordes-Pène at the Musée moderne de peinture in Brussels on December 16, 1886, was an extraordinary event, of which Franck’s pupil Vincent d’Indy left Jan. 24, 2021, page the following account: “It was already growing dark as the Sonata began. After the first Allegretto, the players could hardly read their music. Unfortunately, museum regulations forbade any artificial light whatever in rooms containing paintings; the mere striking of a match would have been an offense. The audience was about to be asked to leave but, brimful of enthusiasm, they refused to budge. At this point, Ysaÿe struck his music stand with his bow, demanding, ‘Let’s go on!’ Then, wonder of wonders, amid darkness that now rendered them virtually invisible, the two artists played the last three movements from memory with a fire and passion the more astonishing in that there was a total lack of the usual visible externals that enhance a concert performance.” In tailoring the Sonata to the warm lyricism for which Ysaÿe’s violin playing was known, Franck created a work that won immediate and enduring approval and was instrumental in spreading the appreciation for his music beyond his formerly limited coterie of students and local devotees.

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