PREVIEW NOTES

Lisa Batiashvili, and , piano Wednesday, March 25, 2015 – 8:00 PM Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Program Violin Sonata in A Major, D. 574, Grand Duo following year as Opus 70 it was given the title "Rondo brillant" by the publisher. Born: January 31, 1797 in Vienna, Austria Died: November 19, 1828 in Vienna, Austria Violin Sonata in E Minor, BWV 1023 Composed: 1817 Last PCMS performance: Jaime Laredo in 2005 Born: March 21, 1685 in Eisenach, Germany Duration: 17 minutes Died: July 28, 1750 in Leipzig, Germany Composed: 1714‐17 Not published until 1851, this work of Schubert's early Last PCMS performance: Jaime Laredo in 2005 maturity fully deserves the designation "duo" appended Duration: 10 minutes by the publisher; unlike Schubert's earlier works for violin and piano, this sonata makes the keyboard a full Most of Bach's accompanied violin sonatas pair the partner and displays the composer's increasing instrument with harpsichord alone, and cast the violin in confidence in writing for piano. The first of the four a supporting role. BWV 1023, however, puts the violin movements begins with a few bars of amiable piano front and center with support from a continuo. introduction that become the accompaniment to a low‐ key, songful violin theme. The second movement is a Violin Sonata in G Major, Op. 96 rollicking piece in which a little piano fanfare launches a scurrying violin figure. The music lurches through some Born: December 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany surprising key changes, often coming to a full stop Died: March 26, 1827 in Vienna, Austria before continuing with quite different material, and Composed: 1812 features highly chromatic writing for the violin. These Last PCMS performance: Isabelle Faust in 2014 high spirits dissipate in time for the third movement, a Duration: 26 minutes mostly lyrical dialog that drifts from C Major to D‐Flat and ultimately A‐flat. Finally comes the Allegro vivace, in Composed in the same year as his Seventh and Eighth which the spirit of the earlier scherzo returns, complete symphonies, the Sonata in G Major was written for with a short, leaping motif to get the movement off to a celebrated French violinist Pierre Rode and dedicated to joyful start. Archduke Rudolph, a patron and student of Beethoven. Pastoral qualities permeate the final, a set of variations Rondeau Brillante in B Minor, D. 895 on a simple, eight‐measure theme. The variations Franz Schubert proceed without interruption, at one point changing Composed: 1826 from 2/4 to 6/8 meter for a slow lyrical segment that Last PCMS performance: Leila Josefowicz in 2008 pushes toward E flat major and a literal statement of the Duration: 15 minutes theme before moving on to the next variation. A G‐ minor variation that resembles the first theme of the The Rondeau Brillante is one of only three chamber first movement precedes a return to the finale theme on compositions printed during Schubert’s lifetime (the the tonic key. String Quartet in A Minor, D. 804 and the Piano Trio in E‐ flat, D. 929 are the others). Schubert wrote the B Minor rondo during autumn of 1826 with the hope, eventually fulfilled, that it be performed by its dedicatee, the Bohemian violinist Josef Slawjk. When published the