Cal Performances Presents Sunday, October , , pm Zellerbach Hall Maxim Vengerov, violin Lilya Zilberstein, piano PROGRAM Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (–) Adagio in E major, K. () arr. Rostal Ludwig van Beethoven (–) Sonata No. for Piano and Violin in C minor, Op. , No. () Allegro con brio Adagio cantabile Scherzo: Allegro Finale: Allegro INTERMISSION Serge Prokofi ev (–) Sonata No. for Violin and Piano in F minor, Op. (, ) Andante assai Allegro brusco Andante Allegrissimo—Andante assai, come prima Dmitri Shostakovich (–) Ten Selections from the Preludes, Op. arr. Tziganov (–) . Allegretto . Allegretto . Allegro non troppo . Moderato . Largo . Allegretto . Andantino . Allegretto poco moderato . Adagio . Allegretto furioso Cal Performances’ – season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. CAL PERFORMANCES 31 Program Notes Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (–) the quiet countryside with the assurance that Adagio in E major, K. () the lack of stimulation would be benefi cial to Arranged by Max Rostal. his hearing and his general health. In Heiligenstadt, Beethoven virtually lived It was for Antonio Brunetti, principal violinist the life of a hermit, seeing only his doctor and of the archiepiscopal orchestra in Salzburg from a young student named Ferdinand Ries. In March , , that Mozart wrote the E major , he was still a full decade from being to- Adagio, K. It was composed late in tally deaf. Th e acuity of his hearing varied from as a substitute slow movement for the Concerto day to day (sometimes governed by his inter- No. in A major, K. , since, according to est—or lack thereof—in the surrounding con- a remark by the composer’s father the follow- versation), but he had largely lost his ability to ing year, Brunetti found the original second hear soft sounds by that time, and loud noises movement “zu studiert”—“too studied”—and caused him pain. Of one of their walks in the asked Mozart to create something more simple country, Ries reported, “I called his attention and attuned to the popular style. (Actually, the to a shepherd who was piping very agreeably Concerto’s beautiful original Adagio is crystal in the woods on a fl ute made from a twig of clear and immediately appealing. Abraham elder. For half an hour, Beethoven could hear Veinus thought that “Brunetti certainly had nothing, and though I assured him that it was peculiar taste.”) Th e replacement movement is the same with me (which was not the case), he also a lovely creation, with the music’s sustained became extremely quiet and morose. When he melody for the soloist make it almost an aria occasionally seemed to be merry, it was gener- without words. Th e arrangement for violin and ally to the extreme of boisterousness; but this piano is by the Austrian-born English violinist happens seldom.” In addition to the distress and teacher Max Rostal (–). over his health, Beethoven was also wounded in by the wreck of an aff air of the heart. He had proposed marriage to Giulietta Guicciardi Ludwig van Beethoven (–) (the thought of Beethoven as a husband threat- Sonata No. for Violin and Piano in ens the moorings of one’s presence of mind!), C minor, Op. , No. () but had been denied permission by the girl’s fa- ther for the then perfectly valid reason that the In the summer of , Beethoven’s physician young composer was without rank, position or ordered him to leave Vienna and take rooms fortune. Faced with the extinction of a musi- in Heiligenstadt, today a friendly suburb at the cian’s most precious faculty, fi ghting a constant northern terminus of the city’s subway system, digestive distress, and unsuccessful in love, it is but two centuries ago a quiet village with a view little wonder that Beethoven was sorely vexed. of the Danube across the river’s rich fl ood plain. On October , , following several It was three years earlier, in , that Beethoven months of wrestling with his misfortunes, fi rst noticed a disturbing ringing and buzzing Beethoven penned the most famous letter ever in his ears, and he sought medical attention for written by a musician—the “Heiligenstadt the problem soon thereafter. He tried numerous Testament.” Intended as a will written to his cures for his malady, as well as for his chronic brothers (it was never sent, though he kept it in colic, including oil of almonds, hot and cold his papers to be found after his death), it is a baths, soaking in the Danube, pills and herbs. cry of despair over his fate, perhaps a necessary For a short time he even considered the modish and self-induced soul-cleansing in those pre- treatment of electric shock. On the advice of his Freudian days. “O Providence—grant me at last latest doctor, Beethoven left the noisy city for but one day of pure joy—it is so long since real 32 CAL PERFORMANCES Program Notes joy echoed in my heart,” he lamented. But— above harmonically unsettled arpeggios in the and this is the miracle—he not only poured his keyboard constitutes the movement’s central energy into self-pity, he also channeled it into section before the opening theme is recalled in music. “I shall grapple with fate; it shall never an elaborated setting. Th e coda is dressed with pull me down,” he resolved. Th e next fi ve years ribbons of scales by the piano. Th e Scherzo, with were the most productive he ever knew. “I live its rhythmic surprises and nimble fi gurations, only in my music,” Beethoven wrote, “and I have presents a playful contrast to the surrounding scarcely begun one thing when I start another.” movements. Th e Finale, which mixes elements Th e Symphonies Nos. –, a dozen piano sona- of rondo (the frequent returns of the halting tas, the Fourth Piano Concerto and the Triple motive heard at the beginning) and sonata (the Concerto, Fidelio, three violin and piano sona- extensive development of the themes), renews tas (Op. ), and many songs, chamber works the troubled mood of the opening movement and keyboard compositions were all composed to close the expressive and formal cycle of this between and . excellent Sonata. Th e Op. Sonatas for Piano and Violin that Beethoven completed by the time he re- turned from Heiligenstadt to Vienna in the Serge Prokofi ev (–) middle of October stand at the threshold Sonata No. for Violin and Piano in of a new creative language, the dynamic and F minor, Op. (, ) dramatic musical speech that characterizes the Premiered on October , in Moscow by creations of his so-called “second period.” Th e violinist David Oistrakh and pianist Lev Oborin. C minor Sonata, the second of the Op. set, shares its impassioned key with several other Israel Nestyev headed the chapter of his biog- epochal creations of those years, notably the raphy of Prokofi ev dealing with the composer’s Fifth Symphony, the Th ird Piano Concerto, life from to , “Th e Diffi cult Years.” the “Pathétique” Sonata, the Coriolan Overture In January , Prokofi ev conducted the pre- and the Op. , No. String Quartet. Th e work miere of his Fifth Symphony with great suc- opens with a pregnant main theme, announced cess, and it seemed that, at age , he had many by the piano and echoed by the violin, which, years of untroubled service to Soviet music in according to British musicologist Samuel his future. Such was not to be the case. Only Midgley, “is like a taut spring about to snap.” two weeks after the Fifth Symphony was intro- Th is motive returns throughout the movement duced, Prokofi ev was leaving a friend’s Moscow both as the pillar of its structural support and fl at when he was suddenly stricken with a minor as the engine of its tempestuous expression. Th e heart attack. He lost consciousness, fell down second theme is a tiny military march in dotted a fl ight of stairs, and was taken to the hospi- rhythms. Th e development section, which com- tal, where his heart condition and a concussion mences with bold slashing chords separated by were diagnosed. From that moment, his vigor- silences (the exposition is not repeated), encom- ous life style and busy social and musical sched- passes powerful mutations of the two principal ules had to be abandoned. “Almost everything themes. A full recapitulation and a large coda that made his life worth living was taken away,” round out the movement. wrote Lawrence and Elisabeth Hanson in their Th e Adagio, one of those inimitable slow study of the composer. “He was forbidden to movements by Beethoven that seem rapt out of smoke, drink wine, play chess, drive a car, walk quotidian time, is based on a hymnal melody fast or far, play the piano in public, conduct, presented fi rst by the piano and reiterated by stay up late, excite himself by much conversa- the violin. A passage in long notes for the violin tion, travel more than a few miles.” He spent CAL PERFORMANCES 33 Program Notes the rest of his life—he died in , on the same the new Sonata with pianist Lev Oborin, and day as Joseph Stalin—in and out of hospitals, reported that they “visited the composer many constantly taking precautions against a relapse. times and he gave us a great deal of invaluable Late in the spring of , Prokofi ev went to advice. One could see that this composition was the country retreat at Ivanova provided by the very dear to him, and he took obvious pleasure government for Russia’s professional compos- in working at it with us.... Never have I been so ers, and he spent the summer there working on completely absorbed in a piece of music.