2025.04.05 | Gil & Orli Shaham Program

This Concert is Co-Presented with:

Co-Presented with Pacific Symphony

Gil Shaham violin & Orli Shaham piano Saturday, April 5, 2025 | 8PM Soka Performing Arts Center at Soka University of America

Gil & Orli Shaham

PROGRAM

MAIER Violin Sonata in B Minor Allegro Andantino; Allegretto, un poco vivace Allegro molto vivace

C. SCHUMANN Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Opus 22 Andante molto Allegretto Leidenschaftlich schnell

R. SCHUMANN Violin Sonata No. 1 in A Minor, Opus 105 Mit leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck Allegretto Lebhaft

Gil & Orli Shaham

PROGRAM

INTERMISSION R. SCHUMANN Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Opus 94 Nicht schnell Einfach, innig Nicht schnell

BRAHMS Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, Opus 108 Allegro Adagio Un poco presto e con sentimento Presto agitato

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Violin Sonata in B Minor AMANDA MAIER Born February 20, 1853, Landskrona, Sweden Died July 15, 1894, Amsterdam Amanda Maier came from a musical family. Though her father was a baker, he taught her to play the violin and piano, and at age 16 she entered the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. There she studied violin and composition (as well as the cello, organ, and piano), and she became the first woman to graduate from the College.

She then went on to the Leipzig Conservatory, where she studied composition with Carl Reinecke and violin with the concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Engelbert Röntgen.

After a brief career performing in Europe, Maier married Röntgen’s son Julius, and at this point her career came to resemble that of Amy Beach in America: both Maier and Beach’s husbands insisted that their wives give up performing in public, but both women were free to compose and to perform at home. Julius Röntgen was an excellent pianist, and he and Amanda turned their home into a distinguished venue for music-making: among the guests and participants at their gatherings were Brahms and Grieg. Brahms in particular admired Maier’s playing, and he sent an early version of his Third Violin Sonata to her and asked for her advice (he is also said to have

greatly enjoyed the cookies she baked). Maier had two sons, but she contracted tuberculosis and died at age 41. Her works include a violin concerto, chamber music, and a small number of songs and piano pieces.

Maier composer her Violin Sonata in B Minor in 1878, when she was a 25-year-old student in Leipzig. The sonata is beautifully written for the two instruments (she played both), and it is built on attractive material–Maier had a fine melodic gift. The opening Allegro, in sonata form, pitches between its impassioned, soaring beginning and gentler secondary material (the markings Animato and Un poco tranquillo appear throughout the movement). The dramatic development leads to an equally dramatic conclusion.

The middle movement is in ABA form. It opens with a gentle melody in 3/8 marked semplice (“simple, uncomplicated”), but this quickly gives way to the central episode, marked Allegretto, un poco vivace. There is some very accomplished writing here: the violin and the piano are in canon at the interval of one measure.

Maier soon brings back the opening material, but it continues to develop on its return.

The violin leads the way into the concluding Allegro molto vivace, which is cast in rondo form.

Surprisingly, the piano alone introduces several of the

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

contrasting episodes before Maier rounds off the movement with a powerful coda in B major.

marriage. Brahms and Joachim were among the most intense mourners at her death in 1896.

Maier dedicated this sonata “To My Dear Father,” who had taught her to play both the violin and the piano.

In 1853, during the first rush of the Schumanns’ friendship with Joachim, Clara wrote–specifically for him–the Three Romances for Violin and Piano. She did not compose a great deal. The demands of being wife, mother, and pianist left her little time, and in any case she was ambivalent about composing: in a diary entry at age 19 she wrote, “a woman must not desire to compose–not one has been able to do it, and why should I expect to?” In fact, these romances were virtually her final composition (her list of opus numbers runs only to 23): after Robert’s death, she stopped composing altogether.

Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Opus 22 CLARA SCHUMANN Born September 13, 1819, Leipzig Died May 20, 1896, Frankfurt am Main In 1853 Robert and Clara Schumann welcomed into their home in Düsseldorf two young men who would go on to become giants of nineteenth-century German music: Johannes Brahms and Joseph Joachim. Brahms and Joachim would develop a lengthy (and frequently stormy) relation of their own, but they quickly became true friends of the Schumann family. Robert’s mental health was now in rapid deterioration, and they stood by during his decline and death in an asylum, visiting him frequently and helping Clara and the seven children. In turn, Clara remained close to both men over the remaining forty years of her life.

Her long and intense friendship with Brahms is familiar, but she was also close to Joachim: she gave a number of duo-recitals with him after Robert’s death, and she was close enough to give the violinist financial and domestic advice as he approached his own

A romance is a type of music without strict formal meaning: that title simply suggests music of an expressive character. All three of these romances are in ternary form plus coda, and all end quietly. Though they were composed during the stress that accompanied Robert’s decline, these pieces show absolutely no sign of that pain–they may be regarded as brief explorations of gentle moods. In the Andante molto, the violin soars easily over the piano accompaniment, though the music’s characteristic quintuplet turn appears in both parts. The Allegretto, in G minor, is more intense, though Clara’s instruction is “With tender performance.” Some have heard the influence of Mendelssohn in

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

this music, which moves into G major for its center section, full of trills and grace notes; this romance winks out with quiet pizzicato strokes that return to G major in the last measure. The final romance, marked Passionately fast, is also the longest: the violin sings above a rippling piano accompaniment; when this section returns, the composer effectively varies the sound by making the piano accompaniment entirely staccato.

Joachim very much liked the Three Romances, and he and Clara performed them frequently.

When she published the set in 1855, she had this inscription printed in the score: “Dedicated to Joseph Joachim with the greatest friendship.”

Violin Sonata No. 1 in A Minor, Opus 105 ROBERT SCHUMANN Born June 8, 1810, Zwickau Died July 29, 1856, Endenich Schumann’s relation with the violin was never wholly comfortable.

A pianist, Schumann found the prospect of writing for stringed instruments intimidating, and he appears to have been threatened most of all by the violin–he wrote a number of pieces of chamber music for viola and for cello before he was finally willing to face writing for the violin. Then that music came in a rush–during the final years of his brief creative career Schumann wrote three

violin sonatas, a violin concerto, and a fantasy for violin and orchestra.

The Violin Sonata in A Minor was the first of these. Schumann composed it very quickly– between September 12 and 16, 1851–during a period of personal stress. The previous year he had become music director for the city of Düsseldorf, and by the time he wrote this sonata his tenure there had already become mired in clashes with local authorities and in his own suspicions of plots against him. Schumann himself reported that when he wrote this sonata, he was “very angry with certain people,” though the music should not be understood as a personal reaction to artistic squabbles. Instead, Schumann’s first engagement with the violin produced a compact sonata in classical forms.

The sonata is in three movements that offer Schumann’s customary mixture of German and Italian performance markings.

The opening Mit leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck (“With passionate expression”) bursts to life with the violin’s forceful, surging main idea over the piano’s shimmer of constant sixteenths. This busy motion is punctuated by great swooping flourishes that lead to gentle secondary material; it is the opening theme, however, that dominates the development, and Schumann rounds off the movement with a lengthy coda that drives to a dramatic close.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Relief arrives in the central Allegretto, which treats the violin’s innocent opening melody in rondo form. Tempos fluctuate throughout, with the music pulsing ahead, then reining back; some of these episodes become animated before the movement winks out on two pizzicato strokes.

Marked Lebhaft (“Lively”), the finale returns to the tonality and mood of the opening movement. The violin’s steady rush of sixteenths makes this feel at first like a perpetualmotion movement, but it is in fact another sonata-form movement, complete with a jaunty little secondary tune and an exposition repeat. This movement shows subtle points of contact with the first movement that run beyond their joint key of A minor and impassioned mood: the rhythm of the sonata’s opening theme underlies much of the finale, and near the close that theme actually makes a fleeting appearance. But the finale’s forceful main subject quickly shoulders this aside and drives the sonata to an almost superheated close.

Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Opus 94 ROBERT SCHUMANN The year 1849 was intense for Robert Schumann and his family. In May, the revolutionary fervor that was sweeping across the German states erupted in Dresden: buildings were burned,

Prussian troops called in to suppress the revolt killed 200 civilians, and the Schumann family fled to the countryside to escape the fighting. They did not return until the middle of June, but their return did not bring calm.

The ever-suspicious Schumann had come to believe that rivals in Dresden were plotting against him, and now–very quietly–he began to make plans to leave the city for good.

But if 1849 brought tumult, it was a very good year for the Schumann household. In July, Robert and Clara welcomed their sixth child, a boy named Ferdinand. And it was a good year for Schumann the composer. The works he wrote that year ranged from largescale orchestral pieces like the Introduction and Allegro and the Concert-Piece for Four Horns to a number of settings of Goethe (1849 was the Goethe centennial) to choral music and individual songs.

That year, music just seemed to pour out of the 39-yearold composer.

Early in December Schumann set aside big projects to write a set of three miniatures that he called “romances.” When he published this music in 1850, Schumann specified that it could be played by either oboe or violin, and he made slight variations in the score to suit the differences between those two instruments. Since then, this music has appealed to many other instrumentalists, and it is now performed in versions for clarinet, cello, French horn,

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

and flute. At this concert the Three Romances are heard in Schumann’s original version for violin and piano.

Music this attractive and straightforward needs little comment. All three pieces are in ABA form, all are at a restrained dynamic and moderate tempos, and all end quietly. The first is in somber A minor, while the second–in A major–is probably the best-known and is sometimes performed by itself. The singing simplicity of its outer sections contrasts with the dark and surging interior episode. In the final movement, Schumann asks for great fluidity of phrasing, as the music holds back and then rushes ahead; the center section sings gracefully over triplet accompaniment, and Schumann appends a brief coda.

Those interested in this music should know that in 1927–in the earliest days of electrical recording–Fritz Kreisler recorded the second of these pieces in a Berlin studio. That performance, now nearly a century old, remains a model of impassioned, expressive playing.

Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, Opus 108 JOHANNES BRAHMS Born May 7, 1833, Hamburg Died April 3, 1897, Vienna Brahms spent the summer of 1886 at Lake Thun in Switzerland.

He had just completed his Fourth Symphony, and now–in a house from which he had a view of the lake and a magnificent glacier–he turned to chamber music. That summer he completed three chamber works and began the Violin Sonata in D Minor, but he put the sonata aside while he wrote the Zigeunerlieder (“Gypsy Songs”) and Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, grumbling that writing for stringed instruments should be left to “someone who understands fiddles better than I do.” He returned to Lake Thun and completed his final violin sonata in the summer of 1888.

Despite Brahms’ customary self-deprecation, his writing for stringed instruments could be very convincing, and the Third Violin Sonata is brilliant music– not in the sense of being flashy but in the fusion of complex technique and passionate expression that marks Brahms’ finest music.

The violin’s soaring, gypsy-like main theme at the opening of the Allegro is so haunting that it is easy to miss the remarkable piano accompaniment: far below, the piano’s quiet syncopated octaves move ominously forward, generating much of the music’s tension. Piano alone has the second theme, with the violin quickly picking it up and soaring into its highest register.

The development of these two ideas is disciplined and ingenious: in the piano’s lowest register Brahms sets a pedal A and lets it pound

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a steady quarter-note pulse for nearly 50 unbroken measures– beneath the powerful thematic development, the pedal notes hammer a tonal center insistently into the listener’s ear. Its energy finally spent, this movement gradually dissolves on fragments of the violin’s opening melody.

The heartfelt Adagio consists of a long-spanned melody (built on short metric units–the meter is 3/8) that develops by repetition; the music rises in intensity until the double-stopped violin soars high above the piano, then falls back to end peacefully. Brahms titled the third movement Un poco presto e con sentimento, though the particular sentiment he had in mind remains uncertain.

In any case, this shadowy, quicksilvery movement is based on echo effects as bits of theme are tossed between the two instruments.

The movement comes to a shimmering close: piano arpeggios spill downward, and the music vanishes in two quick strokes.

By contrast, the Presto agitato finale hammers along a pounding 6/8 meter. The movement is aptly titled: this is agitated music, restless and driven. At moments it sounds frankly symphonic, as if the music demands the resources of a full symphony orchestra to project its furious character properly. Brahms marks the violin’s thematic entrance passionato,

but he needn’t have bothered– that character is amply clear from the music itself. Even the noble second theme, first announced by the piano, does little to dispel the driven quality of this music. The complex development presents the performers with difficult problems of ensemble, and the very ending feels cataclysmic: the music slows, then suddenly rips forward to the cascading smashes of sound that bring this sonata to its powerful close.

Program notes by Eric Bromberger © 2025.

Gil & Orli Shaham ORLI SHAHAM, PIANO

Orli Shaham is a pianist of profound artistry and dazzling virtuosity, celebrated for her “grace, subtlety, and brilliance” (The New York Times). Renowned for her interpretations of both classical and contemporary repertoire, she is in demand around the world for her commanding musicianship and compelling performances. The Chicago Tribune has hailed her as “a first-rate Mozartean,” and she has graced the stages of Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, and leading concert halls across five continents, performing with many of the world’s foremost orchestras.

Good Tunes? with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Pacific Symphony, a German tour with the Brandenburg State Orchestra, and festival appearances at Sun Valley, Chautauqua, Bowdoin, and the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival. She continues to serve as Artistic Director, host, and featured performer for Pacific Symphony’s Café Ludwig chamber music series, a role she has held since 2007.

The 2024-25 season sees Shaham continuing to expand her rich musical tapestry, with performances of David Robertson’s Piano Concerto, written for her, with the Utah Symphony, and Steven Mackey’s Concerto for Orli, which she performed at Tanglewood. She also joins her brother, violinist Gil Shaham, for Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in a special season highlight. Her chamber music appearances take her to esteemed venues including Dumbarton Oaks, Music at Menlo, and La Jolla, among others.

A prolific recording artist, Shaham recently completed her highly acclaimed cycle of Mozart’s complete piano sonatas, along with a recording of Mozart’s Piano Concertos K.453 and K.491 with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Her discography includes the celebrated solo album Brahms Inspired, American Grace featuring Steven Mackey’s Stumble to Grace with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Grand Pianola Music by John Adams with Marc-André Hamelin and the San Francisco Symphony under the composer’s baton. With more than a dozen recordings on Deutsche Grammophon, Sony, Canary Classics, and other labels, her contributions to the recorded canon continue to garner critical praise.

Shaham’s recent performance highlights include John Adams’ Must the Devil Have All the

Beyond the concert stage, Shaham is a dedicated educator and advocate for musical

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

outreach. She serves on the piano and chamber music faculty at The Juilliard School, has been a juror for both the Cliburn and Honens International Piano Competitions, and is a major presence on public radio as Co-Host and Creative for NPR’s From the Top. She has also been featured on Tonebase in a 22part series on the music of Karen Tanaka, as well as masterclasses on Mozart’s piano sonatas and a lecture-performance on Clara Schumann.

Passionate about engaging young audiences, Shaham is the Artistic Director and founder of Bach Yard, an interactive concert series for children that has introduced thousands of young listeners to classical music since 2010. She also serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees of Kaufman Music Center, further cementing her role as a leader in music education and advocacy.

A recipient of the Gilmore Young Artist Award and the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Shaham holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Columbia University and pursued a master’s degree in musicology there while continuing her musical training at The Juilliard School.

OrliShaham.com

© Karjaka Studios

Gil & Orli Shaham GIL SHAHAM, VIOLIN

Gil Shaham is one of the foremost violinists of our time, admired for his flawless technique, radiant warmth, and compelling musicality. A Grammy Awardwinner and Musical America’s “Instrumentalist of the Year,” he is sought after worldwide for his concerto performances with leading orchestras, as well as for his insightful recitals and collaborations with renowned ensembles. His artistry has solidified his reputation as an American master of the violin.

Recent seasons have been highlighted by his acclaimed recording and performances of J.S. Bach’s complete sonatas and partitas for solo violin, a project that has been met with both critical and audience acclaim.

In the coming seasons, Shaham continues to champion these solo works while also touring internationally with his longtime duo partner, pianist Akira Eguchi, in recitals across North America, Europe, and Asia.

Shaham’s distinguished career includes performances with the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, and San Francisco Symphony, among many others. He has also held multi-year residencies

with the Montreal, Stuttgart, and Singapore orchestras. A passionate advocate for the great violin works of the last century, he continues his celebrated exploration of “Violin Concertos of the 1930s,” performing masterpieces by Barber, Bartók, Berg, Korngold, Prokofiev, and others.

With more than two dozen concerto and solo recordings, Shaham has earned multiple Grammy Awards, a Grand Prix du Disque, Diapason d’Or, and Gramophone Editor’s Choice honors. Many of his recordings appear on Canary Classics, the label he founded in 2004. His discography includes 1930s Violin Concertos, Virtuoso Violin Works, Elgar’s Violin Concerto, Hebrew Melodies, and The Butterfly Lovers Concerto, among others.

His Grammy-nominated 1930s Violin Concertos Vol. 2, featuring Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto and Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2, has been widely praised. In 2020, he released a new recording of Beethoven and Brahms Concertos with The Knights.

Born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in 1971, Shaham moved with his family to Israel, where he began violin studies with Samuel Bernstein at the Rubin Academy of Music. He made his solo debuts with the Jerusalem Symphony and Israel Philharmonic at just 10 years old and soon after won

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first prize in Israel’s Claremont Competition.

A scholarship student at The Juilliard School, he also pursued studies at Columbia University.

A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1990 and the Avery Fisher Prize in 2008, Shaham was named Musical America’s “Instrumentalist of the Year” in 2012. He plays the 1699 “Countess Polignac” Stradivarius as well as an Antonio Stradivari violin, Cremona c.1719, with the generous support of Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative.

Gil Shaham resides in New York City with his wife, violinist Adele Anthony, and their three children.

For a complete schedule of his upcoming performances, please visit: https://gilshaham.com/schedule/

© Karjaka Studios

Gil & Orli Shaham

PACIFIC SYMPHONY

CARL ST.CLAIR MUSIC DIRECTOR Currently celebrating its 46th anniversary season, the Symphony is the largest orchestra formed in the U.S. in the last 50 years and is recognized as an outstanding ensemble making strides on both the national and international scene, as well as in its own community of Orange County.

In April 2018, Pacific Symphony made its debut at Carnegie Hall as one of two orchestras invited to perform during a yearlong celebration of composer Philip Glass’ 80th birthday, and the following month the orchestra toured China.

The orchestra made its national PBS debut in June 2018 on Great Performances with Peter Boyer’s Ellis Island: The Dream of America, conducted by St.Clair. Presenting more than 100 concerts and events a year and a rich array of education and community engagement programs, the Symphony reaches more than 300,000 residents—from school children to senior citizens.

In both 2005 and 2010, the Symphony received the prestigious ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming. Also in 2010, a study by the League of American Orchestras, Fearless Journeys, included the Symphony as one of the country’s five most innovative orchestras. The Symphony’s awardwinning education and community engagement programs benefit from the vision of St.Clair and are designed to integrate the orchestra

Carl St.Clair Music Director, Pacific Symphony © Texas Classical Review

and its music into the community in ways that stimulate all ages.

The Symphony’s Class Act program has been honored as one of nine exemplary orchestra education programs by the National Endowment for the Arts and the League of American Orchestras. The list of instrumental training initiatives includes Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra, Pacific Symphony Youth Wind Ensemble, Pacific Symphony Santiago Strings, and Pacific Symphony Youth Concert Band.

The Symphony also spreads the joy of music through arts-X-press, Class Act, Heartstrings, Lantern Festival Orchestra, Symphony on the Go!, and Symphony in the Cities.

Pacific Symphony Announces Alexander Shelley as next Artistic & Music Director, beginning in 26-27 Season Alexander Shelley has been appointed as Pacific Symphony’s next Artistic and Music Director, commencing in the 2026–27 season. This marks a historic transition as Carl St.Clair, who has led the orchestra for over three decades, steps into the role of Music Director Laureate in 2025– 26. Shelley will serve as Artistic and Music Director Designate during the 2025–26 season, ensuring a smooth handover of artistic leadership.

Known for his dynamic artistry and innovative programming, Shelley brings extensive experience from his roles as Music Director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Canada, Principal Associate Conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and Artistic and Music Director at Artis—Naples. He is celebrated for his operatic productions and groundbreaking multimedia projects, including Life Reflected, which honors Canadian female pioneers, and the ballet-focused Encount3rs.

Shelley is a staunch advocate for community engagement and education, demonstrated by initiatives like the NAC Mentorship Program and Germany’s awardwinning “Future Lab.” His appointment signals an exciting new era for Pacific Symphony,

building on its legacy of musical excellence, education, and cultural contributions to Southern California.

Shelley’s vision for Pacific Symphony includes expanding its reach through inclusive programming, fostering new connections, and celebrating the role of music in uniting communities. His deep respect for the orchestra’s artistic foundation, paired with his forward-thinking leadership, promises to usher in a vibrant and innovative chapter for the ensemble.

CONCESSIONS

Concessions A wide variety of wine, beer, soft drinks and freshly prepared snacks will be available before the performance and during intermission.

Artist Drink Pick Gin & Tonic We asked the artist for their favorite drink pick to feature at concessions!

Gin & Tonic was selected by Orli Shaham and will be available for purchase before the performance and during intermission.

Click here for menu and to order Pre-order your concessions and skip the line during intermission!

Concessions provided

by FPG Events

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