Yuja Wang & Leonidas Kavakos Program Nov. 8, 2021

YUJA WANG

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LEONIDAS KAVAKOS NOV 8, 2021 | 7:30 PM

PROGRAM

YUJA WANG P I A NO

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LEONIDAS KAVAKOS VI O L I N

SONATA NO. 3 FOR VIOLIN AND KEYBOARD IN E MAJOR, BWV 1016

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685 – 1750)

Adagio Allegro Adagio ma non tanto Allegro

SONATA NO. 2 FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO IN E MINOR, OP. 36A

FERRUCCIO BUSONI (1866 - 1924)

Langsam Presto Andante piuttosto grave

INTERMISSION SONATA NO. 1 FOR VIOLIN AND KEYBOARD IN B MINOR, BWV 1014

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685 – 1750)

Adagio Allegro Andante Allegro

SONATA FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO IN G MAJOR, OP. 134 Andante Allegretto Largo – Andante

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906 – 1975)

SONATA NO. 3 FOR VIOLIN AND KEYBOARD IN E MAJOR, BWV 1016

SONATA NO. 2 FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO IN E MINOR, OP. 36A

J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

FERRUCCIO BUSONI (1866-1924)

When Johann Sebastian Bach penned his six sonatas for violin and harpsichord, numbered BWV 1014-1019, he left behind virtually every established convention of the baroque trio sonata in favor of a thorough formal innovation. He most likely composed the set during his employment in the court at Köthen from 1717-23. Up until that point, trio sonatas consisted of three parts, including two treble instruments (often two violins) and harpsichord continuo. In these six sonatas, however, Bach compacted all three parts into two instruments: the two melodies in a single violin and the right hand of the keyboard, with a separate bass line in the left hand. In doing so he promoted the keyboard instrument from a purely accompanimental role to an equal and active participant in the musical development and dialogue. Furthermore, Bach wrote out almost the entirety of the keyboard part on two separate staves in lieu of the customary figured bass which supplied a bassline and outlined a harmonic structure but left the part’s full realization up to the improvisatory faculties of the accompanist. These features were completely novel in Bach’s era and formed the basis for the classic duo sonata form future composers would take up in their own time.

While Johann Sebastian Bach needs no introduction, Italian pianist-composer Ferruccio Busoni likely does. Born to parents who were both professional musicians, Busoni was a child prodigy who began performing publicly at the tender age of seven. He spent much of his life in Germany where he studied the works of musical giants the likes of Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, and Liszt.

It was Bach, however, who Busoni venerated above all others and who had the most lasting influence on his career. Busoni made a name for himself transcribing, editing, and performing Bach’s works and went on to publish a series of piano transcriptions of Bach’s keyboard compositions known as the Bach-Busoni editions. Busoni was also a skilled composer in his own right and penned a sizable catalogue of piano works, chamber music, vocal and orchestral pieces, and operas, but he is today best remembered for his virtuosic piano skill and his link with Bach. Indeed, Scottish music critic Cecil Gray wrote of Busoni, “This is the great tragedy of Busoni’s career…if he had been a less brilliant player, his music would have received greater attention.”

In these violin sonatas Bach explored the compositional possibilities of the genre, creating a collection of pieces that vary widely in character, texture, and motivic material. On tonight’s program you will hear two of the six, beginning with Sonata No. 3 in E major, which bears a four-movement structure that follows the typical slow-fast-slow-fast order of the baroque sonata da chiesa. In the opening Adagio the keyboard part eases in with an accompanimental role, slow and chordal with a chorale-like texture. The violin soars over this invocation in a singing, lavishly ornamental line. The second movement moves decidedly into Bach’s innovative scoring as the players pass buoyant themes freely back and forth, forming an enthusiastic dialogue between the instruments.

In the poignant third movement the instruments continually exchange roles.

The keyboard first plays a chordal accompaniment while the violin sings out an expressive line, then their positions switch as the violin takes on the chordal part and the keyboard swells into its melodious capacity. The lively and animated final movement features two main themes: quick, sprightly runs characterize the beginning and end while the slower middle section is comprised of a contrasting lyrical line full of triplet figurations.

Busoni composed his Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano in 1898, when he was poised between his early and mature compositional periods. Busoni later said he considered this particular sonata his true “Opus 1” with which he found his voice as a composer. The influences here are clear: the sonata features a structure modeled after Beethoven’s piano sonata Op. 109, a quote from a Bach chorale, and the distinctly romantic pianism of Liszt. It is in three movements played without pause. The opening movement begins with a plaintive chordal statement in the piano followed by a long and lyrical violin melody. The texture and tempo gradually climb into quickly moving intensity spurred on by rising and falling pianistic lines before settling into wistful melodicism once more. A brief and lively tarantella makes up the middle movement, the violin launching directly into a spirited melody underscored by agitated rhythmic energy while the pianist moves nimbly about the keyboard in an impish chordal display.

The third and final movement is a set of variations, the theme of which is drawn from the Bach chorale “Wie wohl ist mir” from his Notebook for Anna Magdalena.

A sedate and contemplative introduction precedes the affecting statement of the theme. The variations that follow vary widely in character, ranging from sprightly to impassioned to melancholic. The sonata ends as it began, the piano tolling out the same chordal gesture that opened the work.

SONATA NO. 1 FOR VIOLIN AND KEYBOARD IN B MINOR, BWV 1014 J. S. BACH (1685-1750) We move once more to Bach’s set of six violin sonatas BWV 1014-1019 with the B minor sonata, the first of the collection. If Bach composed this particular sonata before the others in the set (as it is assumed), BWV 1014 could in fact be considered history’s first modern duo sonata. Much like the E major sonata, the B minor is organized in four movements with a slow-fastslow- fast structure.

A supremely expressive and thickly textured Adagio makes up the work’s opening movement. An arpeggiated bassline in the left hand of the keyboard supports parallel thirds and sixths in the right hand while a florid violin line filled with sustained tones and trilling phrase ends soars overhead. The instruments weave sensuously together throughout the movement, the keyboard echoing and developing rich double-stop passages in the violin. The movement concludes with a long final chord underscored with a single deep keyboard note. The second movement takes the form of a spirited fugue with a straightforward trio sonata texture. It bears a three-part structure, lively minor-key running passages bookending a contrasting major middle section.

The third movement is a tranquil Andante with a steady eighth-note bass line, the two melodic voices alternating between moving in counterpoint with one another and merging together in brief passages of shining parallel thirds. Full and brilliant polyphony bursts forth in the final movement in a radiant display of Bach’s contrapuntal prowess.

Each of the three voices move relentlessly forward with their own individual lines, weaving delicate running sixteenth-note figurations in amongst driving repeated-note ideas, all at lightning speed.

SONATA FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO IN G MAJOR, OP. 134

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)

In keeping with the theme of J.S. Bach and those he influenced, we venture at last into the twentieth century with Dmitri Shostakovich’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 134. Shostakovich often cited Bach as a key figure in the development of his musicianship and compositional language. Bach’s approach to counterpoint and fugal writing in particular had a great impact on Shostakovich’s work and is clearly heard in the Sonata for Violin and Piano. Shostakovich completed the sonata in October 1968 and dedicated it to the great Ukrainian violin virtuoso David Oistrakh on the occasion of his 60th birthday. It was Oistrakh who premiered the work in the spring of 1969 in Moscow, where it was met with great enthusiasm.

Of Shostakovich’s three sonatas for string instrument and keyboard, Op. 134 is the longest and perhaps most complex. In addition to the composer’s use of Bachian contrapuntal techniques, we see in this work his growing fascination with 12-tone composition (a technique wherein each note of the chromatic scale is sounded before any are repeated, preventing the emphasis of any particular note or tonality). Indeed, the substantial first movement’s opening bars feature a 12-tone row in the piano. Distinct elements of Shostakovich’s late style are apparent throughout the movement: a sparse texture, a certain amount of rhythmic and metrical freedom, stark open harmonies, and an eerie, almost grim atmosphere pervade the music. Near the movement’s end the violin tolls out passages suggestive of ghostly funeral bells, yet another carryover from Bach.

The middle movement, filled with violent energy and throbbing dance rhythms, provides a harsh contrast to the first. The texture here is thick and gritty, the pace as driving as it is relentless. Pounding piano octaves provide a percussive foundation for jarring register shifts and rasping double stops in the violin.

The movement climbs steadily toward a climax filled with anguished intensity, followed swiftly by the abrupt hammering of closing chords.

A brief introduction opens the third movement, which takes the form of a passacaglia. A weighty set of variations on a theme first stated by the violin in pizzicato proceeds without pause until an anxious, unearthly violin cadenza emerges. This final movement again shows Bach’s influence – it is heavily fugal with hints of chorale-like cadences, and the same haunting funeral bell motive from the first movement’s close appears once more as the sonata ends.

MARY-ANN K. CLINTON ANABETH H. COX MARYSUE HARRIS KEITH HECKMAN and JANET DANIELSON CHARLOTTE HEERMANN MRS. LARRY H. LUSK JOAN M. REIST

SEASON LIEDERS

DOUG and VIKKI KOTIL

SEASON SPONSORS

THIS PERFORMANCE IS SUPPORTED BY THE ANABETH HORMEL COX LIED CENTER PERFORMANCE FUND AND THE JOE W. & RUTH K. SEACREST FUND.