VCH Presents - Master of Violin: James Ehnes

JAMES EHNES MASTER OF VIOLIN:

James Ehnes, violin Andrew Armstrong, piano

23 OCT 2018 VICTORIA CONCERT HALL

TUE

JAMES EHNES VIOLIN James Ehnes is one of the foremost violinists of his generation. Gifted with a rare combination of stunning virtuosity, serene lyricism and an unfaltering musicality, Ehnes is a favourite guest of many of the world’s most respected conductors and orchestras.

Recent and future orchestral highlights include the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall with Noseda, London Symphony with Alsop, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig with Shelley, Vienna Symphony with Elder, New York Philharmonic with Mena, Deutsches SymphonieOrchester Berlin with Slatkin, Chicago Symphony with Gaffigan, Orchestre National de France with Gardner, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Boston Symphony Orchestras with Denève, Frankfurt Radio Symphony with Orozco-Estrada, Pittsburgh Symphony with Honeck, Minnesota Orchestra with Vänskä, Sydney Symphony with Søndergård, Hong Kong Philharmonic with van Zweden and Oslo Philharmonic with Petrenko.

In 2017, Ehnes premiered the Aaron-Jay Kernis Violin Concerto with the Toronto, Seattle and Dallas Symphony Orchestras. Ehnes was awarded the 2017 Royal Philharmonic Society Award in the Instrumentalist category.

Alongside his concerto work, James Ehnes performs regularly at the Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Center Chicago,

Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Ravinia, Montreux, Chaise-Dieu, the White Nights Festival in St Petersburg, Festival de Pâques in Aix, and a sensational 2009 debut at the Salzburg Festival performing the Paganini Caprices. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with leading artists such as Andsnes, Lortie, Vogler, Yo-Yo Ma, Antonio Pappano, Yuja Wang, Nikolaï Lugansky, Antoine Tamestit and Mischa Maisky.

In 2010, he formally established the Ehnes Quartet. Ehnes is also Artistic Director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society.

Ehnes has an extensive award-winning discography including a Gramophone Award for his live recording of the Elgar Concerto with Sir Andrew Davis and the Philharmonia Orchestra.

His recording of the Korngold, Barber and Walton violin concertos won a Grammy Award for ‘Best Instrumental Soloist Performance’ and a JUNO award for ‘Best Classical Album of the Year’. His recording of the Paganini Caprices earned him universal praise, with Diapason writing of the disc, “Ehnes confirms the predictions of Erick Friedman, eminent student of Heifetz: ‘there is only one like him born every hundred years’.”

James Ehnes plays the “Marsick” Stradivarius of 1715.

The “Marsick” Stradivarius (1715) One of Antonio Stradivari’s finest masterpieces, the 1715 “Marsick” Stradivarius has toured the world with Canadian violinist James Ehnes since 1999. The violin was named after French violinist Martin Pierre Marsick (1847-1924) who owned two Stradivari, the other from 1705 which would eventually be owned by David Oistrakh. The wood of the 1715 “Marsick” was taken from the same log as the 1714 “Soil” Stradivari, which was acquired by Itzhak Perlman in 1986. The back is in two pieces of quarter cut maple with medium flame descending from the centre joint. The varnish is a worn reddish-orange, over a golden, luminescent ground.

– Lionel Tan, @the_vieuxtemps_kid

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ANDREW ARMSTRONG PIANO Praised by critics for his passionate expression and dazzling technique, pianist Andrew Armstrong has delighted audiences across Asia, Europe, Latin America, Canada, and the United States, including performances at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and Warsaw’s National Philharmonic.

Andrew’s orchestral engagements across the globe have seen him perform more than 50 concertos. He has performed with such conductors as Peter Oundjian, Itzhak Perlman, Günther Herbig, Stefan Sanderling, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, and has appeared in solo recitals in chamber music concerts with the Elias, Alexander, American, and Manhattan String Quartets, and also as a member of the Caramoor Virtuosi, Boston Chamber Music Society, Seattle Chamber Music Society, and the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players.

Andrew’s debut solo CD featuring Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Sonata and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition was released to great critical acclaim. He followed that success with a disc on Cordelia Records of works by Chopin, Liszt, Debussy, and the world premiere recording of Bielawa’s Wait for piano & drone. He has released several award-winning recordings with his longtime 2

recital partner James Ehnes, including three volumes of the music of Bartók, Prokofiev’s Violin Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2 and Five Melodies, Tartini’s Devil’s Trill and Leclair’s Tambourin Sonata, a recital disc of works by Franck and Strauss, and another of Debussy, Elgar, and Respighi (Onyx Classics). The duo most recently released Beethoven’s Sonatas Nos. 6 & 9 to stellar reviews, Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice, and Sunday Times’ Disc of the Week.

Andrew is devoted to outreach programs and playing for children. In addition to his many concerts, his performances are heard regularly on National Public Radio and WQXR, New York City’s premier classical music station.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770 – 1827) Violin Sonata No. 1 in D major, Op. 12 20’ 1. Allegro con brio 2. Tema con variazioni: Andante con moto 3. Rondo: Allegro Ten out of the dozen violin sonatas Beethoven wrote were from his early years. Beethoven was 16 when his friends recommended that he go to Vienna to study with Mozart. However, with the illness and subsequent death of his mother, he was prevented from doing so until 1792, and by then, Mozart had been dead for a year. He went to the next-best option, Haydn, but lessons did not go well. He sought out Salieri instead, who taught him singing and operatic writing, and Albrechtsberger, who taught him counterpoint.

Dedicated to Salieri, the Opus 12 sonatas and are witty and bold in character. Although influences from Mozart and Haydn can be seen, Beethoven displays a highly innovative assertiveness and an emotional style not found in his predecessors’ works.

The entire Opus 12 was composed for skilled amateurs, and meant as Hausmusik, or music played in homes and enjoyed in smaller settings. The rest of the violin sonatas that came later were written for professionals and virtuosos. One thing remains constant in the violin sonatas throughout the years: even though they were called violin sonatas, Beethoven gave both musicians equal importance, neither one dominates.

Opening the Allegro con brio is an assertive theme with both instruments in unison. The violin comes in with the first lyrical theme, but it is quickly taken over by the piano, then passed around, both taking turns as if having a conversation. Subsequently, the

piano leads with a calmer tune followed by a stately procession of chordal harmonies.

Beethoven modulates briefly to an unexpected and unrelated key - F major, before ending the movement in the sunny key of D major.

Beethoven wrote the second movement in a rather standard Tema con variazoni form, with one theme and four variations. The theme, in two parts, is first introduced by the piano and repeated by the violin before both switch sides.

In the first variation the violin accompanies the piano, and in the second, the violin waxes lyrical over the piano’s accompaniment. The passionate third variation is in a minor key, with both instruments on equal footing. The ending returns to the major, gently bringing the movement to a close.

The finale is a lively and playful Rondo, in 6/8 time and teeming with off-the-beat sforzandos and syncopation, something Beethoven would later be known for doing. The middle section, as if a nod to the first movement, is in F major.

The piano and violin exchange roles frequently, but do not lose the sunny, dance-like character.

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MAURICE RAVEL (1875 – 1937) Violin Sonata No. 2 in G major 17’ 1. Allegretto 2. Blues: Moderato 3. Perpetuum mobile: Allegro Ravel’s Violin Sonata followed a trail of remarkable violin-piano sonatas, all written by French composers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and still often performed today.

This sonata had a four-year gestation period, during which Ravel completed an opera and the popular violin piece Tzigane. Ravel felt that the violin and piano were ‘two fundamentally incompatible instruments’, and ‘assumed the task, far from bringing their differences into equilibrium, of emphasizing their irreconcilability through their independence.’

The friction is seen especially in the Allegretto first movement, where both instruments have highly independent parts, and gentle lyricism is contrasted with sharp, angular and spare textures.

The second movement, unusually titled Blues, is the most forward-looking of the sonata, and dates back to one year before his trip to New York where he met Gershwin, watched Funny Face, and heard Duke Ellington and his Orchestra. Jazz was in its infancy, but Ravel was so fascinated with this emerging genre that he used elements such as flattened sevenths, slides, and jazz harmonies, and syncopated rhythms. On American blues against his movement, he commented: “To my mind, the ‘blues’ is one of your (America’s) greatest musical assets, truly American despite earlier contributory influences from Africa and Spain. Musicians 4

have asked me how I came to write ‘blues’ as the second movement of my recently completed sonata for violin and piano....

While I adopted this popular form of your music, I venture to say that nevertheless it is French music, Ravel’s music, that I have written. Indeed, these popular forms are but the materials of construction, and the work of art appears only on mature conception where no detail has been left to chance.”

The third movement, an Allegro perpetuum mobile, contrasts the rapid, vibrant fiddling of the violin with seemingly simple accompaniment in the piano part. Musical ideas from the former two movements are brought back, driving the movement to a blazing end.

Ravel himself premiered the sonata with violinist Georges Enesco in the famed Parisian Salle Erard, where many famous composers premiered their works. He gave the American premiere a year later with Szigeti on the violin, whose bow allegedly got stuck between two strings in the third movement because Ravel took the performance much faster than the rehearsal!

JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833 – 1897) Scherzo from F.A.E. Sonata 6’ In 1853, then 20, Brahms met the famed violinist Joseph Joachim. The latter was more than impressed. “Brahms has an altogether exceptional talent for composition [...] His playing, too, gives every presage of a great artistic career, full of fire and energy.... In brief, he is the most considerable musician of his age that I have ever met.”

Their friendship blossomed over time, with Joachim giving Brahms several letters of introduction and recommendation, including one addressed to the Schumanns. Brahms took this to Dusseldorf, where the Schumanns immediately recognised his genius. Robert Schumann showed him around town, and introduced him (among others) to his favourite student Albert Dietrich.

As Joachim was to premiere Schumann’s Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra at a music festival in Dusseldorf the next month, Schumann suggested writing a sonata as a gift to Joachim. Dietrich was to write the first movement, Schumann, the second and the finale, and Brahms was to write the Scherzo.

They were to write based on the notes F-A-E, an acronym for Joachim’s personal motto, Frei aber Einsam or “free, but alone.”1

a three-part scherzo form, a brief lyrical middle section sandwiched by two stormy C minor sections. The outer sections are built on a pounding 6/8 meter, with the violin first on an open G string, then answered by hammering chords from the piano.

Throughout the C minor sections, the piano’s bass propels the music forward. The violin writing is confident and assertive, and covers the entire range of the violin.

All four movements were finished quickly and put together in an edition, inscribed with the text “F.A.E.: In Erwartung der Ankunft des verehrten und geliebten Freundes JOSEPH JOACHIM schrieben diese Sonate R.S., J.B., A.D.”2 It was presented to Joachim at a soiree at the Schumann household, and after a playthrough with Clara Schumann as accompanist, he easily identified the composers of each movement. Joachim performed the Scherzo as a standalone work throughout his career, and it was only published in 1906, ten years after Brahms’ death.

This Scherzo is one of Brahms’ earliest surviving works for piano and violin, and follows

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The german words “allein” and “einsam” both mean alone, but “einsam’ refers to a feeling of loneliness, as opposed to being alone.

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“In expectation of the arrival of a revered and beloved friend Joseph Joachim, this sonata is written by R.S., J.B., A.D.” 5

JOHN CORIGLIANO (b. 1938) Sonata for Violin and Piano 23’ 1. Allegro 2. Andantino 3. Lento 4. Allegro This sonata was one of John Corigliano’s early works and his first major work to be widely performed. It was originally written for his father, John Corigliano Sr, concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic; but being a musician himself, he discouraged his son’s efforts and dissuaded him from being a composer, commenting that “Performers don’t want to bother with your work and audiences don’t want to hear it. So what are you doing it for?”

But the junior Corigliano persisted in his composition, working at the radio station to support himself (he was an assistant in Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts), and his efforts finally paid off. The Sonata for Violin and Piano, composed in 1963, won the only prize in the Festival dei Due Mondi or Spoleto Festival in Italy in 1964, earning him the reputation as one of the brightest young American composers.

Written in four movements, Corigliano describes the piece as “an optimistic, ultrarhythmic, tonal-and-then-some duo for two masterful players”. The opening Allegro is in sonata form, and written in C major. Built upon changing meters, it features rapid shifts between plucked and bowed passages, multiple-stops, and is unrelenting in character.

This is contrasted in the second movement, Andantino, a graceful movement that Corigliano marked ‘with simplicity’ and ‘dolce’.

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The music grows increasingly agitated, then settles into a quiet close.

The Lento begins with the piano, and the violin is supposed to pick up the part “broodingly”, as per Corigliano’s instructions. The violin is given a long and difficult cadenza in this movement, then the piano joins in and ends off the movement quietly.

The Allegro finale concludes the sonata in a cheerful mood, combining the rondo form with a moto perpetuo. The music slows down in a central section, marked “dolce, a bit breathless”, and leads into a cadenza for the piano, which brings back the perpetual motion material from the opening. A fierce collision of a C-sharp and D brings the music to a fiery close.

After seeing the popularity and success of the piece, the senior Corigliano finally put away whatever objections he had felt, and went on to learn, record and perform the sonata with pianist Ralph Votapek.

Programme notes by Natalie Ng

Photo of James Ehnes (c) Benjamin Ealovega 7

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