JENNIFER KOH, violin SHAI WOSNER, piano

Transcription

presents
JENNIFER KOH, violin
SHAI WOSNER, piano
Bridge to Beethoven I
Wednesday, November 4 | 7:30pm
Herbst Theatre
BEETHOVEN
Sonata in D Major for Violin and Piano, Opus 12, No. 1
VIJAY IYER
Bridgetower Fantasy
Allegro con brio
Tema con Variazioni: Andante con moto
Rondo: Allegro
Commissioned by MusicBridge, Inc. with the generous support of Augusta Gross, Seth Novatt, and Justus Schlichting
INTERMISSION
BEETHOVEN
Violin Sonata in A Major, Opus 47 “Kreutzer”
Adagio sostenuto; Presto
Andante con Variazioni
Finale: Presto
This project is supported, in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, ArtWorks.
San Francisco Performances acknowledges the generosity of Concert Partners Daniel and Elizabeth Figueredo,
Fred Gertler and Ilene Rockman.
Jennifer Koh and Shai Wosner are represented by Opus 3 Artists, 470 Park Avenue South, 9th Floor North,
New York, NY 10016 opus3artists.com
Hamburg Steinway Model D and piano technical services, Pro Piano, San Francisco.
For Tickets and More: sfperformances.org | 415.392.2545
| 1
ARTIST PROFILES
San Francisco Performances presents Jennifer Koh for the sixth time. She previously appeared in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2010, and 2011.
Shai Wosner makes his San Francisco Performances debut.
Violinist Jennifer Koh is recognized for
her intense, commanding performances,
delivered with dazzling virtuosity and technical assurance. With an impassioned musical curiosity, she is forging an artistic path of
her own devising, choosing works that both
inspire and challenge. She is dedicated to
performing the violin repertoire of all eras
from traditional to contemporary, believing
that the past and present form a continuum.
For her forward-thinking approach to classical music, presenting a broad and eclectic
range of repertoire and fostering multidisciplinary collaborations with artists of all types
and styles, Ms. Koh has been named Musical
America’s 2016 Instrumentalist of the Year.
During the 2015–16 season, Jennifer Koh
and pianist Shai Wosner collaborate in
Bridge to Beethoven, a recital series that pairs
Beethoven’s violin sonatas with new works by
Anthony Cheung, Vijay Iyer, and Andrew Norman, and explores the impact and significance
Beethoven has had on a diverse group of composers and musicians. In addition to these
Bridge to Beethoven performances being presented by SF Performances at Herbst Theatre,
2 | recitals from the series take place at the Aspen
Music and Ravinia festivals, the 92nd Street Y
in New York, in Cambridge, MA presented by
the Celebrity Series of Boston, at Duke University, in Rockville, MD, and in Laguna, Beverly
Hills and Santa Barbara, CA. Orchestral highlights of the season include Ms. Koh’s debut
with the Pittsburgh Symphony and engagements with Buffalo Philharmonic, Helsinki
Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony and
Minnesota Orchestra. Phoenix Symphony. She
will also perform Anna Clyne’s violin concerto
The Seamstress, a work written for her, with
the Cincinnati Symphony and BBC Symphony.
Ms. Koh has been heard with leading orchestras around the world including the
New York and Los Angeles philharmonics,
Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, and
the Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit,
Houston, New World, Montreal, and National symphonies. Abroad she has appeared
with the BBC London and Scottish Symphonies, Czech Philharmonic, Lahti Symphony,
Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, and Orquestra
Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo in Brazil.
A prolific recitalist, she frequently appears at
major music centers and festivals.
The exploration of Bach’s music and its
influence in today’s musical landscape has
played an important role in Ms. Koh’s artistic
journey. She is also passionate in her efforts
to expand the violin repertoire and has established relationships with many of today’s
composers, regularly commissioning and premiering new works. In 2009 she debuted Bach
and Beyond, a three-part recital series that explores the history of the solo violin repertoire
from Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas to works
by modern-day composers and new commissions; in 2012, she launched Two x Four—a
project that pairs Bach’s Double Violin Concerto with newly commissioned double concerti—with her former teacher from the Curtis
Institute of Music, violinist Jaime Laredo; and
she frequently performs the complete Bach
Sonatas and Partitas in a single concert.
Ms. Koh regularly records for Cedille Records. Her discography includes Bach and Beyond Part 1 and Bach and Beyond Part 2, based
on her recital series of the same name; Two x
Four, an album of double violin concertos with
Jaime Laredo and the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble;
Signs, Games + Messages, a recording of violin
and piano works by Janáček, Bartók and Kurtág with pianist Shai Wosner; and the Grammynominated String Poetic, featuring the world
premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s eponymous
work, performed with pianist Reiko Uchida.
Born in Chicago of Korean parents, Ms. Koh
began playing the violin by chance, choosing
the instrument in a Suzuki-method program
only because spaces for cello and piano had
been filled. She made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 11. In a shift
of disciplines, Ms. Koh earned her Bachelor of
Arts degree in English literature from Oberlin
College before studying at the Curtis Institute,
where she worked extensively with Jaime Laredo and Felix Galimir. Ms. Koh is on the string
faculty of New York University’s Steinhardt
School of Culture, Education and Human Development. Ms. Koh is the Artistic Director of
MusicBridge, a non-profit organization she
founded in 2013 to foster and promote collaborations between artists of diverse disciplines
and styles. MusicBridge provides leadership
and support for innovative music and artistic
commissions, educational initiatives, and professional development of classical musicians.
MusicBridge exists to build a community of artists working together to expand appreciation
for classical music performances and artistry.
For more information go to musicbridge.org.
Pianist Shai Wosner has attracted international recognition for his exceptional
artistry, musical integrity and creative insight. His performances of a broad range of
repertoire, from Beethoven and Mozart to
Schoenberg and Ligeti, as well as music by
his contemporaries, communicate his imaginative programming and intellectual curiosity. Mr. Wosner has appeared with major
orchestras worldwide including the Chicago
Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles
Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra,
Philadelphia Orchestra and San Francisco
Symphony in the US, and the Barcelona Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Hamburg
Symphony, LSO St. Luke’s and Staatskapelle
Berlin in Europe, among others. He has
worked with conductors Daniel Barenboim,
James Conlon, Alan Gilbert, Zubin Mehta and
Leonard Slatkin. Mr. Wosner is the recipient
of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award—a prize he used to
commission Michael Hersch’s concerto Along
the Ravines, which he then performed with
the Seattle Symphony and Deutsche Radio
Philharmonie-Saarbrücken.
During the 2015–16 season, Mr. Wosner
continues his collaborations with violinist
Jennifer Koh with the Bridge to Beethoven series. By pairing Beethoven’s ten sonatas for
violin and piano with new works over four
programs, this project seeks to ignite creative
conversations around his music not only
as a cornerstone of classical music but as a
universal, culture-crossing source of inspiration. Bridge to Beethoven will be presented in
venues such as the 92nd Street Y in New York
City, Hahn Hall in Santa Barbara, and Herbst
Theatre in San Francisco, among others. Mr.
Wosner’s upcoming orchestral engagements
include performances with the Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe, Hungarian National
Philharmonic Orchestra, Columbus Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony, Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, and
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.
For more information on Mr. Wosner, please
visit his fan page on Facebook (facebook.com/
ShaiWosner) and his website (shaiwosner.com).
PROGRAM NOTES
Sonata in D Major for Violin
and Piano, Opus 12, No. 1
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Born December 16, 1770, Bonn
Died March 26, 1827, Vienna
At the age of not quite 22, Beethoven arrived in Vienna in November 1792, to remain
there the rest of his life. In his adopted city
he studied with Haydn and Salieri (among
others) and quickly established a reputation
as a virtuoso pianist. More slowly, he began
to make his name as a composer. At first he
wrote primarily for piano (his first ten opus
numbers include eight piano sonatas), but he
wrote for strings too, and in 1797-98 he composed his first violin sonatas, a set of three
works which he published as his Opus 12.
These three sonatas may lack the originality
and high profile of Beethoven’s later violin sonatas, but to contemporary ears they sounded
daring enough: an early reviewer complained
that these sonatas offered “a forced attempt
at strange modulations, an aversion to the
conventional key relationships, a piling up of
difficulty upon difficulty.”
Listening to the very beginning of Beethoven’s
Sonata in D Major, one can understand that reviewer’s concerns: this sonata seems to explode
in a shower of rockets going off in every direction. The first movement is marked Allegro con
brio, with the emphasis on the con brio: this is
fiery, spirited music, full of explosive chords
and much rushing up and down the scale. A
flowing second theme brings some relief, but
the principal impression is of energy boiling up
off the page, and the movement ends with the
same massive chord that opened it.
The second movement is a set of variations. The piano introduces the song-like
theme, which is then repeated by the violin.
Four variations follow: the first is for piano
accompanied by violin, the second for violin
with a complex piano accompaniment, the
third moves into A minor (and turns violent),
and the fourth is built on quiet syncopations
before a brief coda brings the movement to
its close. The high-spirited finale is a rondo
whose central theme is energized by off-thebeat accents; Beethoven teases the audience
nicely just before the rush to the close.
Bridgetower Fantasy
VIJAY IYER
Born October 26, 1971, Albany, New York
The composer has prepared a program
note for this work:
The “Kreutzer Sonata” was originally dedicated not to Rodolphe Kreutzer (who never
performed it), but to George Bridgetower, a
famed 18th-century Afro-European concert
violinist. In an early draft, Beethoven jokingly
labeled the piece in starkly racialized terms:
“Sonata Mulattica composed for the mulatto
Brischdauer, big wild mulatto composer.”
Beethoven and Bridgetower performed the
premiere, which was by all accounts a success, even featuring some improvised embellishments by the violinist. While celebrating
afterwards, the two quarreled about what
Beethoven construed as Bridgetower’s insult of a female acquaintance; the composer
then revoked the original dedication, adding
Kreutzer’s name instead. The work gained
fame, while Bridgetower’s career languished;
he eventually died in poverty.
Bridgetower has been the subject of considerable research and speculation, most notably
in poet Rita Dove’s book, Sonata Mulattica.
From our 21st century vantage, considering
Bridgetower’s unique circumstance, we can
only see him as an ambiguous figure who, in
embodying difference, provoked inspiration,
fantasy, desire, anger and finally, erasure.
My piece is a collection of imaginings about
George Bridgetower. It is not programmatic,
but it takes on an episodic character assembled from contrasting fragments. The dance
rhythms, recurring figures and gestural contours are intended to feature the embodied
expertise and expressivity of the performers,
who at times must access liminal sounds and
execute complex synchronies. I am grateful
to Jenny and Shai for involving me in their
beautiful, virtuosic music-making.
Violin Sonata in A Major,
Opus 47 “Kreutzer”
Beethoven wrote this sonata, his ninth
for violin and piano, in the spring of 1803.
It was first performed on May 24 of that
year, though Beethoven barely got it done
in time—he called his copyist at 4:30 that
morning to begin copying a part for him,
and at the concert he and the violinist had to
perform some of the music from Beethoven’s
manuscript. The violinist on that occasion was George Polgreen Bridgetower
(1778–1860), a virtuoso who had performed
throughout Europe. Beethoven was so taken
with Bridgetower’s playing that he intended
to dedicate the sonata to him, and we might
know this music today as the Bridgetower
Sonata but for the fact that the composer
and the violinist quarreled and Beethoven
dedicated it instead to the French violinist
Rodolphe Kreutzer, whom he had met in Vienna a few years earlier. But Kreutzer found
this music beyond his understanding and—
ironically—never performed the sonata that
bears his name.
As soon as he completed this sonata,
Beethoven set to work on his Eroica symphony, which would occupy him for the
next six months. While the Kreutzer Sonata
does not engage the heroic issues of the first
movement of that symphony, it has something of the Eroica’s slashing power and
vast scope. Beethoven was well aware of
this and warned performers that the sonata
was “written in a very concertante style,
quasi-concerto-like.” From the first instant,
one senses that this is music conceived on
continued on page 6
| 3
presents
SHAI WOSNER, piano
Bridge to Beethoven II
Saturday, November 7 | 7:30pm
Herbst Theatre
BEETHOVEN
Sonata in A minor for Violin and Piano, Opus 23
Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano, Opus 12, No. 2
Presto
Andante scherzoso, più allegretto
Allegro molto
Allegro vivace
Andante, più tosto Allegretto
Allegro piacevole
INTERMISSION
JÖRG WIDMANN
Sommersonate
BEETHOVEN
Sonata in F Major for Violin and Piano, Opus 24 “Spring”
Allegro
Adagio molto espressivo
Scherzo: Allegro molto
Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo
4 | For Tickets and More: sfperformances.org | 415.392.2545
ARTIST PROFILES
For profiles of Jennifer Koh and Shai Wosner,
please refer to page 4.
PROGRAM NOTES
this movement makes is of a barely-restrained
energy, and at the close the violin comes soaring suddenly downward and the music is over
almost before one knows it, some of its energy
still hovering in the air even after the instruments have stopped playing.
Sonata in A Major for Violin
Sonata in A minor for Violin and Piano, Opus 12, No. 2
and Piano, Opus 23
In 1800–01, shortly after completing his
First Symphony, Beethoven composed two
violin sonatas, and evidence suggests that he
intended them as a set—not only were they
composed and published together, but he
apparently intended that they should be performed together, as they are on this program.
One of these, in F Major, acquired the nickname “Spring” and went on to well-deserved
fame. Its companion, a spicy and explosive
(and comic) sonata in A minor, has always
languished a little in the shade of the “Spring”
Sonata, which is too bad—this is a terrific
piece of music. One of the most striking characteristics of this work is the power of its
outer movements. Where the gentle “Spring”
Sonata spins long melodies, the Sonata in A
minor spits out and develops short phrases
full of energy. Yet—curiously—all three movements of this animated sonata end quietly.
The Presto explodes into being on the
motto-like opening subject, with the piano
lashing the music forward. Beethoven makes
sharp dynamic contrasts here, and the 6/8
meter—which gallops so furiously at the
opening—also yields the graceful second
theme. There are repeats of both exposition
and development, and the end of the movement comes suddenly—massed chords suddenly collapse into a pianissimo close.
By contrast, the Andante scherzoso, piu Allegretto sings playfully, as if Beethoven is content
to have fun with the listener (and the performers) after the fury of the opening. The instruments comment, answer, and imitate each
other, and throughout the movement runs an
ornate little theme that Beethoven treats fugally. After much pleasant interchange, the movement closes very quietly. The Allegro molto begins quietly as well, but here the music surges
ahead continuously. The piano has the steady
opening idea, while the violin’s line is simplicity itself, built of repeated notes. Some of the
imitation-and-answer of the middle movement
recurs in the finale, and there are soaring lyric
episodes here too. But the principal impression
Beethoven composed his first violin sonatas, the three works of his Opus 12, in 179798, a few years after his arrival in Vienna.
Beethoven was both a virtuoso pianist and
an accomplished violinist, and the graceful writing for the two instruments shows a
young composer already fully in command
of his forces. Too much has been made of the
fact that Beethoven referred to these works
as “sonatas for keyboard and violin,” as if
the violin were an afterthought, a subordinate voice in what are otherwise piano sonatas: from the very beginning, Beethoven
conceived this music for an equal partnership of violin and piano. He dedicated these
sonatas to Antonio Salieri, who was at that
time instructing Beethoven in writing for
the voice.
The Sonata in A Major, the best known of the
set, opens with an Allegro vivace that presents
its performers with a number of problems.
From the first measure the violin plays a quiet
but incessant “oom-pah-pah” figure that recurs through the movement (in both violin and
piano) with almost metronomic regularity; it
is the job of the performers to breathe vitality
into what—in a careless performance—might
become repetitive and dull. This sonata-form
movement is built on a wealth of ideas: the
two-note figure that accompanies the “oompah-pah” rhythm, a graceful 6/8 theme that
blossoms out as a blast of sixteenth-notes,
and—in somber contrast—a slow melody that
foreshadows later Beethoven. The movement
taps itself out with a comic dialogue between
piano and violin on the two-note figure.
In complete contrast, the Andante, più
tosto Allegretto wears its heart on its sleeve.
Lacking the intensity of Beethoven’s later
slow movements, this one strikes an almost
self-consciously serious pose with the heavily dotted theme of the opening setting its
tone. The final movement, Allegro piacevole,
skips along happily on its opening melody
(piacevole means “agreeable”). A lyric episode in D Major is in much the same spirit as
the opening, and the movement concludes
with an energetic shower of A-Major arpeggios from the piano.
Sommersonate
JÖRG WIDMANN
Born June 19, 1973, Munich
Composer and clarinetist Jörg Widmann received his early training in his native Munich,
then spent a year at the Juilliard School studying clarinet with Charles Neidich. He returned
to Munich to study composition with Hans
Werner Henze and Wilfried Hiller and later
with Wolfgang Rihm. Widmann has been Professor of Clarinet at the Hochschule für Musik
in Freiburg since 2001, and he currently divides his time between Freiburg and Munich.
As a composer, he has won numerous awards,
and his music has been widely performed by
such conductors as Jonathan Nott, Sylvain
Cambreling, Christian Thielemann, and Kent
Nagano. Pierre Boulez led the Vienna Philharmonic in the premiere of Widmann’s Armonica at the 2007 Salzburg Festival. Widmann
has served as composer-in-residence for the
Cleveland Orchestra, the Salzburg Festival,
the Lucerne Festival, and other organizations.
In his own music, Widmann has been concerned with making connections between the
past and the present, and his Sommersonate
(“Summer-Sonata”) may be understood as a response to Beethoven’s “Spring” Sonata, heard
earlier on this program. Widmann has supplied a brief description of this music: “I wrote
the first movement of my Sommersonate in the
summer of 2010, and though a self-contained
work, it called out for continuation or a companion piece. I imagine the first movement,
marked Moderato, to be bright free, weightless, transparent, flooded in sunlight. In contrast, the newly composed second movement
is nocturnal and cryptic, with a restrained
glow. A Romance, a (summer) night piece.”
Violinist Renaud Capuçon and pianist
Frank Brayley gave the first performances
of the two movements of the Sommersonate,
though at different locations and times. They
premiered the opening Moderato in Berlin
on September 17, 2010 and the concluding
Romanze in Aix-en-Provence on April 5, 2013.
Jennifer Koh and Shai Wosner gave the American premiere in 2014.
Sonata in F Major for
Violin and Piano, Opus 24
“Spring”
The Sonata in A minor—the mate to the
“Spring,” and with which we began this evening—is sharp, pithy, almost violent, but the
“Spring” is flowing, long-lined, and relaxed.
| 5
The nickname “Spring” for this sonata did
not originate with Beethoven, but this is one
of those rare instances when someone else’s
nickname for a piece of music is exactly
right—no matter how often one has heard this
music, it always sounds fresh.
The Spring Sonata opens with a long arc
of seamless melody, one of the loveliest
Beethoven ever wrote. Beethoven first has the
violin play it, then—as if reluctant to give up
something so beautiful—he gives the same
theme to the piano: the double statement of
the opening theme extends over 25 measures.
If spring is said to go out like a lamb, there is a
darker side to this music that reminds us that
it can come in like a lion, and one of the particular pleasures of the opening movement
is the contrast between the sunny opening
melody and the darker secondary material.
After an extended development, the movement ends on a fragment of the opening idea.
The Adagio molto espressivo is of extremely
simple structure: first the piano and then the
violin play the song-like main idea, which
develops not through a rise in tension but by
increasingly complex ornamentation. An effective touch here is the steady flow of murmuring sixteenth-notes: that rippling, murmuring
sound—present throughout almost the entire
movement—complements the music’s serenity.
The Scherzo is brilliant. One of Beethoven’s
most original movements, it lasts barely a
minute—the ear has only begun to adjust to
the dazzling asymmetry of its rhythms when it
ends. Beethoven intentionally makes it sound
“wrong”—the violin appears to be one beat
late—and the real fun of this movement comes
at the very end, where “wrong” music resolves
so gracefully that listeners suddenly become
aware just how “right” it has been all along.
The concluding Rondo returns to the mood
of the opening movement, for it too is built
on what seems to be a never-ending flow of
melody, music that spins on effortlessly. Full
of good-spirited energy, this movement offers several varied episodes along the way,
but the chief impression is the graceful
ease of what is some of the sunniest music
Beethoven ever wrote.
—Program notes by Eric Bromberger
Bridge 11/4 Notes
continued from page 3
a grand scale. The sonata opens with a slow
introduction (the only one in Beethoven’s ten
violin sonatas), a cadenza-like entrance for
the violin alone. The piano makes a similarly
dramatic entrance, and gradually the two in-
struments outline the interval of a rising halfstep that will figure prominently in the first
movement. At the Presto, the music explodes
forward, while Beethoven provides calmer
episodes along the way, including a choralelike second subject marked dolce. The burning energy of this Presto opening is never
far off—the music whips along on an almost
machine-gun-like patter of eight-notes, and
these eventually drive the movement to its
abrupt cadence.
Relief comes in the Andante con Variazioni. The piano introduces the central theme,
amiable but itself already fairly complex,
and there follow four lengthy variations.
The final movement—Presto—returns to the
mood of the first. A simple A-Major chord
is the only introduction, and off the music
goes. Beethoven had written this movement,
a tarantella, in 1802, intending that it should
be the finale of his Violin Sonata in A Major,
Opus 30, No. 1. But he pulled it out and wrote
a new finale for the earlier sonata, and that
was a wise decision—this fiery finale would
have overpowered that gentle sonata. Here,
though, it becomes the perfect conclusion to
one of the most powerful pieces of chamber
music ever written.
Hotel Rex is Proud to Host
the 2015/16 Salon Series
of San Francisco Performances.
September 30
Julian Lage, guitar
October 21
Efraín Solís, baritone
December 9
Julio Elizalde, piano
January 28
(Thursday)
Nicholas Phan, tenor
February 24
Telegraph Quartet
March 23
May 4
Edward Nelson, baritone
Sarah Cahill, piano
All Performances on Wednesdays from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
except for Nicholas Phan which is on Thursday, January 28
562 sutter street san francisco, ca 94102 tel 415.433.4434 res 800.433.4434 thehotelrex.com
hotel rex is a joie de vivre hotel.
6 | For Tickets and More: sfperformances.org | 415.392.2545
presents
SHAI WOSNER, piano
Bridge to Beethoven III
Wednesday, March 30, 2016 | 7:30pm
Herbst Theatre
ANDREW NORMAN Bridging I [BAY AREA PREMIERE]
BEETHOVEN
Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano, Opus 30, No. 1
NORMAN
Bridging II
BEETHOVEN
Sonata in G Major for Violin and Piano, Opus 30, No. 3
Allegro
Adagio molto espressivo
Allegro con variazioni
Allegro assai
Tempo di Minuetto, ma molto moderato e grazioso
Allegro vivace
INTERMISSION
NORMAN
Bridging III
BEETHOVEN
Sonata in C minor for Violin and Piano, Opus 30, No. 2
Allegro con brio
Adagio cantabile
Scherzo: Allegro
Finale: Allegro
| 1
ARTIST PROFILES
San Francisco Performances presents Jennifer Koh for the eighth time. She previously appeared in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2011, and
twice in November 2015. Shai Wosner makes his
third San Francisco Performances appearance
after his debut performances in November 2015.
Violinist Jennifer Koh is recognized for
her intense, commanding performances,
delivered with dazzling virtuosity and technical assurance. With an impassioned musical curiosity, she is forging an artistic path of
Beethoven’s violin sonatas with new works
by Anthony Cheung, Vijay Iyer, and Andrew
Norman, and explores the impact and significance Beethoven has had on a diverse group
of composers and musicians. In addition to
these Bridge to Beethoven performances being presented by SF Performances at Herbst
Theatre, recitals from the series take place at
2 | the Aspen Music and Ravinia festivals, the
92nd Street Y in New York, in Cambridge, MA
presented by the Celebrity Series of Boston,
at Duke University, in Rockville, MD, and in
Laguna Beach, Beverly Hills and Santa Barbara, CA. Orchestral highlights of the season
include Ms. Koh’s debut with the Pittsburgh
Symphony and engagements with Buffalo
Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra and
Phoenix Symphony. She will also perform
Anna Clyne’s violin concerto The Seamstress,
a work written for her, with the Cincinnati
Symphony and BBC Symphony.
The exploration of Bach’s music and its influence in today’s musical landscape has played
an important role in Ms. Koh’s artistic journey.
She is also passionate in her efforts to expand
the violin repertoire and has established relationships with many of today’s composers,
regularly commissioning and premiering new
works. In 2009 she debuted Bach and Beyond, a
three-part recital series that explores the history
of the solo violin repertoire from Bach’s Sonatas
and Partitas to works by modern-day composers
and new commissions; in 2012, she launched
Two x Four—a project that pairs Bach’s Double
Violin Concerto with newly commissioned double concerti—with her former teacher from the
Curtis Institute of Music, violinist Jaime Laredo;
and she frequently performs the complete Bach
Pianist Shai Wosner has attracted international recognition for his exceptional
artistry, musical integrity and creative insight. His performances of a broad range of
repertoire, from Beethoven and Mozart to
Schoenberg and Ligeti, as well as music by
his contemporaries, communicate his imaginative programming and intellectual curiosity. Mr. Wosner has appeared with major
orchestras worldwide including the Chicago
Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles
Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra,
Philadelphia Orchestra and San Francisco
Symphony in the US, and the Barcelona Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Hamburg
Symphony, LSO St. Luke’s and Staatskapelle
Berlin in Europe, among others. He has
worked with conductors Daniel Barenboim,
James Conlon, Alan Gilbert, Zubin Mehta and
Leonard Slatkin. Mr. Wosner is the recipient
of an Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award,
an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a BorlettiBuitoni Trust Award—a prize he used to commission Michael Hersch’s concerto Along the
Ravines, which he then performed with the
Seattle Symphony and Deutsche Radio Philharmonie-Saarbrücken.
include performances with the Badische
Staatskapelle Karlsruhe, Hungarian National
meadows, and a view of distant mountains.
Yet for all its productiveness, this was an
agonizing summer for Beethoven—he finally
had to face the fact that his hearing problems
would eventually mean total deafness. In an
extraordinary letter to his two brothers that
fall before he returned to Vienna—never sent
and perhaps written to himself—Beethoven
confessed that he had considered suicide
that summer.
But that summer proved extremely productive for the 31-year-old composer. In Heiligenstadt Beethoven completed the three
violin sonatas of his Opus 30, the three piano
sonatas of Opus 31, his Second Symphony,
and several other works for piano. While
there are occasional moments of turmoil in
this music, this is in general some of the sunniest music—particularly the symphony—he
ever wrote. Beethoven was much too great an
artist to let the events of his own life dictate
or stain his art. He would have agreed completely with T.S. Eliot that the greater the
artist, the greater the separation he makes
between his life and his art, and one looks
in vain (fortunately!) for suicidal impulses in
the music Beethoven wrote during the summer of 1802.
Sonata in A Major for Violin
PROGRAM NOTES
The first of these three sonatas—in A major—is the least familiar of the set. It is not
stormy and dramatic like the second, nor brilliant like the third. This is music of neither
Bridging
flash nor dazzle, and in fact understatement
ANDREW NORMAN
is the key to its powerful appeal: the Sonata
Born 1979, U.S.
in A Major is music of quiet nobility. It is also
apparently the sonata that gave Beethoven
Bridging I, II, and III are interludes written the most trouble; he had originally written
specifically to go between Beethoven’s Sona- a dramatic finale but discarded it and wrote
tas, Opus 30, Nos. 1, 2 and 3. Each interlude a new final movement (the discarded movebegins with the end of one of the sonatas and ment later became the finale of the Kreutzer
transforms it, through repetition and varia- Sonata).
tion, into the beginning of the next.
The Allegro grows smoothly out of the pia no’s quiet opening figure, the violin entering
—Andrew Norman as part of the same noble rising phrase. The
second theme, announced first by the piano
and quickly repeated by the violin, is flowThree Sonatas for Violin
ing and melodic. This movement defies easy
and Piano, Opus 30
description. Graceful and elegant it certainly
is, and—despite some effective contrast of
loud and soft passages—it remains gentle
throughout; yet even this description does
not begin to convey the grandeur of this muBeethoven liked to escape from hot Vienna sic, which is all the more effective because it
to spend his summers in the countryside, and refuses to become brilliant or go to dramatic
in April 1802 he moved to Heiligenstadt. Now extremes.
a suburb of Vienna, Heiligenstadt was then a
The Adagio molto espressivo is built on the
rural village, offering sunshine, streams and violin’s lovely opening melody. This move-
ment sounds very much like Mozart’s cantabile slow movements—a long slow melody
turns into a graceful arc of music. Beethoven
gives the piano a quietly-rocking accompaniment, which later becomes quiet triplets.
The last movement—Allegro con Variazioni—
is also very much in the manner of Mozart,
who used theme-and-variation form for the
last movement of several of his violin sonatas. Beethoven was right to reject his original
finale—it would have overpowered the first
two movements, and it now forms a proper
conclusion to the massive Kreutzer Sonata.
The present finale is a perfect close for this
sonata. The opening theme undergoes six
variations, all easily followed, as this graceful music moves to its poised conclusion.
Sonata in G Major for Violin
The last of the three violin sonatas
Beethoven wrote in Heiligenstadt has deservedly become one of his most popular. If the
first of the three is characterized by quiet nobility and the second by turbulent drama, the
last is marked by high spirits and energy. Of
all Beethoven’s violin sonatas, this one looks
the most “black” on the page, for its outer
movements are built on an almost incessant
pulse of sixteenth notes. But for all its energy,
this sonata never sounds forced or hurried.
Throughout, it remains one of Beethoven’s
freshest and most graceful scores.
The very beginning of the Allegro assai
sets the mood: quietly but suddenly the music winds up and leaps upward across nearly
three octaves. It is a brilliant beginning, and
Beethoven will make full use of the energy
compressed into those three quick octaves.
Almost instantly the flowing second theme is
heard, and these two ideas—one turbulent, the
other lyric—alternate throughout the movement before the music comes to a close made
all the more effective by its sudden silence.
Beethoven marks the second movement
Tempo di Minuetto, but specifies ma molto
moderato e grazioso. This is not the sort of
minuet one might dance to, and the key signal is grazioso, for this is unusually graceful
music. The beginning is wonderful. The piano
has the haunting main theme, while the violin
accompanies. But the violin accompaniment
has such a distinct character that it is almost
as if Beethoven is offering two quite different
themes simultaneously. Both ideas are part
of the development, interrupted at times by
other episodes before the quiet close: the main
theme breaks down into fragments and vanishes in a wisp of sound. The concluding Allegro
vivace is a perpetual-motion movement: the
| 3
piano launches things on their way, and both
instruments hurtle through the good-natured
finale. A second theme tries to establish itself but is quickly swept aside by the opening
theme, which powers its way cheerfully forward. There are some nice touches along the
way: at one point the music comes to a screeching stop, and then over the piano’s “oom-pah”
rhythm Beethoven launches into the “wrong”
key of E-flat, only to make his way back into the
home key of G to bring this sonata to its brilliant close.
Sonata in C minor for Violin
The choice of key for this sonata is important, for C minor was the key Beethoven employed for works of unusual intensity. The
recently completed “Pathetique” Sonata,
Fourth String Quartet, and Third Piano Concerto were in C minor, and in the next several years Beethoven would use that key for
the Funeral March of the Eroica, the Fifth
Symphony, and the Coriolan Overture. The
4 | musical conflict that fires those works is
also evident in this sonata, which is—with
the Kreutzer Sonata—the most dramatic of
Beethoven’s ten violin sonatas.
The opening movement is marked Allegro con brio, the same indication Beethoven
would later use for the opening movements
of the Third and Fifth Symphonies, and the
sonata’s first movement has a dramatic
scope similar to those symphonies. It opens
quietly with a recurrent brooding figure that
ends with a sudden turn, like the quick flick
of a dragon’s tail. The violin soon picks this
up and also has the second subject, which
marches along clipped dotted rhythms.
There is no exposition repeat, and Beethoven
slips into the development quietly, but soon
the energy pent up in these simple figures
is unleashed—this dramatic music features
massive chording by both instruments and
drives to a huge climax.
By contrast, the Adagio cantabile opens
with a melody of disarming gentleness, once
again announced by the piano, and much
of this movement sings gracefully. As it de-
velops, however, the accompaniment grows
more complex, and soon these murmuring
runs begin to take over the music; Beethoven
makes sharp dynamic contrasts before bringing the movement to a quiet close. The brief
Scherzo: Allegro is full of stinging accents
and rhythmic surprises; its trio section is a
subtle variation of the movement’s opening
theme, here treated in canon.
The Finale: Allegro returns to the mood of
the opening movement—again there is a quiet but ominous opening full of suppressed
energy that will later explode to life. This finale is in modified sonata-rondo form, and
despite an occasional air of play and some
appealing lyric moments, the movement partakes of the same atmosphere of suppressed
tension that has marked the entire sonata.
Beethoven brings it to a suitably dramatic
close with a blazing coda marked Presto that
remains resolutely in C minor.
presents
SHAI WOSNER, piano
Bridge to Beethoven IV
Saturday, April 2, 2016 | 7:30pm
Herbst Theatre
BEETHOVEN
Violin Sonata in E-flat Major, Opus 12, No. 3
Allegro con spirito
Adagio con molt’espressione
Rondo: Allegro molto
ANTHONY CHEUNG Elective Memory
Aubade, for a Golden Age
Broken Scherzo: Tripping Up, Falling Down
Nocturne, Half-Remembered
INTERMISSION
BEETHOVEN
Violin Sonata in G Major, Opus 96
Allegro moderato
Adagio espressivo
Scherzo: Allegro—Trio
Poco allegretto; Adagio espressivo
| 1
ARTIST PROFILES
San Francisco Performances presents Jennifer
Koh for the ninth time. She previously appeared
in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2011, and three times
this season. Shai Wosner makes his fouth San
Francisco Performances appearance after his
debut performances in November 2015.
Violinist Jennifer Koh is recognized for her
intense, commanding performances, delivered with dazzling virtuosity and technical
assurance. With an impassioned musical
curiosity, she is forging an artistic path of
Beethoven’s violin sonatas with new works
by Anthony Cheung, Vijay Iyer, and Andrew
Norman, and explores the impact and significance Beethoven has had on a diverse group
of composers and musicians. In addition to
these Bridge to Beethoven performances being presented by SF Performances at Herbst
Theatre, recitals from the series take place at
2 | the Aspen Music and Ravinia festivals, the
92nd Street Y in New York, in Cambridge, MA
presented by the Celebrity Series of Boston,
at Duke University, in Rockville, MD, and in
Laguna Beach, Beverly Hills and Santa Barbara, CA. Orchestral highlights of the season
include Ms. Koh’s debut with the Pittsburgh
Symphony and engagements with Buffalo
Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra and
Phoenix Symphony. She will also perform
Anna Clyne’s violin concerto The Seamstress,
a work written for her, with the Cincinnati
Symphony and BBC Symphony.
The exploration of Bach’s music and its influence in today’s musical landscape has played
an important role in Ms. Koh’s artistic journey.
She is also passionate in her efforts to expand
the violin repertoire and has established relationships with many of today’s composers,
regularly commissioning and premiering new
works. In 2009 she debuted Bach and Beyond, a
three-part recital series that explores the history
of the solo violin repertoire from Bach’s Sonatas
and Partitas to works by modern-day composers
and new commissions; in 2012, she launched
Two x Four—a project that pairs Bach’s Double
Violin Concerto with newly commissioned double concerti—with her former teacher from the
Curtis Institute of Music, violinist Jaime Laredo;
and she frequently performs the complete Bach
Pianist Shai Wosner has attracted international recognition for his exceptional artistry,
musical integrity and creative insight. His performances of a broad range of repertoire, from
Beethoven and Mozart to Schoenberg and
Ligeti, as well as music by his contemporaries,
communicate his imaginative programming
and intellectual curiosity. Mr. Wosner has
appeared with major orchestras worldwide
including the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland
Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony in the
US, and the Barcelona Symphony, Frankfurt
Radio Symphony, Hamburg Symphony, LSO
St. Luke’s and Staatskapelle Berlin in Europe,
among others. He has worked with conductors Daniel Barenboim, James Conlon, Alan
Gilbert, Zubin Mehta and Leonard Slatkin. Mr.
S
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ON
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—New York Times
N
MA
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OJ
“new music mecca”
Q
THE CHORAL P
IC
AR
CLYNE
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Wosner is the recipient of an Lincoln Center’s
Martin E. Segal Award, an Avery Fisher Career
Grant and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award—a
prize he used to commission Michael Hersch’s
concerto Along the Ravines, which he then
performed with the Seattle Symphony and
Deutsche Radio Philharmonie-Saarbrücken.
include performances with the Badische
Staatskapelle Karlsruhe, Hungarian National
PROGRAM NOTES
Violin Sonata in
E-flat Major, Opus 12, No. 3
When Beethoven published his first three
violin sonatas as his Opus 12 in 1798, he had
already written ten other sonatas: eight for
piano and two for cello. The title page of
Opus 12 bears a specific description of the
sonatas by the composer—“For harpsichord
or piano, with violin”—as if the violin were
an afterthought, an optional participant
in what are essentially keyboard sonatas.
Beethoven’s description needs to be taken
with a grain of salt. The sonatas clearly require a piano rather than a harpsichord,
for no harpsichord could meet Beethoven’s
quite specific dynamic requirements in these
works. And the apparent relegation of the
violin to a subordinate role is misleading as
well, for these are true duo sonatas, sonatas
in which both instruments share the musical
and harmonic interest.
4 | That said, however, it must be admitted
that the Allegro con spirito first movement
of the Sonata in E-flat Major is one of those
places where the piano gets the lion’s share
of the music. From the very beginning, the
piano has a near-virtuoso role, introducing
the main idea and hurtling up and down the
keyboard, with the violin often providing no
more than unobtrusive chordal accompaniment. The violin introduces the gentle second theme of this sonata-form movement
and has a lovely passage at the recapitulation, but most of the show in this first movement belongs to the piano.
The quiet second movement, Adagio con
molt’espressione, has justly been praised
as one of the finest slow movements from
Beethoven’s early period. Here the long,
singing main theme is shared in turn by
both voices, and particularly effective is the
middle section where the violin sings gracefully above murmuring piano accompaniment. The final movement—Allegro molto—is
a rondo. The piano announces the theme, the
violin repeats it, and the two instruments sail
through this movement, gracefully taking
turns as each has the theme, then accompanies the other.
Elective Memory (2015)
Commissioned by MusicBridge, Inc. with the
generous support of Augusta Gross, Seth Novatt, and Justus Schlichting. Dedicated to Jennifer Koh and Shai Wosner. First performance:
Jennifer Koh and Shai Wosner on February
14, 2016, at the Laguna Beach Music Festival,
with additional performances on March 21,
2016 at the 92nd Street Y, New York, and April
2, 2016, at Herbst Theatre, San Francisco.
ANTHONY CHEUNG
Born 1982, San Francisco
When I was approached by Jenny Koh to
write a piece in conversation with Beethoven’s
Sonata Opus 96 in early 2013, I was just starting to embark on several projects with the
specific goal of responding to Beethoven.
The orchestral work Lyra (2013–14) was inspired by the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice
throughout the history of western music and
its possible connection to Beethoven’s Fourth
Piano Concerto in particular, and the piano
quintet Bagatelles (2014) took fragments of
the Coriolan Overture and Fifth Symphony
as points of departure. Thus the appeal was
especially timely and prescient, though the
shadow and influence of Beethoven has
been a constant theme throughout my life
as a composer and pianist. The composers
in the Bridge to Beethoven project have each
responded in very different ways to the calling, weaving biographical strands into re
imagined histories and recontextualizing
individual movements with interludes. The title Elective Memory is somewhat of a
cross between selective memory, either unconscious or by will, and elective affinity, a concept made famous by Goethe as a kind of pseudo-scientific theory of natural predilection and
inclination in the realm of human relations, as
guided by chemical reactions. An elective affinity between Goethe and Beethoven manifested itself in a mutual admiration for one
another’s work, but also a mismatched series
of meetings in July 1812 (the same month when
Beethoven wrote his mysterious “immortal beloved” letters, and also the year of his Opus 96
sonata). The legendary encounters took place
in Teplice, a spa town in the present-day Czech
Republic, in which each rebuked the other on
account of perceived social failings. My piece begins with a hazily recalled
fragment of Opus 96, the opening plaintive
birdcall trill that becomes the basis of an ongoing dialogue between the violin and piano,
transforming it into something lonely and
with simple longing, a dialogue no longer between the instruments, but struggling within
itself, in displaced phrases and registers
across the violin. The “golden age” referred
to in the first movement could be that of
Beethoven’s mythological past (through the
rose-tinted glasses of hindsight) or simply an
idyllic, paradisal world that Beethoven’s pastoral language evokes.
The second movement is all about dramatic contrasts and increasingly larger brushstrokes. Here, I turn to the elective memory of
an earlier sonata for violin and piano, written when I was 18, a piece that I later consciously repressed but occasionally revisited,
and which is itself about involuntary memory, inspired by the fictitious Vinteuil sonata
of Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu.
The re-awakening of that forbidden memory,
recalled in fleeting moments throughout the
movement, is interspersed with an equally
passing gesture from the Beethoven, a simple
up-down wavelike motion between the two
instruments in absolute unity, before their
bonds eventually become loosened. The naïve gesture soon transforms into a series of
sweeping, impassioned movements, overlapping and traded between the instruments,
before they are brought back together with
rhythmic cohesion and propulsion. A final
“Nocturne, Half-Remembered,” in contrast
to the dawn music of the opening “Aubade,”
returns us to the fragmented, drawn-out
“bird” theme of the opening, this time even
more disassembled and refracted. While the
violin assumes an increasingly lyrical role,
departing from yet always alluding to the
opening motif, the piano’s role turns more
accompanimental, providing a floating and
ever expanding backdrop. This is a piece about the selective affinities that Jenny and I share for this particular
Beethoven sonata—it is our favorite amongst
the cycle—and the elective memories I have
chosen to guide my response to it.
—Anthony Cheung
Violin Sonata in G Major,
Opus 96
Beethoven wrote the Sonata in G Major at
the end of 1812, shortly after completing his
Seventh and Eighth Symphonies. French violinist Pierre Rode—solo violinist to Napoleon
and later to the czar in St. Petersburg—was
making a visit to Vienna, and Beethoven
wrote the sonata for that occasion, claiming that he had tried to cast the last movement in the somewhat less dramatic style
that Rode preferred. Rode did give the first
performance in Vienna on December 29,
1812, and on that occasion the pianist was
Beethoven’s pupil and patron, the Archduke
Rudolph—Beethoven’s hearing had deteriorated so badly by this time that he could no
longer take part in ensemble performances.
Beethoven’s hearing may have deteriorated,
but not so far as to prevent his being disappointed in Rode's playing. He kept the sonata
in manuscript for several years, revised it in
1814–15, and finally published it in 1816.
Of Beethoven’s ten violin sonatas, nine
were written in the comparatively short span
of six years: 1797 to 1803. Of course there was
tremendous growth in those six years—think
of the difference between the Mozartean early
sonatas and the Kreutzer Sonata—but it is also
true that Beethoven’s violin sonatas do not
span his career in the way that his piano sonatas, string quartets, and symphonies do. Only
the Sonata in G Major comes from outside that
six-year span, and there are no violin sonatas
from the final fifteen years of the composer’s
life. But this final sonata—so different from the
first nine—gives us some sense of what a late
violin sonata might have been like, for many of
the characteristics of Beethoven’s late style are
already present here: a heartfelt slow movement derived from the simplest materials, a
sharply-focused and almost brusque scherzo,
and a theme-and-variation finale of unusual
structure and complexity. Even the restrained
first movement, music of understatement
and “inwardness,” looks ahead to the works
Beethoven would write during the extraordinary final six years of his life.
The Allegro moderato opens as simply as
possible. The violin’s quiet four-note figure
is immediately answered by the piano, and
that easy dialogue between the instruments
characterizes this restrained, almost rhapsodic movement. The dancing second theme
is presented first by piano with violin accompaniment, and then the instruments trade
roles. The brief development section—more
a discussion of the material than a dramatic
evolution of it—leads to a full recapitulation
of the opening. Throughout, Beethoven repeatedly reminds the performers: dolce, sempre piano (“sweet, always quiet”).
The Adagio espressivo is built on a theme of
moving simplicity, much like the slow movements of the late quartets. The piano lays out
this long main idea, and the violin soon joins
it. This movement breathes an air of serenity that is all the more remarkable when one
sees the printed page: it is almost black with
Beethoven’s elaborate ornamentation, much
of it in 64th notes that he has carefully written
out. The Scherzo follows without pause. Pro-
pulsive and quite brief, it rides along off-the
beat accents in its outer sections and a flowing trio in E-flat Major. There are no exposition
repeats in this concise movement, which concludes with a very short G-Major coda.
The concluding Poco Allegretto is one of
the most extraordinary movements in all ten
of Beethoven’s violin sonatas. It opens with a
tune that sings simply and agreeably. But instead of the expected rondo-finale, Beethoven
writes a series of variations on this opening
tune. Just as the ear has adapted to variation
form—and just as the music has grown increasingly animated—Beethoven throws one
of his wildest curves: the tempo becomes Adagio espressivo, and the mood returns to that
of the slow movement, heartfelt and intense.
Beethoven writes out ornamentation here so
elaborate that the instruments almost seem
to have individual cadenzas. The very end of
the movement is as unusual as the rest—the
opening tempo returns, but now this breaks
down into a series of individual sequences at
different speeds and in quite different moods.
Finally, at the point when we have lost any
sense of motion or direction, Beethoven whips
matters to a sudden close, the piano flashing
upward to strike the final chord.
Ninth Annual
JUNE 18, 2016
1-9pm • Brava Theater, 2781 24th St., SF CA
Featuring
Tyondai Braxton
Alisa Rose • ZOFO • Majel Connery and Ken Ueno
Tonal Masher • Del Sol String Quartet • Dominique Leone
Religious Girls • San Francisco Girls Chorus • Aaron Novik’s O+O+
music by Mason Bates, Ryan Brown, Julius Eastman,
JacobTV, and Daniel Wohl
| 5

JENNIFER KOH, violin SHAI WOSNER, piano

Transcription

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