July 27 Immersive Experiences I

BEETHOVEN
Violin Sonata No. 1 in D major, Op. 12, No. 1 (22 minutes)
   Allegro con brio
   Theme and Variations: Andante con moto
   Rondo: Allegro

BEETHOVEN
Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 12, No. 2 (19 minutes)
   Allegro vivace
   Andante, più tosto Allegretto
   Allegro piacevole

Intermission

BEETHOVEN
Violin Sonata No. 4 in A minor, Op. 23 (16 minutes)
   Presto
   Andante scherzoso, più Allegretto
   Allegro molto

BEETHOVEN
Violin Sonata No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 12, No. 3 (21 minutes)
   Allegro con spirito
   Adagio con molto espressione
   Rondo: Allegro molto

Ida Kavafian, violin
Anne-Marie McDermott, piano

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Violin Sonata No. 1 in D major, Op. 12, No. 1 (1798)

Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 12, No. 2 (1798)

Violin Sonata No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 12, No. 3 (1798)

Beethoven took some care during his first years after arriving in Vienna from his native Bonn in November 1792 to present himself as a composer in the day’s more fashionable genres, one of which was the sonata for piano and violin. The Op. 12 Sonatas of 1798 are products of Beethoven’s own practical experience as both pianist and violinist, an instrument he had learned while still in Bonn and on which he took lessons shortly after settling in Vienna.

An abundance of themes shared by the participants opens the D major Sonata: a heroic unison motive; quietly flowing scales in the piano supporting a striding phrase in the violin; and several related ideas in quicker rhythms. The second theme is a scalar melody gently urged on by syncopations. The Andante takes as its theme a tender melody presented by piano and violin. Four variations follow, the third of which is in a somber minor mode. The finale is a large, thematically rich rondo.

*  *  *

The A major Sonata opens with a teasing, two-note motive that tumbles downward through the piano’s range to constitute the first movement’s main theme and set the playful mood (one of Beethoven’s rarest emotions) for what follows. A melody buoyed upon a surprising harmonic excursion, emphasized by accented notes, provides the gateway to the second subject, a phrase of snappy descending, neighboring tones which is first cousin to the main theme. Transformations of all three themes occupy the development section. The recapitulation provides another hearing of the thematic material before the movement ends, almost in mid-thought, with an airy coda spun from the main theme. Jelly d’Aranyi (1893-1966), the distinguished Hungarian violinist who inspired Ravel’s Tzigane in 1924, wrote, “The Andante has the most touching and wonderful dialogue. I can only imagine that St. Francis and St. Clara spoke of things like this when they met at Assisi, and which Beethoven alone could put into music, as he did so many conversations, each lovelier than the other.” The finale is an elegant rondo whose expressive nature is indicated by its heading: piacevole — “agreeable and pleasant.”

*  *  *

The E-flat major Sonata (Op. 12, No. 3) opens with a spirited sonata-form movement whose thematic fecundity recalls the music of Mozart (dead just seven years when this piece was composed, and still fondly remembered in Vienna). The sweeping arpeggiated gesture from the piano that serves as the main theme is followed by several other melodic fragments; one containing a limpid rising chromatic scale serves as the formal second subject. The development section is full of energy and surprise. The Adagio, the expressive as well as the structural heart of the Sonata, is one of Beethoven’s greatest early movements. Its broad thematic arches and majestic demeanor created for the composer’s biographer Frederick Niecks “a sublimity of feeling and a noble simplicity.” The finale, a bustling rondo based on a theme of opera buffa jocularity, serves both as foil to the profound musical statement that preceded it and as a suitably lively close to this handsome Sonata.

Violin Sonata No. 4 in A minor, Op. 23 (1800-1801)

Among Beethoven’s early patrons in Vienna was Count Moritz von Fries, proprietor of the prosperous Viennese banking firm of Fries & Co. and treasurer to the imperial court. Fries, seven years Beethoven’s junior, was a man of excellent breeding and culture. A true disciple of the Enlightenment, Fries traveled widely (Goethe mentioned meeting him in Italy), and lived for a period in Paris, where he had himself and his family painted by François Gérard, court painter to Louis XVIII. Fries’ palace in the Josefplatz was designed by one of the architects of Schönbrunn, the Emperor’s suburban summer residence, and it housed an elegant private theater that was the site of frequent musical presentations. In April 1800, Fries hosted what developed into a vicious piano-playing competition between Beethoven and the visiting German virtuoso and composer Daniel Steibelt (1765-1823), which Beethoven won in a unanimous decision. Following that victory, Beethoven composed for Fries two Sonatas for Violin and Piano (Opp. 23 and 24) and the String Quintet, Op. 29, whose dedications the Count eagerly accepted.

The A minor Sonata, Op. 23 is one of Beethoven’s most austere compositions, full of terse linear writing and frequent stretches of studied counterpoint. The principal theme of the first movement’s sonata form is a restless melody balanced between scalar motion and leaping arpeggios. The subsidiary subject provides contrast with its limpid liquidity and even rhythmic flow. The development section concerns itself entirely with the main theme. A quietly held chord serves as the gateway to the recapitulation, which returns the earlier thematic material in appropriately adjusted tonalities. The playful second movement, also in sonata form, makes its first theme from the little two-note fragment initially proposed by the piano; the second subject comprises a tiny wobbling figure and a scale in tripping dotted rhythms. The brief development section has only room for a few hints of the main and imitative themes before the recapitulation amicably saunters in. The finale, a rondo, returns to the minor-mode sepia of the opening movement, though its mood is anxious rather than tragic.

©2020 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

July 28 Immersive Experiences II

BEETHOVEN
Violin Sonata No. 5 in F major, Op. 24, “Spring” (22 minutes)
   Allegro
   Adagio molto espressivo
   Scherzo: Allegro molto
   Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo

BEETHOVEN
Violin Sonata No. 6 in A major, Op. 30, No. 1 (26 minutes)
   Allegro
   Adagio molto espressivo
   Allegretto con variazioni

Intermission

BEETHOVEN
Violin Sonata No. 7 in C minor, Op. 30, No. 2 (24 minutes)
   Allegro con brio
   Adagio cantabile
   Scherzo: Allegro
   Finale: Allegro

Ida Kavafian, violin
Anne-Marie McDermott, piano

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Violin Sonata No. 5 in F major, Op. 24, “Spring” (1800-1801)

For more information on this work, please see the program notes for the concert of July 27, 2020.

The F major Sonata, “Spring,” one of Beethoven’s most limpidly beautiful creations, is well characterized by its vernal sobriquet. The opening movement’s sonata form is initiated by a gently meandering melody first chanted by the violin. The grace-note-embellished subsidiary subject is somewhat more vigorous in rhythm and chromatic in harmony, but maintains the music’s bucolic atmosphere. Wave-form scales derived from the main theme close the exposition. The development section attempts to achieve a balance between a downward striding arpeggio drawn from the second theme and flutters of rising triplet figures. A full recapitulation and an extended coda based on the flowing main theme round out the movement. The Adagio is a quiet flight of wordless song, undulant in its accompanimental figuration and delicately etched in its melodic arabesques. The tiny gossamer Scherzo is the first such movement that Beethoven included in one of his Violin Sonatas. The finale, a rondo that makes some unexpected digressions into distant harmonic territories, is richly lyrical and sunny of disposition.

Violin Sonata No. 6 in A major, Op. 30, No. 1 (1802)

Violin Sonata No. 7 in C minor, Op. 30, No. 2 (1802)

In the summer of 1802, Beethoven’s physician ordered him to leave Vienna and take rooms in Heiligenstadt, today a friendly suburb at the northern terminus of the city’s subway system, but two centuries ago a quiet village with a view of the Danube across the river’s flood plain. It was three years earlier, in 1799, that Beethoven first noticed a disturbing ringing and buzzing in his ears, and he sought medical attention for the problem soon thereafter. He tried numerous cures for his malady, as well as for his chronic colic, including oil of almonds, hot and cold baths, soaking in the Danube, pills and herbs. For a short time he even considered the modish treatment of electric shock. On the advice of his latest doctor, Beethoven left the noisy city for the quiet countryside with the assurance that the lack of stimulation would be beneficial to his hearing and his general health.

The Op. 30 Violin Sonatas Beethoven completed by the time he returned from Heiligenstadt to Vienna in the middle of October 1802 stand at the threshold of a new creative language, the dramatic musical speech that characterizes his so-called “second period.” One of the keys Beethoven used to unlock this revolutionary stylistic advance was the complete interpenetration of melody and accompaniment, the hewing of all the lines of a musical passage and even an entire movement from a small set of thematic atoms. Such a working method generates the main theme of the opening movement of the A major Sonata, in which most of the violin line and both hands of the piano are derived from either the quick turn figure or the flowing quarter-note motive introduced at the outset. The second subject is an arching melody with a trill. The second theme and the turn figure provide most of the material for the development section. A full recapitulation of the exposition rounds out the movement.

Of the second movement, Jelly d’Aranyi, the Hungarian violinist who inspired works from Ravel, Bartók and Vaughan Williams, wrote, “The Adagio is a great favorite of mine. The blend of the two instruments is so perfect a thing.... The whole movement has such a feeling of tenderness and sorrow it reminds me of Michelangelo’s Pietà and his unfinished Descent of the Cross. I do not want to suggest that this Adagio could be called religious music, I am thinking in both cases of the expression of infinite tenderness and sorrow, whether put into sound or carved in stone.”

Beethoven’s original finale for the A major Sonata was a large, brilliant and difficult rondo — indeed, too brilliant, according to his student Ferdinand Ries, and it was ultimately used to cap the “Kreutzer” Sonata. Beethoven next devised a new, gentler theme for a more modest rondo, but this melody finally ended up as the subject for the set of variations that closes the A major Sonata.

*  *  *

The C minor Sonata opens with a pregnant main theme, announced by the piano and echoed by the violin, which, according to British musicologist Samuel Midgley, “is like a taut spring about to snap.” This motive returns throughout the movement both as the pillar of its structure and as the engine of its tempestuous expression. The second theme is a tiny military march. The development encompasses powerful mutations of the two principal themes. A full recapitulation and a large coda round out the movement. The Adagio, one of those inimitable slow movements in which Beethoven created music seemingly rapt out of quotidian time, is based on a hymnal melody presented first by the piano and reiterated by the violin. A passage in long notes for the violin above harmonically unsettled arpeggios in the keyboard constitutes the movement’s central section before the opening theme is recalled in an elaborated setting. The Scherzo presents a playful contrast to the surrounding movements. The Finale, which mixes elements of rondo (frequent returns of the halting motive heard at the beginning) and sonata (extensive development of the themes), renews the troubled mood of the opening movement.

©2020 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

July 29 Immersive Experiences III

BEETHOVEN
Violin Sonata No. 8 in G major, Op. 30, No. 3 (19 minutes)
   Allegro assai
   Tempo di Minuetto, ma molto moderato e grazioso
   Allegro vivace

BEETHOVEN
Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47, “Kreutzer” (35 minutes)
   Adagio sostenuto — Presto
   Andante con variazioni
   Finale: Presto

Intermission

BEETHOVEN
Violin Sonata No. 10 in G major, Op. 96 (30 minutes)
   Allegro moderato
   Adagio espressivo —
   Scherzo: Allegro
   Poco Allegretto

Ida Kavafian, violin
Anne-Marie McDermott, piano

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Violin Sonata No. 8 in G major, Op. 30, No. 3 (1802)

For more information on this work, please see the program notes for the concert of July 28, 2020.

The Violin Sonata in G major, Op. 30, No. 3, is the most compact and cheerful such piece in Beethoven’s creative output. The main theme of the opening sonata-form movement balances a frisky motive in rolling scale steps with a more lyrical idea. The second theme is full of incident, with mercurial shifts of harmony, a half-dozen thematic fragments, sudden changes of dynamics, and sharply accented notes. The trills and bustling rhythmic activity that close the exposition are carried into the development section. Though the second movement is marked “in the tempo of a minuet,” this is music grown from song rather than dance, sweet and lyrical and gracious, that returns to its lovely opening strain throughout in the manner of a refrain. The finale is a genial rondo of sunny vivacity and sparkling passagework.

Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47, “Kreutzer” (1803)

George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower was born in Biala, Poland sometime between 1778 and 1780; his mother was of Polish or German extraction, his father was probably from the West Indies, though he liked to claim that he was an “Abyssinian Prince.” The mulatto Bridgetower was a remarkable prodigy of the violin, and he was accepted into the musical establishment of the Prince of Wales at Brighton when he was just ten. In 1803, Bridgetower was granted a leave to visit his mother in Dresden and play some concerts en route. Those performances created a sensation, and his arrival in Vienna in early May was awaited by the local music lovers with a mixture of excitement and curiosity. Beethoven met the 23-year-old Bridgetower almost immediately, and the two got along famously. Beethoven proposed to write a new piece for Bridgetower’s debut in the city on May 24th and to accompany him at the piano, and he set to work immediately on the Sonata in A major. The premiere was a success, and Bridgetower remained in Vienna until July, playing to considerable acclaim and spending many evenings with his new buddy, Ludwig van Beethoven.

By all rights, this work, published as Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” Sonata in 1805, should be called the “Bridgetower” Sonata. According to an interview Bridgetower granted in 1845, such was the composer’s original intention, but he added that they had a quarrel “over a girl,” and Beethoven denied him the dedication in recompense. Instead, the score was inscribed to the well-known French violinist and composer Rodolphe Kreutzer, whom Beethoven had met in 1798 in Vienna.

The first movement is a formal curiosity, beginning with a slow introduction in the nominal key of A major as preface to a large sonata structure in the parallel minor mode. The main theme, given by the violin in quicker tempo, is a staccato phrase with a Turkish tint. The chorale-like subsidiary motive provides only a brief respite from the impetuosity of the music. There is considerable developmental dialogue between the instruments before the earlier themes are recapitulated. The Andante is a spacious set of variations on a long theme. The tarantella-rhythm finale provides a brilliant ending.

Violin Sonata No. 10 in G major, Op. 96 (1812)

The G major Violin Sonata stands at the crossing of the lives of three eminent early-19th-century European personalities: the day’s greatest composer (Beethoven, of course); a leading French violinist; and a royal personage. The royal was the Archduke Rudolph, the youngest son of Emperor Leopold II and the brother of Emperor Franz, who was the most important and durable of Beethoven’s many aristocratic Viennese patrons; the violinist for whom the Sonata was written was the renowned French virtuoso Pierre Rode. It was for Rode’s concert in Vienna at the palace of Prince Lobkowitz on December 29, 1812 that Beethoven created the G major Sonata, enlisting Archduke Rudolph as pianist for the occasion. The work’s thorough integration of the instruments into a chamber-music whole, its careful and boundlessly inventive working-out of simple, folkish, sometimes even apparently trite thematic fragments, its striving for transcendence in the slow movement, its use of the variations form as a platform for a wide range of styles and emotions mark this Sonata as prophetic of the peerless profundities of the music of his last creative period.

The Sonata opens as if in mid-thought with a tentative trilled gesture from the violin. The piano tries out the motive, and together the participants spin from it a glistening arpeggiated passage and an animated transition. The second theme, entrusted to the piano, is a skipping-rhythm strain in sweet harmonies. Busy triplet figurations and subtle transformations of the main theme close the exposition. The development is neither long nor overly dramatic. The recapitulation returns the earlier material before the movement concludes with a generous coda spun from the main theme. The Adagio is based on a hymnal melody in which both piano and violin find material for elaborate filigreed decoration as well as quiet, nearly motionless contemplation. An inconclusive harmony leads to the Scherzo, tightly constrained, minor-mode music with sharp, off-beat accents; a flowing central section provides a stylistic foil. The variations of the finale take as their subject a dance-like ditty, whose playfulness is contrasted as the music unfolds with daring, unconventional transformations of the theme.

©2020 Dr. Richard E. Rodda