Soovin Kim & Ieva Jokūbavičiūtė: Beethoven Sonatas

ELECTRIFYING LITHUANIAN PIANIST BACK IN PORTLAND

After wowing us all at the beginning of the 2023 Summer Festival, the dynamic Lithuanian pianist Ieva Jokūbavičiūtė returns to Portland with Artistic Director and violinist Soovin Kim for a night of Beethoven’s most intimate chamber works—his sonatas for violin & piano. Beethoven’s sonatas established a new sonata form wherein the violin and piano are equal partners, with neither dominating the musical “conversation.” From his early Sonata No. 3 that embodies his revolutionary melodic and rhythmic inventiveness, to his elegantly refined Sonata No. 10 and his bold and heroic “Kreutzer” Sonata, you’ll experience a full range of Beethoven’s genius brought to life by just these two incredible artists.

“Jokūbavičiūtė approaches the piano with attentive precision—every note, keyed or otherwise, placed within the instrument’s resonance for maximum clarity—combined with a provocative, febrile intelligence.”

— The Washington Post

The Old Church
Saturday, 3/7 • 7:30 pm PT

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SINGLE TICKETS

Program

Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.

BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 12, No. 3

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Violin Sonata No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 12, No. 3 (1797–98)
 
I. Allegro con spirito
II. Adagio con molta espressione
III. Rondo. Allegro molto

The Violin Sonata No. 3 E-flat Major (Op. 12, No. 3) begins with a rapid-moving Allegro con spirito, with the violin and the pianist’s right hand trading two roles: those of soloist and quick-moving accompaniment. The Adagio second movement is interesting in part for the accompaniment’s relegation to the offbeats, leaving silence underneath the melody on the downbeats. A beautiful legato violin solo is the centerpiece of the movement. The spirited Rondo finale could be straight out of a late Mozart sonata, save for a few unexpected harmonic intrigues.

—© Ethan Allred

BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata No. 10 in G Major, Op. 96

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Violin Sonata No. 10 in G Major, Op. 96 (1812)

I. Allegro moderato
II. Adagio espressivo
III. Scherzo. Allegro — Trio
IV. Poco Allegretto

Beethoven composed the Violin Sonata No. 10 in G Major, Op. 96, in 1812, shortly after the “Serioso” Quartet. A lyrical, subdued work in four movements, it was written for the renowned French violinist Pierre Rode, who apparently disliked overwrought virtuosity and gaudy endings and thus may have influenced the calmness of this sonata. Franz Schubert was among Opus 96’s early admirers, and it shares much in common aesthetically with his still, pensive instrumental style.

The first movement begins not with a roar, but with a sweet trill. It transitions subtly into strange harmonic areas, adding interest with carefully crafted melodies, shared runs by the piano and violin, and dynamic swells. Shimmering trills, symmetry, and seamless exchanges between piano and violin set this apart as one of Beethoven’s most unusual and fascinating violin sonata movements. The Adagio espressivo second movement is at first still, building slowly to expressive runs in both violin and piano. A brief Scherzo gives a taste of Beethoven’s furious energy, with a highly contrasted trio. The Poco allegretto fourth movement plays violin and piano as partners as often as it contrasts them. After three contrasting sections, an abrupt Adagio pulls apart the movement’s timing with long and chromatic runs over slowly repeated chords. Echoes of earlier sections return (as at the end of the Ninth Symphony), before a Presto finale.

—© Ethan Allred

BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47 (“Kreutzer”)

BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47 (“Kreutzer”)

I. Adagio sostenuto – Presto
II. Andante con variazioni
III. Finale: Presto

The history of the Violin Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47 (the “Kreutzer” Sonata), is old and highly mythologized. Beethoven originally wrote the Sonata for a young virtuoso named George Bridgetower, who premiered it with Beethoven to the composer’s great pleasure. Apparently the two later had a quarrel over a romantic interest, however, and Beethoven decided he would rather dedicate the sonata to Rodolphe Kreutzer, the French violinist whom he played one of the Opus 12s with years earlier but hadn’t seen in years.

According to Hector Berlioz, Kreutzer found his sonata “outrageously unintelligible,” but others since have disagreed. Leo Tolstoy took his interest in the sonata to the level of obsession, depicting it as holding a special power to arouse erotic feelings in his story The Kreutzer Sonata.

Beethoven published the “Kreutzer” with the title “almost in the manner of a concerto,” emphasizing the importance of the violinist as well as the sonata’s extreme virtuosity. Indeed, this is the first violin sonata that truly treats both players as equals.

The massive, but three-movement, sonata begins with a legendary and dissonant introduction, immediately showing off difficult techniques in both piano and violin. The sonata does not reach its “key” of A Major (Beethoven didn’t actually give the piece a key) until a suddenly calm section well into the development. Until then, he rapidly moves between related keys with quasi-orchestral textures, created by a liberal use of the ranges of both piano and violin—that is to say lots and lots of notes. The “Kreutzer” Sonata is far beyond any other Beethoven violin sonata in its breadth, its virtuosity, and its incessant development of small melodic fragments.

The equally broad second movement, an Andante theme and variations, is based around a long and complex melody—this is unusual because themes are generally simple so that the variations can build in many different directions. The “Kreutzer” dates from fairly early in Beethoven’s career—1803—but he already shows the incredible talent for creating variations that would be the source of later masterpieces like the Diabelli Variations. After the intensity of the first movement, the variety of this central movement provides a much-needed respite.

The Presto finale was originally composed for the earlier Violin Sonata Op. 30, No. 1, but Beethoven chose to use it for the “Kreutzer” instead. This bouncy movement gives the feeling of perpetual motion with occasional moments of pause. The overall tone is lighter than that of the first movement, leading some to wonder whether Beethoven intended the sonata to end with this movement or added it in a last-minute time crunch. Regardless, it presents a fittingly enigmatic and long-winded conclusion to what certainly represented a giant step in the history of the violin sonata.

—© Ethan Allred

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