Summer Festival Grand Finale!

In his final performance as Chamber Music Northwest Artistic Director, David Shifrin will treat us to the world premiere of a new clarinet solo written for him by David Ludwig and revisit great performances of Bach’s Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C Minor with solos by oboist Allan Vogel and violinist Soovin Kim and more.

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Premieres July 25 @ 7 pm PT
Available through July 26 @ 11:59 pm PT

Program

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

DAVID LUDWIG “Berakhah” for Solo Clarinet (world premiere, 2020)

David Shifrin, clarinet

New exclusive performance!

J.S. BACH Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C Minor, BWV 1060R

Soovin Kim, solo violin
Allan Vogel, solo oboe
Yevgeny Yontov, harpsichord
Tyler Abbott, bass
Calidore String Quartet

Originally performed on Saturday, July 6th, 2019｜Kaul Auditorium @ 8pm

See our Program Book for program notes.

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

TCHAIKOVSKY Serenade for String Orchestra in C Major, Op. 48

TCHAIKOVSKY Serenade for String Orchestra in C Major, Op. 48
(1840-1893)
  I. Pezzo in forma di sonatina
  II. Valse
  III. Élégie
  IV. Finale: Tema russo

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who once dubbed Mozart “the Christ of music,” wrote the Serenade for Strings in C Major as a tribute to his favorite composer. “It is intended to be an imitation of his style,” Tchaikovsky wrote, “and I should be delighted if I thought I had in any way approached my model. Tchaikovsky composed his Serenade in 1880, at the same time as the 1812 Overture, but his feelings about the two works could not have differed more strongly. “You can imagine, beloved friend, that my muse has been benevolent of late when I tell you that I have written two long works very rapidly,” Tchaikovsky wrote to his patron Nadezhda von Meck, “the festival Overture [the 1812] and a Serenade in four movements for string orchestra. The Overture will be very noisy; I wrote it without much warmth or enthusiasm and therefore it has no great artistic value. The Serenade, on the contrary, I wrote from inner conviction. It is a heartfelt piece and so, I dare to think, is not without artistic ‘qualities’. Tchaikovsky was so pleased with his Serenade that upon its completion he wrote to his publisher, “I am violently in love with this work and cannot wait for it to be played.” At its premiere on October 30, 1881, in St. Petersburg, the audience responded in a similar fashion, calling for an encore of the second movement. The Pezzo in forma di Sonatina (Piece in the form of a Sonatina) begins with a slow introduction, in the manner of an 18th century string serenade. This rich, hymn-like melody gives way to an energetic tune that suggests the buoyant joy of Mozart’s music. The lilting Walzer (Waltz) has delighted audiences since its first performance; here Tchaikovsky captured its essential Viennese flavor,
and the music sparkles throughout. In the Élégie we hear hints of the brooding murmurous quality most suggestive of Tchaikovsky’s style, but the overall mood of this movement is meditative rather than melancholy. In the final movement, Tchaikovsky uses contrasting Russian folksongs, one for the slow introduction and the other full of hustle and bustle. The first movement hymn concludes the Serenade.

—© Elizabeth Schwartz

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