Tuesday March 23, 2010


Friends of Chamber Music

Julia Fischer, violin; Milana Chernyavska, piano

Wolfgang Mozart: Violin Sonata in C major, K.296

Sergei Prokofiev: Violin Sonata No.1 in F minor, Op.80 (5/6/09)
Also, Charley talks with Niwot Timberline Symphony conductor Devon Patrick Hughes and pianist Stephen Fiess about their concert Friday.
Frédéric Chopin: Etude in A flat major, Op.25 No.1 (Aeolian Harp)
Stephen Fiess: "Calm at Sea" from Lorelei Suite. Op.2
Stephen Fiess, piano
KVOD Performance Studio 3/16/10 MS

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Violin Sonata in C major, K.296
I. Allegro vivace
II. Andante sostenuto
III. Rondo: Allegro

Mozart wrote K.296 in Mannheim for his fifteen-year-old pupil, Theresa Pierron Serrarius. As he complained of his “leisurely” attempts to finish the flute pieces commissioned by the Dutchman De Jean, he wrote to his father: “Hence as diversion I compose something else, such as duets for clavier and violin.” He finished the sonata on March 3, 1778.
Two years later the C major Sonata and the Violin Sonatas, K.376-380 were published in Vienna as Opus 2, with a dedication to Josepha von Aurnhammer, another of Mozart’s pupils. This group of sonatas was reviewed in Cramer’s Musical Magazine: “These sonatas are the only ones of this kind. Rich in new ideas and in evidence of the great musical genius of their author. Very brilliant and suited to the instrument. At the same time the accompaniment of the violin is so artfully combined with the clavier part that both instruments are kept constantly on the alert; so that these sonatas require just as skillful a player on the violin as on the clavier.”
In The Compleat Mozart, Marius Flothuis writes of K.296: “The first movement opens with vigor and élan, very much in keeping with its bright C-major tonality, and retains that mood throughout. The Andante is tender and dreamlike.” The second movement resembles an aria by Johann Christian Bach, which cannot be accurately dated and therefore we don’t know who borrowed the theme from whom. Mozart and the “London” Bach had known each other since Mozart’s child prodigy days. The end of the third movement recalls the finale of the Flute-Harp Concerto (K.299), which Mozart finished a month later in Paris.

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953): Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Opus 80
I. Andante assai
II. Allegro brusco
III. Andante
IV. Allegrissimo

During the summer in 1938, while listening to Handel's music, Prokofiev sketched his F minor Violin Sonata. He didn't finish it until the summer of 1946, some two years after the D major Sonata, Op.94. Nevertheless, the F minor was designated ``No. 1,'' as it was begun first.
Prokofiev played through the completed work for David Oistrakh, who recalled: ``It seemed to me that on this occasion he played somehow with great restraint, even timidly. Even so, the music itself made an enormous impression--one had the feeling of being present at a very great and significant event. Nothing written for the violin in many decades--anywhere in the world--could equal this piece in beauty and depth. I can make that statement without the slightest exaggeration.''
The work is dedicated to Oistrakh, who gave the first performance on October 23, 1946 in the Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatory with pianist Lev Oborin. Nikolai Miaskovsky noted in his diary: ``Heard Prokofiev's new violin sonata in its entirety-a work of genius (Oistrakh's playing was inspired).'' The Sonata was hailed by Pravda, which noted the ``Russian national spirit'' and ``stern, epic grandeur'' in the work. The next year it was awarded the Stalin Prize.
``In mood it is more serious than the Second,'' Prokofiev said of the First Sonata. ``The first movement...is severe in character and is a kind of extended introduction to the second movement, a sonata allegro, which is vigorous and turbulent, but has a broad second theme. The third movement is slow, gentle, and tender. The finale is fast and written in complicated rhythm.''