2010 Program note: Concert with Vilde Frang

Franz Schubert (1797–1828):

Sonata in A major, D 574 (op. posth. 162)

In his lifetime Franz Schubert was greatly appreciated by a circle of friends who often listened to his music in private contexts. Otherwise he was relatively unknown. He was for instance totally ignored by Goethe, who was unaware of the greatness of the young composer’s settings of his poems. Nevertheless it must be said the Schubert lived in the right place and at the right time – in Vienna while Haydn and Beethoven were active, with the court, the church and the theatres using music more than ever before. It provided unique stimulation for him. Most of the works of Schubert were not published until after his death, and it was not until the mid-twentieth century that the public at large had the opportunity to form an image of Schubert’s true genius.

The heritage Schubert left to posterity consists of as many as a thousand works in all genres: operas, masses, symphonies, songs, chamber music, piano pieces. Amongst this overwhelming wealth of music there is remarkably little for solo violin. Schubert – unlike most composers – has no violin concerto, and only one violin sonata, which is rarely performed, despite its beautiful melodic lines, vigour and elegance.

***

Béla Bartók (1881–1945):

Sonata for Solo Violin Sz. 117, BB 124

Driven from Europe by the Nazis, Béla Bartók found himself in exile in New York, seriously ill, away from his normal environment, and depressed at the ravages of war and the destiny of his home country. He was running a constant temperature, probably a forewarning of the leukaemia that was soon to be diagnosed and be the composer’s demise. In this state of depression he experienced Yehudi Menuhin playing his second Violin Concerto with the Philharmonic and on another occasion his first Violin Sonata. It was a revitalised Bartók that reported: ‘Hearing your music performed is great in itself, but here Menuhin played in a way I had always believed music could not be played until after the composer’s death’. Menuhin replied immediately by commissioning a solo sonata. While Bartók’s condition was in remission during the winter of 1943–44, he wrote the solo sonata and witnessed Menhuin’s superb performance in November 1944. To start with he was afraid that it would be risky to compose such a long solo sonata, but he succeeded ‘at least for myself’, as he said. Alongside his third Piano Concerto the Sonata for Solo Violin is Béla Bartók’s last work.

***

Richard Strauss (1864–1949)

Sonata for Violin and Piano in E flat major, op. 18 (TrV 151)

The later half of the nineteenth century was the era of great inventors and pioneers. The telephone became a feature of everyday life, canals opened new waterways and railway lines connected continents in a steadily more industrialised society. Technology subjugated nature in completely new ways. A new mentality infused the arts, not least music. New ideals of style took over. Wagner’s drama and Liszt’s symphonic poems indicated the way ahead. The chamber music that had reached its zenith in the first decade of the century now seemed passé. The new era demanded greater volume, a richer orchestral palette, more dramatic instrumental colouring and excesses of dynamics. Enter the Late Romantic period, with Richard Strauss as one of its supporting pillars. However, before making his grand entrance into the world of the orchestral fantasia and complex opera, he made some preparatory attempts in more intimate format. His Violin Sonata op. 18 in E flat major from 1887–88 is the very last chamber music work by Richard Strauss. Even though Beethoven and Mendelssohn are never far away, this sonata signals something new, a liberation of latent forces that are to flourish through virtuoso use of the full orchestra in works such as Macbeth and Don Juan.

Text: Reidar Storaas
English version: Roger Martin