Ravinia 2019, Issue 4, Week 8

combined length. Haydn infused the exposition with countless interrelated and complimentary motifs, creating music intended to engage and entertain the listener (and performer). The elab- oration of motifs continues in the development, which is separated from the recapitulation by a momentary pause. Haydn incorporated a com- positional gimmick in the Minuet al Rovescio . Its overall structure is standard: a minuet with internal repeats, a trio with internal repeats, and a return of the minuet without repeats. Both the minuet and trio are subdivided into two repeat- ed sections, the second of which is a literal back- ward version of the first (“al rovescio” translates as “in contrary motion” or “retrograde”). The finale achieves comical effect by its very brevity. A rounded binary movement characterized by rapid descending scales, its 26 measures last less than a minute, even with repeats. All three movements of the Sonata No. 22 in D major, H. XVI:24, center on the tonic pitch. Haydn creates modal contrast by changing from major to minor in the Adagio . The vivacious Al- legro offers several galant musical ideas. The key- board texture expands in transitional segments through bounding left-hand bass lines and rapid right-hand figurations. One momentary modal shift foreshadows the change to minor that oc- curs full-scale in the tender, lyrical Adagio . This movement proceeds immediately to the Finale , whose oft-repeated main theme enters ahead of the downbeat. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–91) Rondo in A minor, K. 511 Mozart composed the Rondo in A minor soon after returning to Vienna from his second trip to Prague. He had secured an important com- mission for a new opera, Don Giovanni , and immediately went to work on its score, which was completed soon before the premiere on October 29, 1787. Nevertheless, Mozart contin- ued to write in other genres, particularly those popular forms that generated much-needed income through the sales of published scores. The most celebrated of these works were the two instrumental serenades Ein musikalischer Spass ( A Musical Joke ), K. 522, and Eine kleine Nachtmusik ( A Little Nocturne ), K. 525, but other shorter pieces for the piano also were composed. The Rondo in A minor, K. 511, was completed on March 11, 1787, in Vienna and published the fol- lowing month by Franz Anton Hoffmeister. This single movement is in the form of the five-part rondo, although it has none of the spirited char- acter normally associated with the form. The Andante tempo and A minor key create a mel- ancholy setting for the first theme, a siciliano in 6/8 meter. The F-major second theme maintains a constant 16th-note rhythm coupled with great- er dynamic contrasts. The siciliano returns in an abbreviated form, then the key changes to ma- jor for another theme that bears some rhythmic resemblance to the first theme. The unabridged siciliano returns in A minor. A coda gradually fades away at the end. LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major, op. 101 Baroness Dorothea von Ertmann (1781–1849), a fine amateur pianist, moved to Vienna with her husband, Colonel Stephan von Ertmann, in 1804. Both possessed an ardent love of mu- sic and soon found themselves traveling in the same social circles as Beethoven. The baroness became a steadfast devotee of the composer’s music, championing it long after his death. Her extended and close relationship with Beethoven later caused some speculation that she might be the mysterious “Immortal Beloved.” One touch- ing manifestation of their friendship followed the death of the Ertmanns’ daughter. Unable to offer words of comfort to Dorothea, Beethoven instead extemporized for hours before silently exiting the house. The baroness continued to correspond with Beethoven after moving to Mi- lan in 1820. Felix Schindler, factotum and secretary to Beethoven, remembered firsthand her elegant playing style, finely honed under the master’s guidance: “This lady, an artist in the truest sense of the word, excelled particularly in the expres- sion of the graceful, the tender, and the naive in music, as well as the deep and sentimental emo- tions. … She grasped intuitively even the most hidden subtleties of Beethoven’s works with as much sureness as if they had been written out before her eyes.” These skills had only slightly diminished when a young Felix Mendelssohn paid an unannounced visit to her Milan home in 1831 and was treated to a private performance of Beethoven’s sonatas. Beethoven dedicated the Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major, op. 101 (1816), to Baroness Ertmann. He enlisted this sonata in a patriotic crusade to replace the prevailing Italian nomenclature with German tempo designations. Completely dedicated to this cause, he offered to pay for the German title page and even consulted a linguis- tic expert on appropriate terminology. Op. 101 was the first sonata to bear the subtitle “ für das Hammerklavier ” (“for the piano”). Beethoven’s so-called “Hammerklavier” sonata, op. 106, next carried the designation, as did the Sonata No. 30 in E major, op. 109. The op. 101 sonata is a multi-movement work performed without breaks, in the manner of a fantasy. Beethoven instills a casual, pastoral at- mosphere in the first section, the most compact opening movement in his entire piano sonata output. Its “ innigsten Empfindung ” (“heart- felt expression”) results—as it would later for Schumann—from a general avoidance of the tonic chord and from extended syncopations that disguise the prevailing meter. Energy ac- cumulates in the second-movement march through an exchange of dotted rhythms between hands. A trio employs imitative counterpoint before the march repeats. An affective slow movement, with a brief recollection of the sona- ta’s opening theme, provides an introduction to the finale. Dramatic weight resides in this spirit- ed movement, the most expansive in the sonata. LEOŠ JANÁČEK (1854–1928) V mlhách ( In the Mists ) Janáček’s final piano composition— V mlhách ( In the Mists ), completed sometime before No- vember 15, 1912—seems to capture the melan- choly and dissatisfaction prevalent in his per- sonal and professional lives. All efforts to secure a performance of his opera Jenůfa in Prague had thus far failed. Although the composer had al- most reached his 60th year, little of his music was known outside Brno. Janáček suffered from painful rheumatism, and he remained trapped in a relatively lifeless marriage. In the Mists ini- tially provided further disappointment: Janáček entered this four-movement piano cycle in a composition contest with apparently negative result. Marie Dvořáková gave the world pre- miere performance in Brno on January 24, 1914. The “Hagenauer” portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, likely by Joseph Hickel (1783) Ludwig van Beethoven by August von Klober (1818) JULY 22 – JULY 28, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 97