Ravinia 2019, Issue 7, Week 13

8:00 PM MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2019 PAVILION THE KNIGHTS ERIC JACOBSEN, conductor GIL SHAHAM, violin LIGETI Molto vivace from Concert românesc BRAHMS Violin Concerto Allegro non troppo Adagio Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace Gil Shaham –Intermission– KURTÁG Perpertuum mobile from Signs, Games, and Messages * Chelsea Smith KODÁLY Dances of Galánta KURTÁG Hommage à J.S. Bach from Signs, Games, and Messages * Colin Jacobsen; Miranda Sielaff; Caleb van der Swaagh KURTÁG Im Volkston from Signs, Games, and Messages * Guillaume Pirard BRAHMS Hungarian Dance No. 1 (arr. E. Jacobsen) Gil Shaham BRAHMS Hungarian Dance No. 7 (arr. Schmeling/E. Jacobsen) KURTÁG Virág az ember, Mijakónak from Signs, Games, and Messages * Tutti violins, violas, cellos BRAHMS Hungarian Dance No. 4 (arr. Juon/E. Jacobsen) Gil Shaham KURTÁG Jelek VI from Signs, Games, and Messages * Emily Daggett Smith; Miranda Sielaff; Jane Cords-O’Hara BRAHMS Hungarian Dance No. 5 (arr. Schmeling/E. Jacobsen) * First performance at Ravinia Ravinia expresses its appreciation for the generous support of Featured Sponsor The Negaunee Foundation . “The sweet tones drawn from his magic violin fell like drops of nectar on our enchanted ears.” These are some of the glowing words Franz Liszt used to describe the allure of his contemporary, the Hungarian and Romani (or Gypsy, in the nomenclature of the time) violinist János Bihari. Liszt was by no means alone in his admiration of the virtuosity, improvisatory skill, and creative imagination displayed in the folk music of East- ern Europe, which often (though far from exclu- sively) was played by Romani musicians. This was apparently one of the few avenues open to them to be included in European societies with discriminatory attitudes and policies (that exist in some cases to this day). Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Debussy, Ravel, Bizet, Brahms, Bartók, Kodály, Liszt, Ligeti, and many others drew from the rich wellspring of Eastern European folk music in conscious and subconscious ways, to such a degree that one wonders what Europe- an art music would be without this important contribution. As a young, aspiring pianist and composer, Johannes Brahms met Ede Reményi, a Hungarian violinist of Jewish heritage who helped fan the flames of Brahms’s nascent love of Hungarian folk-influenced music. (In fact, there is debate concerning whether Reményi was the author of some of Brahms’s Hungarian Dances.) As part of a tour through Europe with Brahms as the accompanist, the two traveled to Weimar and stayed with Liszt, Reményi’s countryman and senior musical statesman. Though their compositional styles and musical goals were to diverge widely, the young Brahms and Liszt shared a musical respect and certainly a shared love of Hungarian melody and rhythm. Today, The Knights are honored to continue a long-standing relationship with Ravinia along- side Gil Shaham, who, like Bihari, possesses the power to enchant with his lush and communica- tive tone. He is a friend, frequent collaborator, and the ideal partner for this program exploring the deep connections between “Hungarian” folk music and the concert music of Brahms, Ligeti, Kodály, and Kurtág. (I use quotations here be- cause issues of borders have constantly changed: e.g., Galánta as part of Northern Hungary when Kodály was born, now Slovakia; Ligeti’s birth- place of Transylvania at various times Hungar- ian or Romanian, etc.) In the case of Brahms’s Hungarian Dances, Ligeti’s Concert românesc , and Kodály’s Dances of Galánta , this connection is obvious and immediate. In Kurtág’s short, aphoristic Signs, Games, and Messages and in the grandeur of Brahms’s Violin Concerto the folk connection is a bubbling subterranean stream, but its presence is never far from the surface. –Colin Jacobsen, The Knights RAVINIA MAGAZINE | AUGUST 26 – SEPTEMBER 2, 2019 90