Ravinia 2019, Issue 7, Week 14

and piano was derived from a photo I took in the mid-1990s. I had been visiting my father’s family on the island of Madeira (Portuguese ter- ritory located off the coast of Morocco), and the photo was taken from the bottom of a subterra- nean passage at the Fortress of São Tiago in the capital city of Funchal. “From that perspective the stairs seem to rise up directly toward the bright sky, moving from darkness into light. The duality of this photo evoked for me Pessoa’s short phrase. ‘Litania’ (‘litany’ in English) refers to a form of oration—a series of prayers organized in short invocations that alternate between soloist and assembly, producing a hypnotic effect. The ‘soloist’ in the prayer is represented by the violin, which plays dramatic, ascending lines, while the ‘assembly’ is represented by the piano, whose music is more introspective, solemn, and contemplative, played at slower tempi.” Washington Performing Arts commissioned Litania for violinist Yevgeny Kutik, who gave the premiere with pianist Anna Polonsky on April 23, 2019. GUSTAV MAHLER (1860–1911) Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 (arranged by Robert Wittinger) With his Fifth Symphony, Mahler’s orchestral thinking achieved (on the surface, at least) a more objective viewpoint. The song impulses of his first four symphonies, which were so inti- mately connected with the Wunderhorn poems and his orchestral Lieder eines fahrenden Gesel- len , had almost completely disappeared. Vocal resources returned only in his colossal Sym- phony No. 8, the “Symphony of a Thousand.” Mahler steadfastly refused to divulge publicly any underlying program for his Fifth. Neverthe- less, the habitually autobiographical composer unquestionably overlaid this symphony with a thick veneer of personal experience. Before beginning the Fifth, Mahler suffered a life-threatening hemorrhage in February 1901. “I lost a third of my blood that night. I shall cer- tainly recover, but the illness will still have cost 10 years of my life.” Immediately after his mirac- ulous recovery, themes of mortality and death surfaced in two of the four orchestral Rückert Lieder , based on poetry by Friedrich Rückert, which the convalescing Mahler composed at Maiernigg during June and July 1901. Themes of morbidity coexisted in the Fifth Symphony alongside another musical subtext: Mahler’s blossoming love for the young Alma Schindler. They met at a dinner party on No- vember 7, but their civility quickly disintegrated into a loud battle of opinions over the merits of a ballet by Alma’s music teacher, Alexander Zemlinsky, which Mahler refused to conduct at the Vienna Opera. Mahler was smitten by the spirited 22-year-old, but Alma requited his af- fection more slowly. Their marriage took place on March 9, 1902, and a daughter, Maria, was born on November 3. The exquisite symphonic Adagietto direct- ly reflects the composer’s affection for Alma. Recently rediscovered evidence contradicts a long-standing tradition in which this piece be- came another lugubrious movement. Dutch conductor Willem Mengelberg, a celebrated in- terpreter of Mahler’s symphonies, wrote the fol- lowing marginal note in his score: “This Adagi- etto was Gustav Mahler’s declaration of love to Alma! Instead of a letter, he confided it in this movement without a word of explanation. She understood and replied: He should come!!! (I have this from both of them!).” RICHARD STRAUSS (1864–1949) Violin Sonata in E-flat major, TrV 151 The three years that Strauss spent as third con- ductor of the Munich Opera (1886–89) did little to advance his conducting career. He was only allowed to present the less important works in the repertoire, which, at the time, were operas by Mozart and Verdi. That same period brought a critical turning point in his development as a composer. Youthful chamber works in abstract classical forms fell by the wayside as he devel- oped interests in programmatic orchestral com- positions, the tone poems. Strauss worked on the Violin Sonata in E-flat major, TrV 151—his last chamber composition— during the summer and fall of 1887, between his first tone poem ( Macbeth , 1886–88) and the next two ( Don Juan and Death and Transfiguration , both 1888–89). The sonata’s slow movement, Improvisation , was the last completed. The pre- miere took place in October 1888. Strauss dedi- cated the sonata to his cousin Robert Pschorr, a member of the Munich family of brewers. The Allegro, ma non troppo opens heroically be- fore taking a more passionate turn. The simple, singing quality of the Improvisation ’s initial mel- ody may have contributed to its popularity as an independent composition. A short Andante piano soliloquy begins the final movement. The tempo changes to an energetic Allegro for the main body of the movement, as fleet violin runs accompany the muscular piano part. –Program notes © 2019 Todd E. Sullivan YEVGENY KUTIK, violin A native of Minsk, Belarus, Yevgeny Kutik im- migrated to the United States with his family at age 5. His 2014 album Music from the Suitcase: A Collection of Russian Miniatures features music he found in his family’s suitcase after leaving the Soviet Union in 1990. In addition to debuting at number five on Billboard ’s Classical chart, the album was featured on NPR’s All Things Con- sidered and in the New York Times . This year, Kutik launched a new recording project titled Meditations on Family , commissioning eight composers to translate a personal family photo into a musical miniature for violin with various ensembles, envisioning the project as a living archive of new works inspired by memories, home, and belonging. Each track was released digitally weekly, and the complete album was released in March, when Kutik and the project were the cover story in Strings magazine. All of his recordings appear on Marquis Classics, including his debut album, Sounds of Defiance (2012), and Words Fail (2016). Kutik began vi- olin studies with his mother, Alla Zernitskaya, and later studied with Zinaida Gilels, Shirley Givens, Roman Totenberg, and Donald Weiler- stein. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University and a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory. Kutik made his major orchestral debut in 2003 with the Boston Pops as the first-prize winner of the Boston Sympho- ny Orchestra Young Artists Competition. In 2006, he was awarded a Salon de Virtuosi Grant as well as the Tanglewood Music Center Jules Reiner Violin Prize. Highlight of his recent and upcoming performances include his Kennedy Center debut in April and bows at the Morris Museum, Honest Brook Music Festival, and the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, as well as appearances with the Cape Town and Dayton Philharmonics and the El Paso, Huntsville, La Crosse, and New Bedford Symphonies. Passion- ate about his heritage, Kutik is an advocate for the Jewish Federations of North America, the organization that assisted his family in coming to the US, and regularly speaks and performs to both raise awareness and promote the assistance of refugees from around the world. Yevgeny Ku- tik is making his Ravinia debut. RAVINIA MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 3 – SEPTEMBER 15, 2019 92