Ravinia 2022, Issue 1

MARTIN THEATRE 7:30 PM TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2022 MIRIAM FRIED, violin JONATHAN BISS, piano MOZART Violin Sonata in C major, K. 293c/303 Adagio—Allegro molto—Adagio—Allegro molto Tempo di Menuetto JANÁČEK Violin Sonata Con moto Ballada: Con moto Allegretto Adagio BARTÓK Violin Sonata No. 2 Molto moderato Allegretto –Intermission– DEBUSSY Violin Sonata Allegro vivo Intermède: Fantasque et léger Finale: Très animé MOZART Violin Sonata in A major, K. 526 Molto allegro Andante Presto WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791) Violin Sonata in C major, K. 293c/303 Twenty-one years old and frustrated by the limited professional opportunities in his hometown, Mozart petitioned his employer, the Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Collore- do, for a discharge from the Salzburg court in order to pursue prospects beyond Austria. This letter of August 1, 1777—signed by Wolfgang but written in his father Leopold’s hand—stated in part, “The greater the tal- ents which children have received from God, the more are they bound to use them for the improvement of their own and their parents’ circumstances, so that they may at the same time assist them and take thought for their own future progress. The Gospel teaches us to use our talents in this way.” The court musicians obviously had tried Col- loredo’s patience too many times. Four weeks later, the Prince-Archbishop sarcastically informed his court chamberlain that “in the name of the Gospel, father and son have my permission to seek their fortune elsewhere.” Leopold meekly returned to his position at court, but Wolfgang departed on an extended trip to Munich, Augsburg, Mannheim, and Paris, which extended from September 23, 1777, until January 15, 1779. In the end, Mozart failed in his primary mission of securing a permanent court position. The young musi- cian also experienced a great personal trage- dy with the death of his mother, Maria Anna, on July 3, 1778, in Paris. Nonetheless, the journey was not a complete disappointment: Mozart returned home with a new set of six violin sonatas, four written in Mannheim and two in Paris. A dozen years had passed since the completion of his 16 youthful violin sonatas. The new collection absorbed musical influences from his travels through southern German lands, a progressive center of instrumental composition and performance. In particular, Mozart appears to have derived in- spiration from Joseph Schuster’s Divertimenti di camera for violin and piano. “They are not bad,” he wrote to his father on October 6, 1777. “If I stay on, I shall write six myself in the same style, as they are very popular here.” Schuster had recently passed through Mu- nich on a return trip from Bologna, where he studied with Padre Martini, to the Saxon electoral court in Dresden. His divertimenti, which Mozart “often played” while in Mu- nich, provided models of regional tastes that the younger musician could emulate. First and foremost, they demonstrated the profit- ability of music written in a lighter style, as the title divertimento suggests. Each composi- tion contains two or three movements, sever- al of which evoke national dances. (Mozart’s set begins with five two-movement sonatas and culminates in a majestic three-movement sonata.) Perhaps most importantly, Schuster introduced a more equitable distribution of thematic material between the instruments, breaking from the older hierarchical tradition of “piano with violin accompaniment.” The Parisian publisher Sieber issued Mozart’s set as op. 1 with a dedication to ElisabethMaria Aloysia Auguste of Sulzbach (1721–1794), who, as wife of Karl Theodor, was Electress Palatine and Electress of Bavaria. Inexplicably, Mozart was rushed out of the city by Baron Friedrich Melchior Grimm, a diplomat and his main pa- tron in Paris, in October 1778, before the en- graving was complete, costing him the Anonymous painting of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as a Knight of the Golden Spur (1777) opportunity to proofread Sieber’s score: “They will very likely be full of mistakes, because I have not been able to revise them myself, but have had to get some else to do so. And I shall probably have to go to Munich without these sonatas.” Sieber advertised their publication in the Journal de Paris on November 26. On Christmas Day, Mozart arrived in Munich, where Karl Theodor had relocated the court from Mannheim. The printed violin sonatas finally arrived on December 31, allowing lit- tle time to bind the music before his audience with the electress on January 7, 1779, when he presented the complete score. “We spent over half an hour with her, and she was very gra- cious,” Mozart reported to his father the fol- lowing day. “So that I may be paid soon, I have managed to let her know that I am leaving here in a few days.” Whatever impression the dedication might have made on the electress, it did not result in a court appointment. Mozart returned home to Salzburg defeated and hum- bled. The Prince-Archbishop restored him to the court on February 25 with a dual appoint- ment as Konzertmeister and court organist. The Sonata in C major, K. 293c/303 belongs to the group of four sonatas composed in Mannheim in early 1778. In addition to con- trasts of key and character, Mozart employed widely contrasting tempos to differentiate the opening movement’s two main themes. The violin introduces the C-major Adagio , tender and tranquil music immediately varied by the piano. A slight minor-key tinge, followed by a pause, ends this section. The piano interjects a vivacious Allegro molto theme in G major. The Adagio and Allegro molto sections return, lightly varied, in C major. For the latter of the two movements, Mozart infused a fairly tra- ditional minuet structure with expanded the- matic dialogue between the violin and piano. LEOŠ JANÁČEK (1854–1928) Violin Sonata, JW VII/7 Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914, following the assassina- tions of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (heir to Elisabeth Auguste at the spinet, by Johann Heinrich Tischvein (ca.1752) RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 33