Ravinia 2022, Issue 1

the Austro-Hungarian throne) and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, by a Bos- nian-Serb student named Gavrilo Princip. Smoldering political tensions in Europe erupt- ed. Germany invaded Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Russia struck against Germany. The Ottoman Empire secretly allied with Germany and moved to recover its former territories in the Caucasus. Within months, several European, Middle Eastern, and North African countries had been drawn into the conflict, siding either with the Allied Powers or the Central Powers. The British Empire and United States later joined this global conflict. The Great War raged until November 11, 1918, when Germany signed a cease-fire agreement (Armistice Day). Empires had toppled, and the world was never the same. Like other fervently nationalist Czechs, Janáček welcomed the hostilities as an oppor- tunity for the Russians (the eastern Slavs) to liberate the western Slavs from Austro-Hun- garian dominance. The war elicited opposing sentiments, anxiety and hope, which Janáček associated with his violin sonata. Janáček dat- ed this music to the “beginning of the war, in 1914, when we were waiting for the Russians in Moravia.” A notation midway through his sketches more specifically recorded “August 1,” the day Germany declared war on Russia. Janáček first recommended a performance to Dr. František Veselý in a letter written on Oc- tober 21, 1915. Four days later, he invited vio- linist Jaroslav Kocian to play the sonata but received a tepid, non-committal response. The sonata underwent a thorough revision between 1915 and 1920 as Janáček altered the terse opening Con moto movement, reor- dered two other movements (the Ballada was moved from third to second position, and the Adagio from second to the end of the sona- ta), and composed a new third movement (at first an Allegro but ultimately an Allegretto ). Otakar Nebuška published the revised score in 1922. The first known performance, featur- ing violinist František Kudláček and pianist Václav Štěpán, took place on April 24, 1922, at a concert of the Klub moravských skladatelů (Association of Moravian Composers) held at Brno’s Museum of Applied Arts. Leoš Janáček BÉLA BARTÓK (1881–1945) Violin Sonata No. 2, BB 85 With a concentrated burst of creativity, Bartók completed two sonatas for violin and piano in 1921 and 1922. Difficulties involving the bal- ance of these dissimilar instruments—one lyrical, the other percussive—had resulted in a small catalogue of abandoned violin works, including three sonatas and several individual movements. Bartók resolved his composition- al dilemma in the two new sonatas, dedicated to Hungarian violinist Jelly d’Arányi. Both sonatas explore a surprisingly strident musical language that reflects Bartók’s mod- ernist adaptations of Magyár and Transylva- nian folk music. His recent ethnomusicologi- cal research uncovered mixed major/minor scales and the substitution of tritone patterns for dominant-tonic cadences. Bartók identi- fied the key of his Sonata No. 2 as C major, with F-sharp serving as an important second- ary tonal center. Whole-tone formations sup- plement the major/minor scales. Bartók premiered the Sonata No. 2 on his February 7, 1923, recital in Berlin with Hun- garian violinist Imre Waldbauer. Three months later, on May 7, he presented the so- nata in London with d’Arányi. The sonata’s two movements convey a slow–fast tempo relationship derived from the lassú–friss pair- ing of the verbunkos dance. There is no break between movements. Recognizable themat- ic similarities strengthen the musical unity. A rhapsodic quality, apparent in the violin opening, softens the structural formalities of the Molto moderato . Violin pizzicatos intro- duce the Allegretto , a rondo-esque movement with several colorful themes. CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862–1918) Sonata No. 3 for Violin and Piano, CD 148 In the final years of his life, Debussy began a series of six sonatas for a variety of small chamber groupings, finishing only half the planned number before his death from can- cer in 1918. Debussy struggled to create a sense of cyclic unity in the third sonata, a Béla Bartók work for violin and piano. Great difficulties emerged in relation to the finale, which em- braced a “cellular” idea related to the earlier movements. Writing to publisher Jacques Durand on October 17, 1916, he conceded that “the first two movements don’t want to have anything to do with it. … Knowing myself as I do, I’m certainly not going to force them to put up with an awkward neighbor.” Due either to ill health or the turmoil of war, Debussy produced no alternative for the fina- le. Four months later, he restored the “Nea- politan” original with slight modification. Still lacking confidence in the work’s organi- zation, Debussy sarcastically described the cyclic construction: “It goes through the most curious contortions before ending up with a simple idea which turns back on itself like a snake biting its own tail—an amusement whose attraction I take leave to doubt!” The Sonata No. 3 for Violin and Piano re- ceived its premiere at a concert to benefit blind soldiers onMay 5, 1917; Debussy accom- panied violinist Gaston Poulet. (With patriot- ic pride, the composer signed his manuscript “Claude Debussy, musicien français .”) That concert marked Debussy’s final performance in Paris. Poulet and Debussy also presented the sonata in Saint-Jean-de-Luz in Septem- ber—the composer’s last public appearance. Debussy instilled an expressive dialectic in this sonata, especially in the final movement, as he revealed to his friend Robert Godet: “By one of those very human contradictions, it’s full of happiness and uproar. In future, don’t be taken in by works that seem to fly through the air; they’ve often been wallowing in the shadows of a gloomy brain.” The Allegro vivo is a loosely structured sona- ta movement filled with Gallic warmth and suavity. Two piano chords provide the only preface to an expressive violin melody, later contrasted by a syncopated theme. The Inter- mède presents even more clearly differenti- ated themes, at turns intimate and outgoing, tranquil and agitated. Distinct references to the first movement’s material appear at the beginning of the Très animé finale. An al- most manic contest between “happiness and Claude Debussy (1909) uproar” follows, with one final luminous idea driving away all gloom. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Violin Sonata in A major, K. 526 Mozart wrote his late A-major violin sona- ta between the string serenade Eine kleine Nachtmusik and the opera Don Giovanni , logging a completion date of August 24, 1787, in his private works catalogue. Mozart’s duo writing reached full maturity in this sonata, his penultimate composition for violin and piano. (In 1788, he composed the Sonata in F major, K. 547, as “a little piano sonata for beginners with a violin.”) Two factors explain the virtual silence surrounding the A-major sonata. The first, of course, involved the enor- mous time and effort necessary to compose an opera. Mozart sacrificed many of his usual activities, such as profitable Lenten concerts, to complete the score in time for its October premiere in Prague. Additionally, his father Leopold’s unexpected death on May 28 part- ly accounted for the near absence of family correspondence, which typically conveyed information on new compositions. Mozart no longer struggled with the con- ventional subordination of the violin. In this sonata, thematic ideas migrate effortlessly between instruments, illustrating his ability to conceive material idiomatic to both vio- lin and piano. Such compositional freedom promoted experimentation with textures and instrumental combinations. The Molto allegro joyously breaks from the confines of meter: its opening theme shifts unpredictably be- tween 6/8 and 3/4 groupings. Mozart presents the initial phrases twice, exchanging piano and violin roles in the repetition. Delicate staccatos in the second theme further lighten this already carefree movement. The Andante begins with piano figuration an- ticipatory of Sarastro’s aria “O Isis und Osiris” from The Magic Flute . The violin offers mere wisps of melody in response. Unexpectedly, the music turns to minor in the secondary theme. This change of mode functions even more effectively in the recapitulation. As Georges de Saint-Foix has demonstrated, Mozart borrowed the rondo refrain of his Presto from the Sonata, op. 5, no. 5, by Carl Friedrich Abel, a London associate of Johann Christian Bach who died on June 20, 1787. The younger composer probably intended his own sonata as an homage to this much-ad- mired musician. –Program notes © 2022 Todd E. Sullivan RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JUNE 15 – JULY 3, 2022 34