Ravinia 2022, Issue 6

MARCO BORGGREVE (SAY) FAZIL SAY (b.1970) Violin Sonata No. 1, op. 7 Fazıl Say is a multitalented pianist and com- poser whose music has been presented by leading ensembles around the world, includ- ing the BBC Philharmonic, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Israel Philhar- monic Orchestra, National Orchestra of France, New York Philharmonic, St. Peters- burg Philharmonic Orchestra, and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. Say won the Young Concert Soloist Contest (Europe, 1994; world 1995) and has received the 2015 Prix Interna- tional de la Laïcité, 2016 International Beetho- ven Prize for Human Rights, Peace, Freedom, Poverty Reduction, and Inclusion, and 2017 Duisberger Musikpreis. He has served as art- ist-in-residence with the Konzerthaus Dort- mund, Konzerthaus Berlin, hr-Sinfonieorches- ter Frankfurt, Rheingau Musik Festival, and Dresdner Philharmonie, among others. A native of Ankara, Turkey, Fazıl Say began piano lessons at age 5 with Mithat Fenmen before attending the Ankara State Conserva- tory. He later studied at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf with David Levine and at the Berlin Conservatory (now the Ber- lin University of the Arts). His compositions include numerous solo-piano works; several concertos or concert pieces for piano and or- chestra; chamber music; the oratorios Nazım , op. 9, and Requiem for Metin Altıok , op. 13; the ballet Patara ; the violin concerto 1001 Nights in the Harem , op. 25; The Bells , op. 50, a can- tata based on a poem by Edgar Allan Poe; and the cello concerto Never Give Up , op. 73. Re- cent years have seen the release of four grand symphonies: İstanbul Symphony , op. 28 (2009), Symphony No. 2, op. 38 (“Mesopotamia”; 2011), Symphony No. 3, op. 43 (“Universe”; 2012), and Symphony No. 4, op. 74 (“Hope”; 2017). Say composed the five-movement Violin So- nata No. 1, op. 7, in 1997, explaining that it “features a lot of Turkish motifs—listening to it is like taking a short trip to Anatolia. The first movement is melancholy. The second Fazıl Say movement provides an atmosphere evoking the jazz that is played at an Ottoman Palace. The third movement is a horon , an energetic dance originating from the Black Sea region. The fourth movement is an improvisation on the folk song Odam Kireçtir . The last move- ment evokes the melancholic atmosphere of the first.” LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Violin Sonata No. 10 in G major, op. 96 Beethoven completed his last violin sonata with French violinist Pierre Rode in mind. The composer’s horizons narrowed consider- ably in light of Rode’s Gallic temperament and diminishing technique. Writing to the Archduke Rudolph—the work’s dedicatee— Beethoven explained, “I have not hurried un- duly to compose the last movement merely for the sake of being punctual, the more so as in view of Rode’s [deteriorating] playing I have had to give more thought to the compo- sition of this movement. In our finales we like to have fairly noisy passages, but R[ode] does not care for them—and so I have been rather hampered. However, everything ought to go off well on Tuesday.” The first performance of the Sonata No. 10 in G major, op. 96, took place in the house of Prince Lobkowitz on December 29, 1812, with Rode and Archduke Rudolph as piano accompanist. Pierre Rode (1774–1830), at one time ranked as France’s premier violinist, had been the prized student of Giovanni Battista Viotti, who allowed his protégé to introduce many of his own violin concertos. Rode quickly at- tained the foremost musical positions in his native country, becoming professor of violin at the newly founded Paris Conservatory, solo violinist at the Paris Opera, and solo vio- linist for First Consul Napoleon Buonaparte. For four years (1804–8), he served the impe- rial court of Tsar Alexander I in Saint Peters- burg. Rode returned to France with a badly damaged technique, eventually forcing his Ludwig van Beethoven by Johann Christoph Heckel (1815) retirement as a performer. His tremendous compositional output—heavily favoring his own instrument—included 13 violin concer- tos and the spectacular Twenty-four Capric- es. His primary legacy as a teacher resides in the violin method developed with Baillot and Kreutzer for the conservatory. Rode’s serendipitous visit to Vienna in 1812 provided Beethoven an opportunity to com- plete this violin sonata, whose first three movements he had sketched simultaneously with the Symphony No. 7 (1811–12). Though hampered in the finale by the violinist’s tech- nical limitations, Beethoven fashioned an es- say of impeccable structural and expressive content. The work’s appeal was immediate, widespread, and sustained. The Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung published a salutatory review on March 26, 1817: “It seems almost as if this great composer is coming back to mel- ody in his latest works and that, on the whole, he has become more or less good-humored. …This sonata helps to support that view. It is not for a moment fickle or casual; but rather, the master is in earnest with this as with his greater works, although the earnestness is of a comfortable kind, and he does not at all shun what is agreeable. … The violin is obbliga- to throughout, in such a way that one could hardly guess a single phrase from the piano part alone. However, not only are the two parts consummately partnered, but, when they do come together, each is telling in its effect.” In the Allegro moderato , Beethoven assigned a tonally ambiguous, unaccompanied melod- ic fragment to the violin. The key of G major is established only with the piano entrance. Violin and piano weave together beautifully and inextricably in the gentle opening melo- dy. A second theme separates the instruments into parallel rhythmic planes: the piano plays the melody’s dotted rhythms, while the vio- lin adds a triplet accompaniment. The clos- ing section contains additional lyrical ideas. Development is focused on the second theme before the first theme is recapitulated in the “wrong” key—E-flat major. Eventually, the music resumes its G-major tonality. The first theme does not return in the appropriate key until the final section of the coda. Beethoven’s next two movements are per- formed without pause. He created an ex- quisite lyrical essay in the Adagio espressivo . Ornamentation becomes increasingly more elaborate as the movement progresses. A somber Scherzo in G minor immediately follows. Its E-flat major trio section merges streaming eighth notes with melodic sus- pensions. The scherzo returns in minor, then changes to major in a brief coda. The final movement is a set of seven contin- uous variations on the Poco allegretto theme introduced by the piano and imitated by the violin. Different transformations are identi- fied by rhythmic or textural characteristics. In order, the variations emphasize four-note groupings; triplets; a toccata-like technique; loud chords alternating with soft scales; a slow, expressive tempo; a false-key introduc- tion and a trio -like section; and a four-voice fugue leading to the graceful final variation. The coda begins slowly before accelerating into a presto conclusion. WILLIAM GRANT STILL (1895–1978) Suite for Violin and Piano More than any other musician, William Grant Still deserves the title “Dean of African Amer- ican composers.” His historical importance would have been assured by one fact alone— his Symphony No. 1 (“Afro-American”) be- came the first large-scale symphony by a mu- sician of color to be performed by a major orchestra, when Howard Hanson conducted the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in the world premiere on October 29, 1931. Still holds further distinction as the first musician of col- or to conduct a major American orchestra, to have an opera performed by a major Ameri- can company, to have a sold-out classical re- cording, and to receive an invitation to the White House, among other accomplishments. He received honorary degrees from Wilber- force College, Howard University, Oberlin College, Bates College, University of Arkan- sas, Pepperdine University, New England Conservatory of Music, Peabody Conservato- ry, and University of Southern California. Still’s parents both possessed musical abili- ty: his father was leader of the brass band in Woodville, MS, and his mother played piano. The family moved to Little Rock, AR, after his father’s death. There, young William studied violin and attended performances of traveling vaudeville shows. Still entered Wilberforce College (Ohio) in 1911 for pre-med studies, but he inevitably gravitated to musical activ- ities, playing in the university string quartet, conducting the band, and composing. He later attended Oberlin College before pursu- ing private composition studies with George Whitefield Chadwick and Edgard Varèse. William Grant Still (1929) RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 29