Ravinia 2022, Issue 6

MATTHEW HOLLER (LEWIS) Still became involved in a variety of mu- sic-related pursuits. During the 1910s, he played in dance orchestras and arranged for W.C. Handy. Still joined the pit orchestra for the Noble Sissle/Eubie Blake musical Shuffle Along , and soon after he became recording di- rector for the Black Swan Phonograph Com- pany, whose artists included Ethel Waters and Fletcher Henderson. A growing number of musicians—Paul Whiteman, Artie Shaw, and Sophie Tucker—performed Still’s arrange- ments on radio programs. From 1934 until his death, Still and his second wife, the pianist and writer Verna Arvey, lived in Los Angeles. His credits included musical contributions to the films Pennies from Heaven (1936), Lost Horizon (1937), and Stormy Weather (1943) as well as the television series Gunsmoke and the original Perry Mason Show . Freelance work for Hollywood studios pro- vided income for Still’s family but it did not curb his production of concert music. In fact, the late 1930s and early 1940s witnessed an upsurge in “serious” composition—works such as the opera Troubled Island (1937), the cantata And They Lynched Him on a Tree (1940), and In Memoriam: The Colored Sol- diers who Died for Democracy (1943), inspired by a report that the first American soldier to die in World War II was African American. Commissions and requests for compositions multiplied. Each movement of the Suite for Violin and Piano, composed in 1943 in Los Angeles, draws inspiration from a sculpture by an Af- rican American artist. African Dancer (1953) by Richmond Barthé (1901–89), which cap- tures the dancer mid-step, arms stretched to the side and eyes cast trancelike toward the sky, inspired Still’s first movement. The theme of “mother and daughter” appears in several sculptures and paintings by Sargent Johnson (1888–1967), any or all of which provided the subject of the second movement. Still evoked Gamin (c.1929) by Augusta Savage (1892–1962) in the third movement. “Gamin” is the French word for “street urchin.” Savage modeled this sculpture on her young nephew, Ellis Ford. ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810–1856) Violin Sonata No. 2 in D minor, op. 121 Robert Schumann, his wife Clara, and their children left Dresden on September 1, 1850, for the Rhineland town of Düsseldorf, where he had accepted the position of municipal music director. Apparently, the relation- ship suffered a shaky start. A highly private man, Schumann was forced to tolerate the over-friendly Düsseldorfers. They, in turn, were disappointed by his indifferent con- ducting style. Nevertheless, Schumann ex- perienced a final, if uneven, compositional flourish. The Symphony No. 3 (“Rhenish”), the Piano Trio No. 3, the Märchenbilder for viola and piano, two books of Romanzen und Balladen for mixed chorus, and the first two violin sonatas (opp. 105 and 121) appeared within two years of his appointment. Joseph Joachim, the premier violinist in Ger- many, previewed the Sonata No. 2 with Clara Schumann before its publication in 1853. To his friend Arnold Wehner in Göttingen, Joa- chim wrote, “You know how expressively Clara interprets his music. I have an extraor- dinary joy in playing Robert’s works with her, and I only wish you could share this joy; per- haps at some other time this will be possible. I must not fail to tell you about the new Sona- ta in D minor which Breitkopf & Härtel will bring out very soon. We played it from the proof-sheets. I consider it one of the finest compositions of our times in respect to its marvelous unity of feeling and its thematic significance. It overflows with noble passion, almost harsh and bitter in expression, and the last movement reminds one of the sea with its glorious waves of sound.” The published so- nata appeared later that year with a dedica- tion to violinist Ferdinand David, leader of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Schumann’s majestic slow introduction pres- ents motives that are more fully realized later. The tempo accelerates as the violin offers a hymn-like theme. A slightly slower but more impassioned violin melody lends an element of contrast. Syncopated figures and jagged rhythms are developed. The principal themes return, followed by an accelerating coda. A double-scherzo design, once favored by Bee- thoven, organizes the Molto vivace . The lively scherzo melody is heard three times in alter- nation with a more restrained lyrical theme. The third movement offers a set of variations on an Allegretto moderato theme, hymn-like in nature but not, as Joan Chissell suggests, “the chorale ‘ Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ ’ (used by Bach) turned into triple time.” The final movement, despite its brisk pace and excited first theme, maintains a gloomy mi- nor-key atmosphere until changing to major near the end. –Program notes © 2022 Todd E. Sullivan Robert Schumann by Eduard Bendemann (1859) GENEVA LEWIS, violin Since her solo debut at age 11 with the Pasade- na Pops, New Zealand–born violinist Geneva Lewis has been a featured guest with such ensembles as the Orpheus Chamber Orches- tra, Pasadena Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra, Pensacola Symphony, and Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra. Over the coming year, her concert schedule includes appearances with the Auckland Philharmonia, North Car- olina Symphony, Augusta Symphony, Kan- sas City Symphony, Austin Symphony, and Arkansas Symphony. In recital, recent and upcoming highlights include performances at Wigmore Hall, Tippet Rise, Emory Uni- versity, Purdue Convocations, Kravis Center, and the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Con- certs. Deeply passionate about collaborative chamber music, Lewis has performed along- side Jonathan Biss, Glenn Dicterow, Miriam Fried, Kim Kashkashian, Gidon Kremer, Marcy Rosen, András Schiff, and Mitsuko Uchida, among other prominent musicians. She is also a founding member of the Callisto Trio, the resident ensemble of the Da Cam- era Society in Los Angeles. Callisto received the bronze medal at the Fischoff Competi- tion, where it was the youngest group ever to compete in the senior division finals. The trio recently performed at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and was invited on the In- ternational Holland Music Sessions’ Masters on Tour series. Lewis has recently received several major honors as an individual artist, winning the grand prize of the 2020 Concert Artists Guild Competition and 2021 Prince of Hesse Prize at the Kronberg Academy, re- ceiving a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant and 2022 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, and being named Musical America ’s June 2021 New Art- ist of the Month and a BBC New Generation Artist for 2022–24. With a string quartet, she participated in a New England Conservatory fellowship and a Virginia Arts Festival resi- dency to present community and school per- formances and master classes. Lewis earned an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory guided by Miriam Fried and currently studies with Mihaela Martin at the Kronberg Academy. A Ravinia Steans Mu- sic Institute fellow in 2017 and 2018, Geneva Lewis is making her first return to the festival. She will be joining a concert tour with Fried and other RSMI alums this spring. AUDREY VARDANEGA, piano American pianist and arts entrepreneur Audrey Vardanega has performed as a solo and collaborative artist across Europe, Chi- na, and the United States, and is the founder and artistic director of Musaics of the Bay, a chamber music series that connects musi- cians, composers, and visual artists for col- laborations, mentorship, and creating new work. Highlights of the past year include inaugurating Musaics of the Bay’s residency program with 10 emerging artists partici- pating in workshops, peer review sessions, open rehearsals, and improvisation, as well as the creation of The Autumn Salon series in New York and Boston. Born and raised in Oakland, CA, Vardanega began piano studies at age 6 with Araks Aghazarian, then formal training on piano with Robert Schwartz at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (2002– 13) and in composition with Arkadi Serper at the Berkeley Crowden School (2004–13). She earned a BA in Political Science from Columbia University in 2017 and a Master of Music in 2019 from Mannes The New School under the tutelage of Richard Goode. Var- danega made her debut as a soloist with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra at age 11, then her recital debut the following year on the Bouchaine Young Artists Series of Festi- val Napa Valley. At age 15 she made the first of three appearances on the Midsummer Mozart Festival as the youngest soloist in its history. As a solo and chamber musician, Vardanega has also been featured at San Fran- cisco’s Herbst Theater and Old First Concerts Series, the Santa Cruz Symphony, Hangzhou Grand Theater and Zhejiang Conservatory of Music, Festival del Sole Napa Valley, Minne- sota’s Lakes Area Music Festival, Rockefeller University’s Tri-Institutional Noon Concerts Series, and Teatro del Libertador San Martín in Córdoba, Argentina. She won a Bay Area Audience Choice Award in August 2021 for her performance with cellist Tanya Tomkins and the Valley of the Moon Music Festival. Audrey Vardanega was a Ravinia Steans Mu- sic Institute fellow in 2017 and 2018 and is making her first return to the festival. RAVINIA MAGAZINE • AUGUST 29 – SEPTEMBER 18, 2022 30 I