Ravinia 2022, Issue 6

and his own conductors’ institute. His nearly 100 compositions engage a variety of cham- ber, choral/vocal, and orchestral ensembles, electronic and multimedia forces, and theat- rical genres such as opera, film, and musical theater. Dances of the Brush-Footed Butterfly is one of approximately 10 compositions for solo piano. “Have you ever seen how butterflies dance?” Eötvös queried. “They don’t dance with their feet, which are designed to give them stability to perch on a flower, but perform their dances with the brief, unpredictable, and capricious movements of their wings. These miniature dancers are not named after the magnificent patterns on their wings, but according to a family including around 5,000 species: the so-called ‘brush-footed butterflies’ possesses a front pair of feet that are substantially short- er than the other two pairs. They are even able to detect scents with their bushy arms. I was able to observe these enchanting butterflies in my garden and did no more than transfer their dances to the keyboard.” Eötvös dedi- cated the score to Dr. Peter Hanser-Strecker, president of the German music publishing firm Schott Music, on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Pianist Oliver Triendl gave the first performance in Mainz on July 14, 2012. JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833–1897) Seven Fantasies, op. 116 When Robert Schumann wrote his 1853 ar- ticle “New Paths” in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik , he proclaimed the young Johannes Brahms the new genius of German music. “Following the paths of these chosen ones with the utmost interest, it has seemed to me that, after such a preparation, there would and must suddenly appear someday one man who would be singled out to make articulate in an ideal way the highest expression of our time, one man who would bring us mastery, not as the result of a gradual development, but as Minerva, springing fully armed from the head of Cronus. And he is come, a young creature over whose cradle graces and heroes stood guard. His name is Johannes Brahms .” At the time of the article, Brahms was attract- ing attention as a pianist in recitals through- out Europe with the Hungarian violinist Eduard Hoffmann (a.k.a. Ede Reményi). The depth of expression in Brahms’s playing par- ticularly affected Schumann: “Even outward- ly, he bore in his person all the marks that announce to us a chosen man. Seated at the piano, he at once discovered to us wondrous regions. We were drawn into a circle whose magic grew on us more and more. To this was added an altogether inspired style of play- ing which made of the piano an orchestra of lamenting and exultant voices.” Many of Brahms’s compositions for the piano come from these years of growing renown. Not only did he compose three sonatas and numerous sets of variations, ballades, and dances for the solo piano, but he also wrote for chamber combinations that included the piano. When Brahms left his native Hamburg for Vienna in 1862, his interest in solo piano composition shifted from variations and dances to freer, more improvisatory pieces; nearly all the solo piano works are entitled capriccios, intermezzos, rhapsodies, or fanta- sies. These works come fromwidely separated dates during his 35 years in Vienna: there were two sets of piano pieces from 1878–79 and four sets from 1892–93. Among the last group of solo piano com- positions were the Seven Fantasies, op. 116. Brahms completed work on these pieces in 1892 at his summer residence at Ischl, al- though it is possible that he had sketched some of the pieces earlier, and entitled the works a mixture of capriccios and intermez- zos. The term “capriccio” applies to the quick- er pieces, whose tempo markings also suggest an element of driving intensity: Presto energi- co , Allegro passionate , and Allegro agitato . The three capriccios (nos. 1, 3, and 7) are related by means of a diminished-seventh harmony. The four remaining pieces—the “intermez- zos”—are the slower and more lyrical. LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, op. 109 Deep into work on the Missa solemnis —an epic composition destined to miss its in- tended premiere at the ceremony installing Rudolph as archbishop of Olmütz (March 9, 1820)—Beethoven began sketching a piano sonata in E major. Precisely when he entered these ideas into the Missa solemnis sketch- book has recently become a point of dispute. Dates as early as January and as late as April 1820 have been proposed. Beethoven completed the three-movement sonata before September 20 and sent the score to the Berlin publisher Schlesinger, who Johannes Brahms at the piano by Willy von Beckerath had commissioned this work (op. 109) and two other sonatas (opp. 110 and 111). The com- poser dedicated op. 109, which was printed in November 1821, to Maximiliane Brentano, the 19-year-old daughter of his close friends An- tonie and Franz Brentano. These last three piano sonatas inhabit an aes- thetic realm both intimate and emotionally profound. The symphonic approach of his previous sonatas is replaced by an emphasis on fantasy, variation, and contrapuntal tech- niques (such as fugue) that are more indige- nous to the keyboard. As in his earlier “fanta- sy sonatas,” Beethoven employed tempo and texture contrasts in the opening movement to differentiate its two main themes. The Prestissimo is a lilting minor-key movement instilled with much contrapuntal interaction between the bass and treble registers. The sonata’s crowning jewel comes in the finale, a set of six variations based on an original theme—“lyrical, with deepest expression.” –Program notes © 2022 Todd E. Sullivan Ludwig van Beethoven by Joseph Karl Stieler (1820) EINAV YARDEN, piano A longtime protégée of Leon Fleisher, Israeli pianist Einav Yarden completed a Master of Music and Performance Diploma under his guidance at the Peabody Conservatory, hav- ing earned a Bachelor of Music from studies with Emanuel Krasovsky at Tel Aviv Univer- sity as well as support from the America-Is- rael Cultural Foundation from 1996 to 2005. Her mentors also included Zvi Meniker on historical fortepianos, and she has since been on the chamber music faculty of the Freiburg University of Music and piano faculties of the Frankfurt University for Music and Perform- ing Arts and at the Lucerne University Music Conservatory. In concert, Yarden has been a featured soloist with the Israel, Calgary, and Bucharest Philharmonics, Minnesota Orches- tra, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Beethoven Orchester Bonn, collaborating with such conductors as Neville Marriner, Steven Sloane, Leon Botstein, Frédéric Chaslin, Si- mon Halsey, and Mendi Rodan. Her perfor- mances have been broadcast on numerous ra- dio networks around the world. As a recitalist and chamber musician, Yarden has also been a guest at such festivals as La Roque d’Anthéron, Ruhr Piano Festival, Menton Music Festival, the Netherlands’ Piano Biennale, and the Je- rusalem Chamber Music Festival, as well as in Berlin’s Philharmonie and Konzerthaus, New York’s 92nd Street Y and Lincoln Center, Paris’s Salle Cortot and Musée d’Orsay, Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, Bonn’s Beethovenhalle and Beethovenhaus, Bayreuth’s Margravial Opera House, and the Phillips Collection in Wash- ington, DC, among other venues. Yarden has released three albums on Challenge Records, most recently an all-Schumann disc along- side a collection of Beethoven and Stravinsky works, plus an album of Haydn sonatas that won the German Records Critics’ Prize in 2016. Her honors also include major prizes from the 2009 International Beethoven Com- petition in Bonn, 2006 Minnesota Interna- tional Piano-e-Competition, Esther Honens International Competition, and the 2001 Aviv Competition, where she was awarded both the grand prize and the prize for best performance of contemporary Israeli work. Einav Yarden was a Ravinia Steans Music Institute fellow in 2001 and 2002, and after a concert appearance in 2006 returned to RSMI as a collaborating pianist from 2012 to 2017. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 47