Ravinia 2023 Issue 5

BENNETT GORDON HALL 2:00 PM SUNDAY, AUGUST 27, 2023 MISHA DICHTER, piano BRAHMS Selections from Four Ballades No. in D minor No. in D major BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. Allegro Andante Scherzo: Allegro assai BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. Presto Largo e mesto Menuetto: Allegro Rondo: Allegro – – DEBUSSY Suite bergamasque Prélude Menuet Clair de lune Passepied LISZT Funérailles La lugubre gondola No. Hungarian Rhapsody No. (“Rákóczy March”) Ravinia expresses its appreciation for the generous support of Sponsor Lynne and David B. Weinberg . JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833–1897) Ballade No. in D minor, op. , no. Ballade No. in D major, op. , no. “Ballade” remained a comparatively exible musical designation throughout the th cen- tury. Chopin, for example, approached the ballade as a dramatic genre emanating direct- ly from Romantic musical poeticism. In it, the musical “narrative” outlined an imprecise and unpredictable sequence of episodes o en depicted through song-inspired thematic ma- terial. Other composers employed the term as a generic designation for light, short, and tuneful keyboard pieces. Johannes Brahms explored the vast ground between those two points in his Four Ballades, op. , a collec- tion completed in . His rst ballade most clearly approximates the dynamic Chopin model. Brahms evi- dently drew inspiration from the Scottish border ballad “Edward” published in a Ger- man translation in Johann Gottfried Herder’s Stimmen der Völker . According to the folk tale, Edward used a knife to kill his brother (in some sources, father). Countless variants of this piece have survived in the British bal- lad tradition. Most begin with the mother asking, “What makes that blood on the point of your knife?” or “How came that blood on your shirt sleeve?” Edward replies uncon- vincingly that the blood came from various animals. Then he confesses his brutal act. Many scholars have pointed out that Herder’s translation ts almost exactly with the main theme of this ballade. Brahms instilled the second ballade with far subtler meaning. Its sweeping opening gesture, from which many thematic ideas are derived, outlines the pitches of his mu- sical motto: F–A–F (in this case, F-sharps are used), which stands for “Frei aber froh” (“free but happy”). Johannes Brahms (ca.1866) LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Piano Sonata No. in G major, op. , no. Beethoven’s relationship with the Braun fam- ily around the turn of the th century was complex and not always amiable. Baron Peter von Braun managed several Viennese the- aters and was an enthusiastic supporter of music. e baron gained notoriety in Bee- thoven’s biography as the uncooperative ad- ministrator who denied the composer use of one of his theaters for a bene t concert in . Three years later, however, Braun opened the doors of the eater an der Wien for the rst production of Beethoven’s only opera, Leonore (later renamed Fidelio ). Its unsuccessful debut prompted a heated ex- change between composer and manager. Beethoven accused Braun of cheating him on box o ce receipts and withdrew the opera. His rapport with the baron’s wife, Josephine, appears to have been less volatile. Beethoven dedicated three compositions to her: the two Piano Sonatas, op. (published ) and the Horn Sonata, op. ( ). Sonata No. in G major, the latter half of op. , opens with a super cially lightweight sonata-allegro movement. Its melodic sim- plicity is mere deception, for Beethoven dwells at length upon the initial six-note g- ure in the development section, maneuvering it through numerous, o en minor, keys. e Andante builds a set of variations on an orig- inal theme, asymmetrically constructed with only the second half repeated. is move- ment concludes humorously with a grandi- ose fortissimo chord. Beethoven continues his mischievousness in the concluding Scherzo (the term originally implied a “joke”), an un- usual title for a nale, though one capturing its prankishness. Piano Sonata No. in D major, op. , no. Count Johann Georg von Browne and his wife, the Countess Anna Margarete, were Baroness Josephine von Braun by Friedrich J.G. Lieder (ca.1810) RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE