Ravinia 2024 Issue 6

BENNETT GORDON HALL 7:30 PM THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2024 YEVGENY KUTIK, violin RENANA GUTMAN, piano # MENDELSSOHN Violin Sonata in F major (1838) Allegro vivace Adagio Assai vivace BLOCH Baal Shem (Three Pictures of Chassidic Life) Vidui (Contrition) Nigun (Improvisation) Simchas Torah –Intermission– Music from the Suitcase Suite SHOSTAKOVICH Selections from Twenty-Four Preludes, op. 34 (arr. Tsyganov) No. 10 in C-sharp minor No. 15 in D-flat minor No. 16 in B-flat minor No. 24 in D minor RUBINSTEIN Romance in E-flat major, op. 44, no. 1 * (arr. Wieniawski) PROKOFIEV Waltz from Cinderella , op. 87 * (arr. Fikhtengolts) MILHAUD The Ox on the Roof , op. 58 # Ravinia Steans Music Institute alum * First performance at Ravinia fresh, bright, and even-tempered, and I think Felix is very lucky. …Her presence produces the effect of a fresh breeze, so light and bright and natural is she.” Cécile reciprocated with her first visit to Berlin in late spring 1838. As for Felix, the familiar surroundings of Berlin revived his dormant interest in chamber com- positions with piano. He wrote on August 17 to Ferdinand Hiller: “A very important branch of pianoforte music, which I am particularly fond of—trios, quartets, and other things with ac- companiment—is quite forgotten now, and I feel greatly the want of something new in that line. I should like to do a little towards this. It was with this in mind that I lately wrote the sonata for vi- olin, and the one for cello, and I am thinking next of writing a couple of trios.” Mendelssohn eventually realized these goals and published all but one chamber music score—the Violin Sonata in F major. Why the composer withheld this work remains a mystery. (Mendels- sohn had published his Violin Sonata in F minor, op. 4, 15 years earlier.) The score of his F-major sonata, dated “Berlin, June 15, 1838,” remained virtually unknown until Yehudi Menuhin edited Cécile Jeanrenaud Mendelssohn (1846) Felix Mendelssohn by Eduard Magnus (1846) FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809–1847) Violin Sonata in F major (1838) Mendelssohn spent May through July 1838 in Berlin with his beautiful new bride, Cécile Jeanrenaud. For reasons unknow, his immedi- ate family had not attended their wedding on March 28, 1837, in Frankfurt. Differences of reli- gious confession—the ceremony was held in the Jeanrenaud family’s Reformed Church, while Mendelssohn was from a Jewish family that had converted to Lutheranism—probably mattered little to the free-thinking Mendelssohns. On the other hand, his overly protective mother Lea seemed utterly dissatisfied with this (or proba- bly any) choice of bride. Jealousy perhaps kept away Felix’s devoted sister Fanny. Nevertheless, sister and bride began ex- changing letters after the honeymoon. Fanny warmed to her sister-in-law through this corre- spondence. Soon, Fanny fulfilled her wish to meet this new relative during a trip to Leipzig, where Felix and Cécile lived. Any pangs of jeal- ousy faded when she encountered her brother’s pleasant young bride: “She is amiable, childlike, RAVINIAMAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2 – SEPTEMBER 15, 2024 60