Ravinia 2024 Issue 6

and published the long-overlooked work in 1953. The violinist described this work as “an exam- ple of [Mendelssohn’s] full maturity, bearing all the unmistakable qualities of his period and of his own personal style. This sonata … has the chivalrous, romantic quality of the age that pro- duced Schumann, the elegance and lightness of touch of the age inherited from Mozart, and, in addition, the perfect formal presentation that Mendelssohn himself drew from Bach.” The rhythmic characteristics of the gavotte—a Baroque dance characterized by two upbeats to each melodic phrase—are combined with Mendelssohn’s own rich Romantic dialect in the Allegro vivace ’s opening melody. A contrasting theme bespeaks a more individualistic lyrical id- iom. The Adagio ’s thematic simplicity, charged with exquisitely placed suspension dissonances, is unmistakably Mendelssohn. This very sense of melodic perfection obscures the asymmetry of phrasing: the piano introduction lasts nine mea- sures, while the violin extends the echo phrase to 11 measures. Light, detached articulation casts the finale into another of the composer’s musical worlds, that of the pixie-esque scherzo. ERNEST BLOCH (1880–1959) Baal Shem (Three Pictures of Chassidic Life) Ernest Bloch was raised in an orthodox Jewish community in Geneva, Switzerland, where, as a youth, he studied violin with Louis Rey and composition with Émile Jaques-Dalcroze. At the age of 16, he moved to Brussels for violin studies with Eugène Ysaÿe while furthering his interests in composition. Later, for more than four de- cades, Bloch lived in the United States, eventual- ly becoming a citizen. In addition to his work as a composer, Bloch was director of the Cleveland Institute of Music and the San Francisco Con- servatory, and he was a professor of music at the University of California–Berkeley. Many regard Bloch as the creator of a mod- ern Jewish musical tradition, although the as- sertion remains a matter of great controversy. The composer addressed this issue in an arti- cle by Mary Tibaldi-Chiesa in Musica Hebrai- ca (1938): “I have not approached the problem from without—employing melodies more or less authentic … No! I have but listened to an inner voice—deep, secret, insistent, ardent—an instinct much more than cold and dry reason, a voice which seemed to come from far beyond myself, far beyond my parents. … This entire Jewish heritage moved me deeply, it was reborn in my music. To what extent is it Jewish, to what extent is it just Ernest Bloch, of that I know nothing. The future alone will decide.” Baal Shem (Three Pictures of Chassidic Life) , ded- icated to the memory of the composer’s mother, was written in 1923 for the Swiss violinist André de Ribaupierre, a colleague at the Cleveland In- stitute of Music. The actual impetus for its creation, however, came from the publisher Carl Fischer. Schelomo , Bloch’s “Hebraic rhapsody” for cello and orchestra, had earned the compos- er little money (exactly $17), and Fischer sug- gested that he should write a less serious work. Baal Shem not only produced the desired finan- cial rewards, but also, as the composer liked to tell, an unexpected response from his publisher: “Well, Mr. Bloch, you surely have improved!” Ba’al Shem Tov (1700?–60), also known as Israel ben Eliezer, was a religious leader, healer, and hermit in Poland who is recognized as a lead- ing founder of Hasidism. Although the spirit of Jewish music is discernable throughout Bloch’s Baal Shem , only the third piece employs an ac- tual Hebrew melody. A wistful preludial quality pervades Vidui (Contrition) . The most familiar piece of the suite, Nigun (Improvisation) , chal- lenges the violinist’s range of technique and ex- pression. Simchas Torah portrays the festival of rejoicing at the end of the annual cycle of read- ings from the Torah. The composer inserts an authentic Yiddish wedding song, “Di mezinke oysgegebn” (“The Youngest Daughter Weds”) by Morris Warshawsky., near the end of the move- ment. Interestingly, the previous year, Bloch had received—as a 42nd birthday present—a Ford Model T, which he named “Mezinke.” DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906–1975) Four Preludes from op. 34 (arranged for violin and piano by Dmitry Tsyganov) After completing his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtensk on December 17, 1932—but before its infamous premiere and subsequent condemna- tion by Party officials—Shostakovich retreated to the intimate solo-piano medium. Five years had passed since his last public appearance, and Shostakovich was determined to resume his performing activities. (Shostakovich had repre- sented the Soviet Union—along with Lev Ob- orin, Grigori Ginzburg, and Yuri Bryushkov—at the First Chopin Piano Competition, but much to his disappointment received only a diploma.) Ernest Bloch Now a more seasoned musician and internation- ally renowned composer, Shostakovich refo- cused his efforts on the piano. In December 1932, Shostakovich began writing a series of solo piano preludes modeled on Chopin’s 24 Preludes, op. 28—one in each of the major and minor keys. Shostakovich even replicated Chopin’s key orga- nization: preludes are grouped in major/relative minor pairs (e.g., C major and A minor). The next pairing is a fifth higher (G major and E mi- nor), and so on through the “circle of fifths.” Shostakovich presented several groups of pre- ludes as he finished them on recitals in Lenin- grad, but he did not give the premiere of the complete collection of 24 Preludes, op. 34 until May 24, 1933, in Moscow. One of the 20th century’s towering composi- tional achievements, the 24 Preludes, op. 34, have been transcribed for various instrumental combinations. Dmitry Tsyganov (1903–1992) transcribed four preludes for violin in piano in 1937—the works performed on this program. He completed two more groups of transcriptions in 1961 (ten preludes) and 1963 (five preludes). Tsyganov co-founded the Moscow Conserva- tory Quartet—later renamed the Beethoven Quartet—and served as its first violinist from 1923 until 1977. The Beethoven Quartet was closely associated with Shostakovich, premier- ing 13 of his 15 string quartets, receiving dedica- tions of two as a group and four as individuals, and collaborating with the composer on the Dmitri Shostakovich (1935) Dmitry Tsyganov RAVINIA.ORG  • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 61