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7:30 PM WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 2018
MARTIN THEATRE
RAY CHEN,
violin
JULIO ELIZALDE,
piano
†
BEETHOVEN
Violin Sonata No. 1
Allegro con brio
Tema con Variazioni: Andante con moto
Rondo: Allegro
SAINT-SAËNS
Violin Sonata No. 1
Allegro agitato [
attacca
]
Adagio
Allegretto moderato [
attacca
]
Allegro molto
–Intermission–
YSAŸE
Sonata No. 4 for Solo Violin
Allemande: Lento maestoso
Sarabande: Quasi lento
Final: Presto ma non troppo
FALLA
Suite populaire espagnole
(arr. Kochański)
El paño moruno
Asturiana
Jota
Nana
Canción
Polo
MONTI
Csárdás
*
†
Ravinia debut
*
First performance at Ravinia
Ravinia expresses its appreciation for the generous support of
Program Sponsor
The Fremont Foundation
.
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827)
Violin Sonata No. 1 in D major, op. 12, no. 1
Beethoven spent his first few years in Vienna
studying composition and establishing a career
as a virtuoso pianist. The Elector of Bonn had
provided a stipend to cover living expenses and
the cost of lessons from Haydn. Beethoven also
learned how to set Italian texts from the imperi-
al Kapellmeister, Antonio Salieri. Salieri gener-
ously charged no tuition for the lessons, which
began soon after Beethoven’s arrival in Vienna
in 1792 and continued for nearly a decade.
Beethoven dedicated the three violin sonatas of
op. 12, written in 1798 and published by Artaria
the following year, to Salieri. The personal, overly
dramatic side of the young composer’s musical
personality baffled reviewers, who expected lyr-
ical writing from this student of the esteemed
Kapellmeister. The
Allgemeine Musikalische Zei-
tung
(June 1798) published a disapproving re-
view: “Undeniably Herr van Beethoven is going
his own way, but what an eccentric, torturous
way it is! Intellect, intellect, and more intellect,
but without nature, without song! Indeed there
is nothing in the music but a mass of learning
without even a good method of conveying it. It is
dry and uninteresting, a forced attempt at strange
modulations, an aversion to the conventional key
relationships, a piling up of difficulty upon dif-
ficulty until one finally becomes impatient and
loses all pleasure in the task. … And yet this mu-
sic cannot be dismissed altogether. It has value,
especially as an exercise for already accomplished
pianists. There are always those who like things
that are too difficult in concept and presentation,
things that seem to go against the natural grain.”
The Sonata No. 1 in Dmajor, like its two compan-
ion pieces, is in three movements. It begins with
a brisk sonata movement (
Allegro con brio
), fea-
turing a heroic gesture played in octaves by the
violin and piano. The subsequent violin phrase
first intimates Beethoven’s interest in equalizing
roles in the traditional “sonata for piano with
violin.” A second theme presents a delicate,
Ludwig van Beethoven by Ferdinand Georg
Waldmüller (1823)
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