Schumann A Minor Violin Sonata Program Notes
Schumann – Violin Sonata No. 2 in D minor. (Program notes for other concerts of this Festival provide additional information about Schumann's life and works.
Program Notes, 2010 by Durrell Bowman Go to the July 26 – Monday Sonatas – Violin Sonata in B-flat major – Violin Sonata No. 2 in D minor – Piano Sonata No. 6 in A major Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91) was a master of Classical balance, form, and melody. His works brought together aspects of joy, sorrow, mystery, and humor.
He was a child prodigy, began composing at four, and gave his first public performances at five. His composer/musician father took Mozart and his sister on concert tours of many parts of Europe, and the young composer wrote his first opera before his eleventh birthday. At thirteen, he was given an appointment as a music director at the Salzburg Court. Before his 21st birthday, Mozart had written two more operas and dozens of concertos (especially for violin), masses, symphonies, and chamber works. He had several major operatic successes in the early 1880s. He also joined the Freemasons, and the concepts of that society later appeared in aspects of his last 'opera,' The Magic Flute (1791). In the early- to mid-1780s, Mozart composed most of his chamber works (including many sonatas and string quartets) and fifteen piano concertos (most of which he premiered).
He then received many commissions for operas, including The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni. He died of an undetermined fever while composing a Requiem.
317d, formerly K. 378, 1781 or earlier) This work was written when Mozart was in his mid-twenties, either shortly after he moved to Vienna or in his last year or two in Salzburg.
It was part of a set of violin sonatas that were among the composer's first publications, and the first to be published in Vienna. The first movement ('Moderately fast') is wide-ranging and idiomatic to the lead instrument. The opening theme has an earnest, pleasing quality, which is contrasted by the more abrupt gestures of the second theme. The second movement ('At a fast walking pace') features upward-moving gestures and dotted (long-short) rhythms against triplet figures.
The Finale ('Quickly') is a rondo that features downward-moving gestures in its refrain. The most notable contrasting episode is even more rhythmically playful than the refrain, with unexpected shifts in the time signature. Robert Schumann German composer and music critic Robert Schumann (1810-56) was profoundly influenced by literature and by an arduous battle for the love of his life. However, he also increasingly suffered from mental problems, attempted suicide in his early forties, and spent his final years in an asylum.(Program notes for other concerts of this Festival provide additional information about Schumann's life and works.
See the.) Schumann's late works (1851-53) include the:. (performed on July 7). Violin Sonata No. 2 in D minor (Op.
121, 1851) Schumann's late works were often in minor keys and rather fatalistic in tone. Even violin works were melodically hesitant. This work was written in about one week, as a response to his lack of enthusiasm for his recent Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor. He said: 'I didn't like the first violin sonata, so I wrote a second, which I hope turned out better.' The piano part is complex and intricate, and the violin is often led by it or responds to it. The first movement ('Slowly, with energy') is blustery and begins with an introduction in a triple beat, with detached chords.
The tempo then shifts to 'Lively,' which must refer to the piano part, because the violin contributes measured, slow, triadic material. The contrasting theme is more active. The second movement Scherzo ('Very animated') is in 6/8, with the piano taking the lead, except in the contrasting 'trio.' The third movement ('Simply') includes pizzicato triple-stops and quite narrow melodic material. The movement is a set of variations with intervening episodes.
The fourth movement ('Moving along') is quite fast, with the two instruments competing for the thematic material. The development explores fairly distant harmonic areas, as well as contrasting textural approaches, but the work ends forcefully. Sergey Prokofiev In his early career, Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) moved around within various national contexts. As a child prodigy, he attended the St. Petersburg Conservatory and had already composed large-scale works.
He was also a leading piano virtuoso and composed a pair of piano concertos just before the First World War. Prokofiev then traveled to London and Paris and after the 1917 Russian Revolution visited the US for two years. In the 1920s, he lived in Paris for a number of years.
In the early 1930s, he periodically returned to his native land, where he had a slow-but-steady rise to success with film music and the initially-blacklisted ballet Romeo and Juliet. Prokofiev returned permanently to the USSR in 1935. One scholar has argued that the composer needed the straight-jacket of the Soviet Union in order to have something to fight against. His compositions included film music (such as for Alexander Nevsky, 1938), orchestral music, cantatas and similar works (including Peter and the Wolf, 1936), and solo/chamber music. The latter includes the Piano Sonata No.
6 in A major and his two violin sonatas (performed on July 5 and 12). However, his health declined, and the Communist Party also veered against him in his final years as being too 'formalist.' In an interesting coincidence, Prokofiev died on the very same day as Stalin. 82, 1939-40) This work is the first of the composer's three 'War Sonatas.' It is quite large in scale, expressive, and varied. The first movement ('Moderately fast') at first features a rhythmic and repetitive motive.
The tonality is unclear, as the two hands provide material in different keys. After a less-intense contrast, the opening style returns with a vengeance.
This section includes strongly-dissonant clashes and indications to play clusters with the fist. The second movement ('Fairly quickly') is dance-like and much lighter in mood. This time, it is the contrasting section that is more intense.
The third movement ('In the tempo of a slow waltz') provides another version of the work's alternation scheme. A touching waltz is countered by a stormy middle section. The fourth movement ('Lively') is driving and percussive. A playful contrast then gives way to further themes that veer about quite chaotically. References are made to the repetitive and rhythmic motive of the work's first movement.
In particular, that motive is transformed in the movement's violently-triumphant coda.
Schumann Sonata In G Minor
Work Title Violin Sonata No.1 Alt ernative. Title Composer Opus/Catalogue Number Op./Cat. Op.105 I-Catalogue Number I-Cat. IRS 161 Key A minor Movements/Sections Mov'ts/Sec's 3 movements: I. Mit leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck II.
Allegretto III. Lebhaft Year/Date of Composition Y/D of Comp. 1851 September 12–16 First Perf ormance.
Beethoven Violin Sonata
1852 March, & (given a private premiere on September 16, 1851, Clara Schumann & Wasielewski) First Pub lication. 1852 – Leipzig: Hofmeister Composer Time Period Comp. Period Piece Style Instrumentation violin, piano External Links.