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PROGRAM NOTES BY DR. MICHAEL FINK
COPYRIGHT 2009. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Bartók, Sonatina
Bartók’s activity as a folk music collector during the first two decades of the 20th century
is generally known. Partly in collaboration with compatriot Zoltán Kodály, Béla Bartók (18811945) went about the Hungarian countryside recording and transcribing the peasant music of his
native country. After 1911, Bartók became increasingly interested in the music of cultures
peripheral to Hungary, notably Slovakia and Rumania. As was his habit, he arranged for the
piano a considerable amount of the raw music he collected. These adaptations would usually
feature a generous helping of Bartók’s personal, pungent harmonies and dissonant treatments.
Such was the case with the Sonatina, consisting of three movements based on Rumanian folk
tunes. The work was completed in 1915, and Endre Getler arranged the music for violin and
piano in 1931.
Unlike classical sonatinas, Bartók’s consists of three very short “character” pieces.
“Bagpipes” melodic consists of outer sections accompanied by the drone of the bagpipes.
Sandwiched in the middle is a quick dance. “Bear Dance” features a comical melody set to an
oom-pah accompaniment. The Sonatina’s “Finale” is a set of brief fast dances, broadening out at
the end to wind down the movement’s excitement.
Biber, Violin Sonata in E Minor, C. 142
We are well acquainted with violin virtuosos of the Baroque period, but generally the
names we know are Italian: Corelli, Torelli, Geminiani, Vivaldi, etc. In reality, the greatest
violinist was probably German: Heinrich von Biber (1644-1704). Biber was born in Bohemia but
concentrated his career in Austria, first in Graz and then in Salzburg. There, like Mozart a
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century later, he served in the Archbishop’s court. Biber was a social climber, performing for
Emperor Leopold I, whom he petitioned for a patent of nobility. Some of the violin sonatas he
performed in connection with that petition were the eight Sonatae violin solo published in
Nuremburg in 1681. These showed great virtuosic demands balanced by a consummate handling
of forms, and biographer Eric Thomas Chafe declares them to be “one of the highest peaks of
seventeenth-century violin music.”
The Sonata in E Minor is the fifth work in that set. It is in two substantial movements,
each of which the composer has cast in multiple sections. The first movement opens with a freely
rhapsodic virtuosic section — a reminder of Biber’s prodigious performing talent. An Adagio
theme follows, leading to Allegro variations, often acrobatic for the violinist. A short Adagio
leads to a Presto section and then another Presto section in dance-like rhythms to finish the
movement.
The second movement is an Aria with variations. Variations 1 and 2 are both marked
Presto, and rhythmic character is the main attraction. Variation 3 is a smooth, arching Adagio,
and the concluding variation returns to the rhapsodic style of the sonata’s opening, bringing the
work full circle.
Mozart, Violin Sonata in E-flat Major, K. 481
I am very glad that you have applied to me in person. I should long ago
have sent some specimens of my poor work to your highly respected Prince . . . if
I had known whether my father had already sent him something and, if so, what
he had sent. I am, therefore, jotting down at the end of my letter a list of my latest
compositions from which His Highness has only to choose, so that I may hasten
to serve him.
Here, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was writing from Vienna (August 8,
1786) to an old family servant and friend, who had gone to work for the Prince of Fürstenburg in
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Donaueschingen some years earlier and evidently had been praising the young genius to his
master. At the end of the letter, Mozart attached the musical opening of four symphonies, five
piano concertos, a piano trio, and the Violin Sonata in E-flat (K. 481). Completed in December
1785, the sonata stands alone, and Mozart’s purpose in composing it is unknown. We surmise
that he had in mind to submit the work to his publisher for a little advance money, since
Hoffmeister did publish it later.
The first movement reminds us of Mozart’s original title, “Sonata for Keyboard with
Violin [obbligato].” In other words, the piano will dominate, although the violin follows it into
the spotlight a certain special times. After a tight, perfectly constructed exposition, the first
movement plunges into a development that may surprise us. Its core is an upward sequence of
the four notes Mozart later used as the main theme of his “Jupiter” Symphony finale. Then he
returns to the sonata’s main material for the recapitulation, reprising the “Jupiter” theme only
briefly in the final measures.
In the Adagio, what starts out as prim and galant turns out differently. After the piano’s
presentation of the main theme, the violin peals forth a passage in which Mozart begins to
express his inner self. The next time the violin is featured, this expression goes further, now
supported by modulations through daringly remote keys. The composer brings this flight back to
the home key only in the last moments, where the decorum of the drawing room is briefly
reestablished.
The theme of the finale is deceptively simple, almost childlike. However, “Mozart never
came so close to Beethoven as in the finale,” asserts Mozart authority Alfred Einstein. This
becomes abundantly clear as the six variations on the theme unfold. The piano writing, in
particular, gives us a foretaste of Beethoven’s early variations, which helped him to establish his
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initial reputation in Vienna. For example, the heavy chords of the fourth variation project a raw
power rare in Mozart. In the final variation, the relentless country-dance triplet rhythms, remind
us, too, of Beethoven’s broad strokes. Here, the violin becomes a more equal concertante
partner, and together violin and piano finish the sonata aristocratically but forcefully, as if
Mozart had one foot in the drawing room and the other in the concert hall.
Smetana, From My Homeland
Throughout his career, Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884) was drawn to a compositional style
with specific, descriptive aims: program music. His symphonic poems and operas attest to this
and were his most natural media. Famous works such as the symphonic cycle Má Vlast
(containing “The Moldau”) and his operatic masterpiece, The Bartered Bride, partake of a brand
of external illustrative music closely and constantly associated with Czech nationalism.
Biographer Marta Ottlová writes, “In the Czech musical and cultural world Smetana
gradually became recognized as the chief representative of a Czech national music. This process
of equating Smetana’s personal style with a national style was consolidated through the second
half of the 1870s and continued after his death.” From My Homeland for violin and piano,
written in 1880, illustrates this beautifully. Although actual folk tunes are not quoted directly,
Smetana’s style by that time had become so consummately Czech as to make the distinction
irrelevant in the concert hall.
From My Homeland is in two movements. The second movement begins freely rhapsodic
before a polite folk dance unfolds. This, in turns, has its emotional, rhapsodic moments. We are
also surprised by a lively dance that animates the second half of the piece at times, yet is
interrupted twice by rhapsodic melody. The dance prevails, however, and From My Homeland
finishes in an upbeat mood.
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Schubert, Violin Sonata (Duo) in A Major, D. 574
In 1817, Franz Schubert (1797-1828) was still an assistant schoolteacher under his father
(a job he detested), but he was trying to earn his independence by establishing himself as a
composer. He was helped along immensely by his close friendship with the baritone Johann
Michael Vogl. The well-to-do Vogl had an entrée to the fashionable drawing rooms of Vienna,
and together, they successfully performed Schubert’s songs there. Demand also for instrumental
music at these intimate gatherings no doubt prompted Schubert to write the Violin Sonata and a
string trio during the summer of 1817.
Schubert was, of course, one of the greatest song composers ever. It seems, thus, that
many of his instrumental movements spring from his song impulse. This is true of the first
movement of this sonata. Another feature is the frequent galloping rhythms that reflect the
“Rossini fever” going on in Vienna at the time.
The traditional Scherzo movement appears in the second instead of the traditional third
position. Its cheery perpetual motion is interrupted midway by the Trio section — again
generated from the song impulse.
Yet Schubert does not miss his best opportunity to write a sort of song without words: the
Andantino movement. Perhaps not as tuneful as the greatest Schubert songs, the movement
nonetheless gives us a stylistic glimpse into the fashionable Viennese musicales where Schubert
was an honored guest.
The sonata’s finale revives the Scherzo’s mood. Their themes are also similar, the
probable reason why he separated them. Here we hear true equality between violin and piano as
well as the rhythmic elasticity shown in Schubert’s more mature music. The vivacious main
theme’s last appearance gives the sonata its upward-thrusting final impulse.
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Szymanowski, Roxana’s Song from King Roger
Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) became, quite simply, the finest Polish composer since
Chopin. Born of a landed family, he became poverty-stricken after the Russian Revolution
(1917). Szymanowski was best known for his instrumental music, but he also composed two
operas. The second was King Roger, premiered in Warsaw in 1926.
King Roger takes place in Christian Sicily in the 12th century. Its plot deals with the
appearance at King Roger’s court of a mysterious shepherd, who turns out to be an incarnation of
the Greek god Dionysus. Eventually, the king is converted to the pagan way, but not before his
queen, Roxana, becomes enthralled by the shepherd in the first act. “Roxana’s Song,” the opera’s
most memorable moment, comes in Act II, as the king arrives at his inner court for a meeting
with the shepherd. Kobbe’s Opera Book describes what happens next: “In the distance, they hear
the sound of tambourines and zithers, and immediately on a high A-flat Roxana starts to sing,
wordlessly at first but with rapt concentration and in a highly evocative manner.” Interestingly,
“Roxana’s Song” has become best known not as a vocal piece but as a violin arrangement by
Pawel Kochanski.
Stravinsky, Chanson Russe from Mavra
The widespread fame of Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) as a composer has somewhat
obscured the considerable ability he had as a pianist and accompanist. He often performed his
Sonata and Serenade, and in 1929 he performed the solo part in the premiere of his Capriccio for
piano and orchestra. During the following decade, he was active each year touring in duo with
American violinist Samuel Dushkin, for whom he had composed his Violin Concerto. During
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1932-1940, the duo performed Stravinsky’s Duo Concertant together with several arrangements
and adaptations of his music drawn from ballets, operas, early songs, etc. There were seven
arrangements altogether.
The Chanson Russe (also known as the Russian Maiden’s Song) was arranged in 1937.
Originally, it was part of Stravinsky’s one-act comic opera Mavra (1922). In it, Stravinsky’s goal
was to combine Italian opera buffa style with Russian folklore. The song he arranged for violin
and piano is the opening aria, a scene-setter sung by young Parasha, the soprano central
character, while embroidering in her living room.