Maxim Vengerov, Violin
Polina Osetinskaya, Piano
Performers
Maxim Vengerov, Violin
Polina Osetinskaya, Piano
Program
J. S. BACH Violin Sonata No. 1 in B Minor, BWV 1014
BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47, "Kreutzer"
SHOSTAKOVICH Ten Preludes from Op. 34 (arr. Tsyganov)
TCHAIKOVSKY Souvenir d’un lieu cher
TCHAIKOVSKY Valse-scherzo in C Major, Op. 34
Encores:
BEETHOVEN Scherzo from Violin Sonata No. 5 in F Major, Op. 24, "Spring"
FRANCK Recitativo-Fantasia from Violin Sonata in A Major
Event Duration
The printed program will last approximately two hours, including one 20-minute intermission.Listen to Selected Works
At a Glance
J. S. BACH Violin Sonata No. 1 in B Minor, BWV 1014
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach counted the six sonatas for violin and keyboard, BWV 1014–1019, among his father’s crowning achievements. Both J. S. Bach’s contrapuntal mastery and his often-underrated lyrical genius are on display in the B-Minor Sonata. In addition to being a virtuoso harpsichordist and organist, Bach learned to play the violin as a child—probably under the tutelage of his father, a town piper in Eisenach—and kept it up for the rest of his life.
BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47, “Kreutzer”
The bravura “Kreutzer” is the last of nine sonatas for violin and piano that Beethoven composed between 1797 and 1803. (Another nine years would elapse before he wrote his 10th and final violin sonata.) By rights, it should becalled the “Bridgetower” Sonata, since Beethoven wrote it for the celebrated English violinist George Bridgetower. After the two men had a falling out, however, the composer switched the dedication to French virtuoso Rodolphe Kreutzer—who, ironically, never played it in public.
SHOSTAKOVICH Ten Preludes from Op. 34 (arr. Dmitri Tsyganov)
Seventeen years and a world of bitterly disillusioning experience separate Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes, Op. 34, from his 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87. While Op. 87 ranks among Shostakovich’s most intricately wrought and richly expressive creations, the 24 short preludes of Op. 34 are more wide-ranging and youthful in spirit. The composer’s biographer Laurel Fay characterizes the earlier set as “an omnibus of miniatures, ranging from the insouciant to the somber.”
TCHAIKOVSKY Souvenir d’un lieu cher, Op. 42
This set of three beguiling character pieces is a kind of pendant to Tchaikovsky’s ever-popular Violin Concerto. The highly strung composer wrote it for violinist Iosif Kotek, his former pupil (and, it seems, lover), while taking a rest in Switzerland in the spring of 1878. The original version for violin and piano was so successful that Tchaikovsky’s publisher commissioned an orchestral arrangement from Alexander Glazunov after his death.
TCHAIKOVSKY Valse-scherzo in C Major, Op. 34
Composed in 1877, Tchaikovsky’s miniature hybrid combines the disciplined elegance of the waltz with the playful freedom of a scherzo. Originally scored for violin and orchestra, the Valse-scherzo anticipates the formidable technical challenges that Tchaikovsky would incorporate in his great Violin Concerto the following year.