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presents…

SIR ANDRÁS SCHIFF | PianoThursday, March 26, 2020 | 7:30pmHerbst Theatre

BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata in A-flat Major, Opus 26 Andante con variazioni Scherzo: Allegro molto Marcia funebre sulla morte d’un eroe: Maestoso andante Allegro

Piano Sonata in E-flat Major, Opus 27, No. 1 “Sonata quasi una Fantasia” Andante; Allegro Allegro molto e vivace Adagio con espressione Allegro vivace

Piano Sonata in C-sharp minor, Opus 27, No. 2 “Moonlight” Adagio sostenuto Allegretto Presto agitato

INTERMISSION

Piano Sonata in D Major, Opus 28 “Pastoral” Allegro Andante Scherzo: Allegro vivace Rondo: Allegro non troppo

Tonight’s concert is dedicated to the memory of Nancy LivingstonThis program is made possible in part by the generous support of the Bernard Osher FoundationSan Francisco Performances acknowledges the generosity of Concert Partners: Alan and Corinne Barkin; Ann and John Carroll; Dr. Michael W. Condie; Pat and Marvin Gordon; Ms. Donna Neff; Ms. Abby Rumsey; Anonymous, in memory of Peter F. Ostwald, M.D.

Sir András Schiff is represented by Kirshbaum Associates Inc.307 Seventh Avenue, Suite 506, New York, NY 10001 kirshbaumassociates.com

Hamburg Steinway Model D, Pro Piano, San Francisco

SHENSON PIANO SERIES

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ARTIST PROFILE

San Francisco Performances first presented Sir András Schiff in April 1985, and over the years he has returned for more than 20 concerts.

Sir András Schiff is world-renowned as a pianist, conductor, pedagogue and lec-turer. Music critics and audiences alike continue to be inspired by the masterful and intellectual approach he brings to each masterpiece he performs. Born in Buda-pest, Hungary in 1953, Sir András studied piano at the Liszt Ferenc Academy with Pál Kadosa, György Kurtág and Ferenc Rados; and in London with George Malcom. Recit-als and special cycles, including the com-plete works of Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert and Bartók constitute an impor-tant component of his work. Having collab-orated with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, he now focuses primarily on solo recitals, play-conducting appear-ances, and exclusive conducting projects.

During his fall 2019 tour of North Amer-ica, Sir András conducted and played with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, pairing concerti by Bach, Beethoven and Haydn with Brahms’ Variations on a theme by Haydn and Bartok’s Dance Suite. He was joined by violinist Yuuko Shiokawa for an all-Mozart program opening New York’s 92nd Street Y season. Recital programs in his spring 2020 tour include all Beethoven programs in Chicago and Carnegie Hall celebrating the composer’s 250th birthday as well as performances throughout Cana-da and the United States.

Vicenza is home to Cappella Andrea Barca—his own chamber orchestra con-sisting of international soloists, chamber musicians and friends founded in 1999. Together they have appeared at Carnegie Hall, the Lucerne Festival and the Salz-burg Mozartwoche. Forthcoming projects include a tour of Asia and a cycle of Bach’s keyboard concertos in Europe.

Sir András enjoys close relationships with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Buda-pest Festival Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. In 2018 he ac-cepted the role of Associate Artist with the OAE, complementing his interest in per-forming on period keyboard instruments.

He has established a prolific discogra-phy and since 1997 has been an exclusive artist for ECM New Series and its producer, Manfred Eicher. Highlights have included the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas recorded live in Zurich, solo recitals of Schubert, Schumann and Janacek, as well as J.S. Bach’s Partitas, Goldberg Variations and Well-Tempered Clavier. His most recent two disc set of Schubert Sonatas and Im-promptus were released in spring of 2019.

He continues to support new talent, pri-marily through his “Building Bridges” series which gives performance opportu-nities to promising young artists. He also teaches at the Barenboim-Said and Kron-berg academies and gives frequent lectures and master classes. In 2017 his book Music Comes from Silence, a compilation of essays and conversations with Martin Meyer, was published by Barenreiter and Henschel.

Sir András Schiff’s many honors include the international Mozarteum Founda-tion’s Gold Medal (2012), Germany’s Great Cross of Merit with Star (2012), the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Gold Medal (2013), a Knighthood for Services to Music (2014) and a Doctorate from the Royal College of Music (2018).

PROGRAM NOTES

Piano Sonata in A-flat Major, Opus 26LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN(1770–1827)

This recital offers four piano sonatas that Beethoven wrote in 1801, just as he was beginning to establish his reputation as a composer in Vienna. He had come from Bonn as a virtuoso pianist and promising composer, but now—at age almost 22—he

recognized that the principal task ahead of him was to master sonata form. Toward that end, he composed sonatas, concertos, a set of six string quartets, and his First Symphony. The symphony was premiered in 1800, and at that point Beethoven began to experiment with sonata form.

One of the features of sonata form is that it (usually) opens with a dramatic move-ment based on conflict and resolution. Beethoven wondered if it might be pos-sible to de-emphasize the importance of the first movement and shift the expressive weight of a sonata to its later movements. The Sonata in A-flat Major begins not with a sonata-form movement but with a relaxed set of variations marked Andante con vari-azioni. Set in 3/8, the agreeable theme falls into even four-bar phrases, and Beethoven offers five melodic variations. The second movement is a brief scherzo marked Alle-gro molto, whose energetic outer sections are set off by a chordal trio marked sempre legato. The most striking movement in this sonata is its third, which Beethoven titled Marcia funebre sulla morte d’un eroe: “Funer-al March on the Death of a Hero,” and some have made out the sound of tolling bells and muffled drums in its quiet dotted rhythms. The concluding Allegro is a rondo that glides along a steady pulse of sixteenth notes.

Piano Sonata in E-flat Major, Opus 27, No. 1 “Sonata quasi una Fantasia”

Beethoven described the two piano so-natas of his Opus 27 as a “Sonata quasi una fantasia”—he felt that he had departed so far from traditional sonata form that it was necessary to warn listeners that they should be described as “fantasias.” The second of these, in C-sharp minor, has be-come one of the most famous pieces of mu-sic ever written—we know it as the “Moon-light” Sonata. The first, however, remains almost unknown to audiences today.

The Sonata in E-flat Major is original in a thousand ways. The opening movement is defiantly a non-sonata-form movement—it truly is a fantasia. It is in ternary form, based on a murmuring, amiable opening section that is cast aside as the music sud-denly leaps into 6/8 and C Major and rush-es vigorously across the keyboard. The Allegro molto e vivace, which lasts barely two minutes, functions as the scherzo. Its flowing opening is interrupted by sharp attacks, the theme of the brief trio sec-tion is completely off-the-beat, and the re-

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prise cascades directly into the Adagio con espressione. This movement brings a world of calm as its poised main melody pro-ceeds chordally along a very slow pulse. A cadenza-like flourish plunges the music into the concluding Allegro vivace. This is a rondo and, in that sense, might seem the most “normal” movement in the sonata except that even here Beethoven has sur-prises. He breaks off the rondo to include a vigorous development section, and just before the ending he brings the music to a pause and recalls the theme of the Adagio.

Piano Sonata in C-sharp minor, Opus 27, No. 2 “Moonlight”

When Beethoven composed this sonata, he could not possibly have foreseen that it would become one of the most popular pieces ever written. But Beethoven, then 30 years old, was aware that he was trying to rethink sonata form. In the Sonata in C-sharp minor, he does away with sonata-form alto-gether in the first movement, writing in-stead an opening movement that functions as an atmospheric prelude. This haunting music, full of a bittersweet melancholy, feels almost improvisatory, and one senses that Beethoven is trying to avoid beginning with a conflict-centered movement that will overpower all that follows. Here the gently rippling triplet accompaniment provides a quiet background for some of the most ex-pressive music Beethoven ever wrote.

The middle movement is not the tra-ditional slow movement of the classical sonata, but a brief Allegretto that dances on gracefully falling phrases. Phrases are short, and Beethoven makes clear that he wants unusually strong attacks by speci-fying accent marks rather than a simple staccato indication.

Nothing in the sonata to this point pre-pares one for the finale, which rips to life with a searing energy far removed from the dreamy atmosphere of the opening movement. Here, finally, is the sonata-form movement: Beethoven has moved the dramatic movement to the end as a way of giving it special significance. His mark-ing is Presto agitato: this is agitated music, and the pounding pulse of sixteenth notes is never absent for long.

The nickname that has become an ines-capable part of the way we think of this mu-sic did not originate with the composer, and Beethoven would be as surprised to learn that he had written a “Moonlight” Sonata as Mozart would be to learn that he had written a “Jupiter” Symphony. The poet Ludwig Rell-stab coined the nickname in 1832, five years after Beethoven’s death, saying that the mu-sic reminded him of the flickering of moon-light on the waters of Lake Lucerne. One can only guess what Beethoven would have thought of such a nickname, particularly since it applies only to the first movement.

Piano Sonata in D Major, Opus 28 “Pastoral”

Beethoven believed that he had written only one piece nicknamed the “Pastoral,” his Sixth Symphony of 1808. Yet among his piano sonatas there is one called the Pasto-ral, though this nickname was created by a publisher in Hamburg in the 1830s, a few years after Beethoven’s death. “Pastoral” is a term without precise musical mean-ing. In literature, it refers to a work that idealizes country life. In music, pastoral is more difficult to define; it may appear as the sound of shepherds’ pipes (Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique), as peasant dances (Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony or Haydn’s The Seasons), or as a relaxed interlude.

Yet none of these characterizes Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in D Major. This sonata is genial and open music, and com-mentators invariably seize on the opening of the last movement, with its rocking 6/8 meter, as the spot that “must” be pasto-ral. Beethoven would have thrown up his hands had he heard that nickname. To him, this was simply a Sonata in D Major, and it may be most accurate to consider this music for itself and not try to fit it into someone else’s retroactive nickname.

This sonata is Beethoven’s last in four movements. The opening Allegro proceeds smoothly along a steady pulse of quarter notes. Though the exposition is relaxed, the development is quite active, at least until the end, when Beethoven brings it to a series of pauses; the recapitulation, not literal, drives to a quiet close. Beethoven moves to D minor in the wonderful An-dante: the right hand has the legato melodic line over a walking staccato accompani-ment in the left. This is striking music, and it is matched by its middle section, which moves to D Major and dances lightly along triplet rhythms. All seems set for a simple ternary form when Beethoven takes off and extends that opening material on strange chromatic runs. Beethoven’s friend Carl Czerny reported that this movement was the composer’s own favorite and that he used to perform it by itself.

The Scherzo dances quickly on the octave drops at its opening; its tiny trio section vanishes almost as it begins. The amiable rondo tune of the finale rocks along hap-pily on its 6/8 meter; Beethoven breaks this cheerful motion with more extroverted passages.

Program notes by Eric Bromberger