THE GIFT OF MUSIC CONCERT SERIES 2020 – 2021

SPECTRUM CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETYPRESENTS

SIX-FEET-APART CONCERTS“THE FINAL CHAPTER”LIVESTREAM CONCERT APRIL 26, 2021 | 7:00 PM

FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF FORT WORTH

PROGRAMViolin Sonata No. 7 in C Minor, Op. 30, no. 2 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)

Ke Mai, violinMisha Berestnev, piano

Orion for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano Till MacIvor Meyn(b. 1970)

Ivan Petruzziello, clarinet Dan Sigale, viola

Shields-Collins Bray, piano

Piano Trio No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 90, “Dumky” Antonín Dvořák(1841 – 1904)

Ordabek Duissen, violin Allan Steele, cello

Tanya Karyagina, piano

PROGRAM NOTES

Violin Sonata No. 7 in C Minor, Op. 30, no. 2 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)

Beethoven wrote his first violin sonatas, a set of three (Op. 12) in 1797-98. Six more—including his seventh sonata—appeared by early 1803, making a fairly compressed time span for a medium in which Beethoven was to write just one more in 1812. All but the tenth were written before the composer was 32 years of age. Yet all of them, to varying degrees, show Beethoven straining at the reins that in his early years still tied him to the genteel world of eighteenth-century classicism. Although we refer to these ten works as “violin sonatas,” in the original scores the music is invariably identified as being “for the fortepiano and a violin” (rather than the other way around). Such was usually the case with eighteenth-century works of this type, but it was hardly true with Beethoven, where we can see in even the first sonata the nearly equal partnership of the two instruments. In these ten sonatas, Beethoven explores the ways and means of combining two voices of unequal sound mass into a dramatic partnership and coherent unity. Beethoven was renowned in Vienna for his prowess as a pianist, but he was also intimately familiar with the violin. Therefore, he was in an ideal position to explore the expressive potentialities and technical challenges of the violin as well as of the piano, some of which may sound “easy” to the casual listener, but which even today demand superior musicians to do them justice.

The Sonata No. 7 in C minor is considered one of the grandest in the violinist’s repertory. It is a work of drama, passion, power and almost symphonic scope. The key of C minor immediately alerts us to music of serious import. Of Beethoven’s ten violin sonatas, this is the “biggest” in feel and scope. It is also one of just three (Nos. 5 and 10 are the others) to boast four movements rather than the standard three.

The first movement opens with a darkly mysterious, almost menacing subject divided into several epigrammatic components, a subject eminently suitable for development later on. The strongly contrasting second subject in E-flat major, march-like yet playful, is introduced by the violin. The slow movement is one of heavenly beauty. The scherzo movement truly lives up to its title (“joke”) – witty, playful, full of rhythmic quirks and rough humour. The finale returns to C minor and, unusually for a large-scale work that opens in the minor tonality, finishes in the minor as well. Relentless dramatic tension and emotional strife mark this uncompromising movement.

Orion for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano Till MacIvor Meyn (b. 1970)

Orion was composed for the Trio con Brio; the title takes its name from letters found in the name of the ensemble for which it was written, and provided inspiration for the moods in each of the four movements. The first movement serves as a brief introduction; it begins and ends with swooping parallel scalar motion, and in between it settles into a punctuated, fragmented texture. Movement two is moderately slow and quiet, and features ostinato patterns in the piano and complementary melodies in the clarinet and viola. The third movement, in A-B-A form, begins and ends with relatively simple but disjointed tonal chords and melodic line. It moves into a fast middle section in which the piano plays jazzy ostinato patterns and the clarinet and viola move in parallel fifths, among other things. The middle section rises to loud climaxes, and when it falls back, the movement returns to the opening ideas. The final movement begins and ends with the same swooping scales that opened the piece, but immediately following the brief introduction, movement four becomes a tango in the style of Piazzolla, complete with percussive effects on the viola

Piano Trio No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 90, “Dumky” Antonín Dvořák (1841 – 1904)Dvořák completed his “Dumky” Trio in February of 1891; a couple of short months later the piece premiered in Prague as part of a celebration of Dvořák’s honorary doctorate, with the composer himself on piano. As he was gathering musical ideas for his new piece, he sent a letter to his good friend Alois Göbl, in which he wrote,

My head is full and if only I could write it down all at once! But it’s no use, I have to go slowly, at the speed my hand can move and the Lord God will do the rest . . . It is going more easily than I expected and tunes are just flying towards me . . . .

Dvořák is perhaps best known for his “New World” Symphony, but this trio is among his finest works. The subtitle “dumky” refers to a form of Ukranian storytelling, a ballad with the subject of lament. In the 19th century, composers took up the form and expanded it to capture the nostalgic, slow nature of the lament, but also to intersperse between the gloomier moments some faster, lively tunes. As such, this resulted in dramatic changes in tempo and mood that came to characterize the style of a dumka. Dvořák’s trio is cast in six sections, the first three of which are played without break, the last three being performed each as a separate movements: Lento maestoso – allegro vivace Poco adagio – vivace non troppo Andante Andante moderato – allegretto scherzando Allegro Lento maestosoEach of the sections stands as a dumky episode, moving through different musical keys and emotions like a complicated dance.

SPECIAL THANKS TO• Our donors and sponsors

For a complete list of donors and sponsors, please visit our website at:www.spectrumchambermusicsociety.com and click on “Donors”

• First United Methodist Church of Fort Worth, for sponsoring us; both financially and logisticallyPeggy Graff, Organist and Associate Director of Music and Worship ArtsMelinda Smoot, Director of Communications Austin Patton, Director of A/V Resources Paul Hughes, A/V SpecialistSandy Williams, Director of Operations

• Karl Thibodeaux and First Jefferson Unitarian Universalist Church for the use of their facilities as rehearsal space.

SPECTRUM CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Dan Sigale, Executive DirectorDotty Hall, Secretary

Till Meyn, Director-At-Large Cara Owens, Treasurer

Ivan Petruzziello, Program Director