psoclayout for web · beethoven’s early violin sonatas had all been rather piano-centric affairs,...

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LAGUNA CHAMBER MUSIC SERIESSPONSORED BY

SAM AND LYNDIE ERSAN

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LAGUNA CHAMBER MUSIC SERIESSPONSORED BY

SAM AND LYNDIE ERSAN

BEETHOVEN: VIOLIN SONATA IN F MAJOR, OP. 24 “SPRING”

Beethoven’s early violin sonatas had all beenrather piano-centric affairs, but the “Spring”Sonata, which Beethoven completed in 1801,achieves true equality between the two instruments. The violin leads the opening movement with the breeziest of melodies whilethe keyboard gently supports; then the tworeverse roles and the piano has a go at that languid, songful tune. This technique—my turn,now your turn—pervades the entire sonata,lending a sense of genial collaboration.

Beethoven himself did not confer the “spring”nickname upon the sonata; it’s not clear who did,but it was common practice for 19th-centurymusic publishers to add descriptive titles topieces. The “spring” association has rightly stuckto Beethoven’s Op. 24, a work of consummatelyricism. The old adage that Beethoven, for allhis genius, couldn’t write a proper melody issoundly debunked in the first few measures as

BEETHOVEN

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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2020, 3PMSegerstrom Center for the Arts

Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall

Pre-concert lecture by Brian Lauritzen, 2pm

MIDORIVIOLIN

JEAN-YVES THIBAUDETPIANO

Beethoven@250 sponsored by

THE SEGERSTROM FOUNDATION

Sonata for Violin and Piano, Ludwig van BEETHOVENNo. 5 in F major, Op. 24 (1770-1827) “Spring”

Allegro Adagio molto espressivoScherzo (and trio)Rondo, Allegro ma non troppo

Sonata for Violin and Piano,No. 6 in A major, Op. 30, No. 1

Allegro Adagio molto espressivoAllegretto con Variazioni

INTERMISSION

Sonata for Violin and Piano, No. 10 in G major, Op. 96 “The Cockrow”

Allegro moderato Adagio espressivo Scherzo (and trio)Poco Allegretto, Adagio, Allegro

JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET REPRESENTATIONJohannisplatz 3AD-81667, Munich

www.harrisonparrott.com

MIDORI REPRESENTATION9 Kingsway, Holborn, London WC2B 6XF,

United Kingdomintermusica.co.uk

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Mthe violin spins out its radiant Schubertian line.(Should we have been calling Schubert’smelodies “Beethovenian” all this time?!) The first movement’s secondary theme is considerably more robust but no less sanguine.Beethoven’s Adagio seems to have invented thebel canto operatic style a few decades ahead oftime, while the scherzo is youthfully scampish.The rondo-finale returns to the unhurried,babbling-brook mode of the opening movement, though Beethoven generates interest in the potentially repetitive rondostructure through a process of continuous variation, never saying anything the same waytwice.

BEETHOVEN: VIOLIN SONATA IN A MAJOR, OP. 30 NO. 1

Beethoven’s hearing difficulties began toemerge in his late twenties, and by 1802 he hadfallen into despair, suspecting that progressivedeafness was inevitable. On a sojourn in aViennese suburb, Beethoven drafted the now-famous “Heiligenstadt Testament,” aconfessional letter addressed to his two brothers. The testament is a fascinating historical document that reads like a redactedsuicide note: Beethoven reveals his dire medicalprognosis, openly admits to wanting to end hislife, and then swerves at the eleventh hour,declaring that he must endure for the sake ofhis art.

Beethoven made good on his word, entering aperiod of astonishing creativity and ambition.The next two years brought the EroicaSymphony, the Op. 31 piano sonatas, and thethree Op. 30 violin sonatas.

Op. 30 No. 1 is not a heaven-storming workbut a quiet revolution, a poised and gracefulassertion of optimism in the face of devastation.The opening movement fuses learned counterpoint with the facility and charm of the

galant style; similarly, the slow movementmelds Baroque dotted rhythms with cantabilelines. For the last movement, Beethoven hadoriginally drafted a hyperkinetic tarantella, butultimately opted for a set of elegant variations(fear not: the tarantella found a home in thelouder, prouder “Kreutzer” Sonata).

BEETHOVEN: VIOLIN SONATA IN G MAJOR, OP. 96

It’s a pity that publishers had already used themoniker “Spring Sonata” for Beethoven’s Op. 24 because Beethoven’s final essay in theviolin sonata genre is next-level bucolic, pastoral, Arcadian. Composed in 1812, Op. 96is an outlier among the violin sonatas (the restof which clustered around 1798-1803).Beethoven’s hearing loss was near-total by thispoint; the profusion of nature-sounds andethereal timbres that he conjured for Op. 96speaks to a remarkable “inner ear” and power ofsonic imagination.

The first movement is all aflutter with birdsongand shepherds’ flutes and forest murmurs.Beethoven has constructed a sonata form, butwe’d never even know for how extemporizedthe movement feels, how free and spacious.The Adagio movement achieves a profoundsublimity that is impossible to put into words,though a fragment from Beethoven’s 1814diary comes close: “It seems as if every tree saidto me, ‘Holy, holy!’”

The scherzo that follows is decidedly worldlier,with a mischievous minor mode outer sectionand a trio that evokes bagpipe drones.Beethoven’s expansive variations finale continues in this folk vein, but his light-footedtheme projects a rarefied utopian vision ratherthan an earthy peasant reality.

—Alana Murphy

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MIDORI, VIOLIN

Midori is a visionary artist, activist and educator whose unique career has transcendedtraditional boundaries through her relentlessdrive to explore and build connections betweenmusic and the human experience. Never at rest,Midori brings the same dynamic innovationand expressive insight that has made her aprominent concert violinist to her other roles asa noted global cultural ambassador and a dedicated music educator.

A leading concert violinist for more than 35 years, Midori regularly transfixes audiencesaround the world, bringing together gracefulprecision and intimate expression that allowsthe listening public to not just hear music but to be personally moved by it. She has performed with, among many others, theLondon, Chicago, Boston, and San Franciscosymphony orchestras; the Berlin, Vienna, NewYork, Los Angeles, St. Petersburg and Czechphilharmonics; the Sinfonieorchester desBayerischen Rundfunks, and the MahlerChamber Orchestra. She has collaborated withsuch outstanding musicians as ClaudioAbbado, Leonard Bernstein, Emanuel Ax,Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, ChristophEschenbach, Mariss Jansons, Paavo Järvi,Antonello Manacorda, Constantinos Carydis,Yo-Yo Ma, Susanna Mälkki, and MenahemPressler.

Midori’s recent and upcoming global engagements highlight her versatility throughperformances of orchestral and chamber worksby Bernstein, Bach, Respighi, Beethoven,Schumann, Fauré, Debussy, Enescu, Prokofievand Brahms. Her tour schedule has includedEurope with the Munich Chamber Orchestra,Japan with the Estonian Festival Orchestra andPaavo Järvi, and it takes her in the 2019-20season to Asia with Festival Strings Lucerne.She also undertakes a worldwide recital tourwith pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. She makes

guest appearances with the ViennaPhilharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra,Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France,Kammerakademie Potsdam, Orchestra delTeatro Massimo and NDR ElbphilharmonieOrchester.

An advocate for music and composers of hertime, Midori will present compositions by living female composers as part of a projectdedicated to promoting contemporary music.She will also premiere a new violin concerto byDetlev Glanert in Hamburg in May 2020, during the Beethoven anniversary year. Midoripreviously inspired Peter Eötvös to composethe violin concerto DoReMi, which she thenrecorded with the Orchestre Philharmoniquede Radio France conducted by the composer.Other commissions and world premieres haveincluded works by Einojuhani Rautavaara,Brett Dean and Johannes Staud.

Midori’s diverse discography includes sonatasby Bloch, Janáček and Shostakovich performedwith pianist Özgür Aydin, and a 2013Grammy Award-winning recording ofHindemith’s violin concerto with ChristophEschenbach conducting the NDR SymphonyOrchestra. The two-CD set of her highlyacclaimed interpretation of J.S. Bach’s Sonatasand Partitas for Solo Violin was released in2015, followed in 2017 by a DVD of the samerepertoire, filmed at Köthen Castle, whereBach served as Kapellmeister. Earlier recordings on the Sony Classical label featureworks by Mozart, Dvořák, Bartók, Poulencand Sibelius, among others.

In her quest to explore and expand how musicis essential to people everywhere, Midori goesbeyond the concert hall and recording studio toareas where music access is most needed. In2017, Midori celebrated the 25th anniversaryof the activities of two of her non-profit organizations: Midori & Friends, which bringshigh-quality music education to New YorkCity youth, and MUSIC SHARING, a


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Japan-based program that provides access toboth western classical and Japanese music traditions through innovative events, activities,instruction and presentations in local schools,institutions and hospitals. Her Partners InPerformance organization, now in its 16thyear, promotes interest in classical music outside of major urban centers across theUnited States, while her OrchestralResidencies Program, founded in 2004,encourages young musicians in the UnitedStates and beyond to develop a life-long andmultifaceted engagement with the performingarts, helping to ensure that the classical scenewill continue vibrantly for years to come.

Midori also brings her activism to a global level.MUSIC SHARING’s InternationalCommunity Engagement Program (ICEP)promotes intercultural exchange by enablingyoung musicians from around the world tocome together and present community performances for audiences with limited exposure to classical music. The program’sensembles have performed in Myanmar,Bangladesh, Laos, Mongolia, Indonesia,Cambodia, Nepal, Vietnam (twice) and Indiawith follow-up appearances each season inJapan. The 2019-20 ICEP takes place for thesecond time in Cambodia.

(TIMOTHY GREENFIELD-SANDERS)


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Midori has been invited to speak at the JohnsHopkins School of Advanced InternationalStudies in Washington, D.C., among other places. She has been honored for her international activism: in 2007,UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon namedMidori a Messenger of Peace, and in 2012 shereceived the Crystal Award from the WorldEconomic Forum in Davos. In 2019 she wasinvited to attend the annual meeting of theUnited Nation's International Fund forAgricultural Development (IFAD) in Rome,where she performed for and addressed PopeFrancis and other world leaders, calling onthem to believe in the transformative power ofwomen and girls in underserved remote communities. The same year, the CarnegieCorporation of New York honored Midori, anaturalized American citizen, with its “GreatImmigrant” award in recognition of her work asa global cultural ambassador.

The same vision that motivates Midori’sactivism also guides her educational approach.Since fall 2018, she has been part of therenowned violin faculty at the Curtis Instituteof Music, bringing her musical expertise as anactive top-level performer to her studio and her experience as an activist to the school’scommunity engagement programs. In October2019, she was appointed to the school’sDorothy Richard Starling Chair in ViolinStudies.

Until May 2018, Midori held the JaschaHeifetz Chair as a Distinguished Professor atthe University of Southern California’sThornton School of Music, where she taughtfor 14 years. She continues her involvement atUSC in a visiting artist role as Judge WidneyProfessor of Music. She is also a distinguishedvisiting artist and violin faculty member at thePeabody Institute of Johns HopkinsUniversity.

Midori is an honorary professor at Beijing’sCentral Conservatory of Music and a guestprofessor at both Soai University in Osaka andthe Shanghai Conservatory of Music. In addition, she teaches regularly at Ravinia’sSteans Music Institute and the WeimarMeisterkurse. Her own degrees in gender studies and psychology from New YorkUniversity (BA 2000, MA 2005) stronglyinform her holistic teaching philosophy: “In our studio, the tenets of Honesty, Health,and Dignity guide us through the times of trial,self-doubt, self-questioning, and growth.”

Midori was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1971 andbegan her violin studies with her mother, SetsuGoto, after displaying a strong aptitude formusic at an early age. In 1982, conductorZubin Mehta invited the then 11-year-oldMidori to perform with the New YorkPhilharmonic in the orchestra’s annual NewYear’s Eve concert. The standing ovation thatfollowed her debut spurred Midori to pursue amajor musical career at the highest level.

Midori plays the 1734 Guarnerius del GesuÌ‘ex-Huberman.’ She uses four bows—two byDominique Peccatte, one by François Peccatteand one by Paul Siefried.

Intermusica represents Midori in Europe,North America, Australia & New Zealand

https://intermusica.co.uk/artist/Midori

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JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET, PIANO

For more than three decades, Jean-YvesThibaudet has performed world-wide, recorded more than 50 albums, and built a reputation as one of today’s finest pianists. Heplays a range of solo, chamber, and orchestralrepertoire—from Beethoven through Liszt,Grieg, and Saint-Saëns; to Khachaturian andGershwin, and to Qigang Chen and JamesMacMillan. From the very start of his career, he delighted in music beyond the standardrepertoire, from jazz to opera, which he transcribed himself to play on the piano. Hisprofound professional friendships crisscrossthe globe and have led to spontaneous and

fruitful collaborations in film, fashion, andvisual art.

In 2019-20, Thibaudet renews many long-standing musical partnerships. As the St. LouisSymphony’s Artist-in-Residence, he plays apair of season-opening concerts conducted bylongtime friend and collaborator StéphaneDenève, returning for additional programminglater in the season. He also tours a program ofSchumann, Fauré, Debussy, and Enescu withMidori, followed by the complete Beethovensonatas for piano and violin. Thibaudet givesthe world premiere of Aaron Zigman’s TangoManos concerto for piano and orchestra withthe China Philharmonic, and goes on to perform it with the Orchestre Philharmonique

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(ANDREW ECCLES)


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Zigman composed the score for RobinSwicord’s Wakefield, for which Thibaudet wasthe soloist; this was the first time that the composer had allowed a pianist other than himself to perform his film work.

A noted interpreter of French music,Thibaudet performs works by Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Connesson and Debussy around theworld; as one of the premier interpreters ofMessiaen's TurangalîlaSymphonie, Thibaudetplays the piece in his hometown as Artist-in-Residence of the Orchestre National de Lyon,with conductor Susanna Mälkki. He alsobrings along his passion for Gershwin this season, performing the Concerto for Piano in F major in Lyon as well as in Houston, LosAngeles, Boston, New York, Naples, Tokyo,and at the Bad Kissinger Sommer Festival,where he is Artist-in-Residence.

He also expresses his passion for education andfostering young musical talent as the first-everArtist-in-Residence at the Colburn School inLos Angeles, where he makes his home. Theschool has extended the residency for an additional three years and has announced theJean-Yves Thibaudet Scholarships to provideaid for Music Academy students, whomThibaudet will select for the merit-basedawards, regardless of their instrument choice.

Thibaudet’s recording catalogue has receivedtwo Grammy nominations, the Preis derDeutschen Schallplattenkritik, the Diapasond’Or, the Choc du Monde de la Musique, theEdison Prize, and Gramophone awards. In2017 he released to great acclaim Bernstein'sAge of Anxiety with the Baltimore SymphonyOrchestra and Marin Alsop, with whom hepreviously recorded Gershwin, featuring bigjazz band orchestrations of Rhapsody in Blue,Variations on “I Got Rhythm,” and theConcerto in F. In 2016, on the 150th

anniversary of Erik Satie's birth, Decca releaseda box set of Satie's complete solo piano musicperformed by Thibaudet—one of the foremostchampions of the composer's works. On hisGrammy-nominated recording SaintSaëns,Piano Concerti Nos. 2 & 5, released in 2007, heis joined by Charles Dutoit and Orchestre de laSuisse Romande. Thibaudet's AriaOperaWithout Words, which was released the sameyear, features aria transcriptions, some of whichare Thibaudet's own. His other recordingsinclude the jazz albums Reflections on Duke:JeanYves Thibaudet Plays the Music of DukeEllington and Conversations With Bill Evans.

Thibaudet has also had an impact on theworlds of fashion, film, and philanthropy. Inaddition to Zigman’s score for Wakefield,Thibaudet was soloist in Dario Marianelli’saward-winning scores for the films Atonement(which won an Oscar for Best Original Score)and Pride and Prejudice, and recordedAlexandre Desplat’s soundtrack for the 2012film Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. He hada cameo in Bruce Beresford's film on AlmaMahler, Bride of the Wind, and his playing isshowcased throughout. In 2004 he served aspresident of the prestigious charity auctionHospices de Beaune. His concert wardrobe isdesigned by Dame Vivienne Westwood.

Jean-Yves Thibaudet was born in Lyon,France, where he began his piano studies at agefive and made his first public appearance at ageseven. At twelve, he entered the ParisConservatory to study with Aldo Ciccolini andLucette Descaves, a friend and collaborator ofRavel. At age fifteen, he won the Premier Prixdu Conservatoire and, three years later, theYoung Concert Artists Auditions in New YorkCity. Among his numerous commendations isthe Victoire d’Honneur, a lifetime careerachievement award and the highest honor givenby France’s Victoires de la Musique. In 2010the Hollywood Bowl honored Thibaudet for

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his musical achievements by inducting him intoits Hall of Fame. Previously a Chevalier of theOrdre des Arts et des Lettres, Thibaudet wasawarded the title Officier by the FrenchMinistry of Culture in 2012.

Mr. Thibaudet's worldwide representation:HarrisonParrott

Mr. Thibaudet records exclusively for DeccaRecords.

http://www.jeanyvesthibaudet.com.

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