Ravinia 2023 Issue 1

JAY BLAKESBERG (SANTANA) SANTANA Mexican-born Carlos Santana learned the guitar at age and arrived in Los Angeles in the early s. A humble spectator at the Fill- more West auditorium for many years, Santa- na rst gained notice during an impromptu jam session at the venue to ll in for a missing act in , and he began leading the Santana Blues Band from that day forward. e group shortened its name to simply Santana and gave its debut at Fillmore West in ; a re- cording made around this time was released nearly years later. Santana emerged onto the global stage at Woodstock in , the same year that the band’s eponymous debut LP was released. e album stayed on Bill- board ’s album chart for two years and includ- ed its rst top- hit, “Evil Ways.” is success gave way to Abraxas and Santana III , both Billboard number-one albums, which threw open the doors for Santana (the man) to col- laborate with some of his musical heroes: Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Car- ter, and Tony Williams. His solo album Blues for Salvador earned him his rst Gram- my Award. Santana was later approached to record a star-studded album with younger artists, resulting in the album Supernat- ural , which won a record-tying nine Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and, via the hit single “Smooth,” Record of the Year. His album Shape Shi er returned to fa- miliar and beloved territory, with all but one track being an original instrumental compo- sition, and ’s Corazón was the rst thor- oughly Latin album of his career. On ’s Santana IV , the classic quintet that last played together on III reunited for what would be- come the band’s th top- album. For his most recent album, ’s Blessings and Mir- acles , Santana again collaborated with a wide range of guests, including Rob omas, Chris Stapleton, Chick Corea, and Steve Winwood. Santana was given Billboard ’s Century Award in , inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in , awarded Billboard Latin Music Awards’ Lifetime Achievement honor in , and bestowed the Kennedy Center Honors in . Santana rst appeared at Ra- vinia in and tonight returns for a fourth season at the festival. MARTIN THEATRE 2:00 PM SATURDAY, JULY 1, 2023 RAVINIA STEANS MUSIC INSTITUTE FACULTY CHAMBER PLAYERS MIRIAM FRIED, violin MARK STEINBERG, violin PAUL BISS, viola KIM KASHKASHIAN, viola MARCY ROSEN, cello ALESSIO BAX, piano HAYDN String Quartet in D minor, . : Andante grazioso Menuetto, ma non troppo Presto Mark Steinberg, Miriam Fried, Paul Biss, Marcy Rosen BUSONI Violin Sonata No. Langsam [ attacca ] Presto [ attacca ] Andante, piuttosto grave—Andante con moto ( ema) Var. . Poco più andante Var. . Alla Marcia, vivace Var. . Lo stesso movimento Var. . Andante Var. . Tranquillo assai Var. . Allegro deciso, un poco maestoso Coda. Più tranquillo apoteotico Mark Steinberg, Alessio Bax – – BRAHMS String Quintet No. Allegro non troppo, ma con brio Adagio Un poco Allegretto Vivace ma non troppo presto Miriam Fried, Mark Steinberg, Kim Kashkashian, Paul Biss, Marcy Rosen -OSEP+ +A<DN ɠ String Quartet in Dminor, . : (op. ) His health increasingly uncertain and cre- ative inspiration fading, Haydn drew his widely heralded compositional career to a close with the fragmentary String Quartet in D minor, the last of landmark works in a compositional form he established and dominated for almost ve decades. Haydn very likely considered the D-minor work one of six quartets intended for Prince Joseph von Lobkowitz; the two op. quartets are all that remain of the “Lobkowitz” quartets, although G.A. Griesinger, a friend and early biographer of Haydn, reported the comple- tion of four quartets. Haydn began writing the “Lobkowitz” quar- tets in , one year after completing his magnificent oratorio The Creation , which Lobkowitz partially subsidized. ( e Prince later became one of Beethoven’s primary benefactors.) According to Griesinger, Haydn denied Breitkopf & Härtel publications rights in because he considered them the “pri- vate property” of Lobkowitz. e composer evidently reconsidered his position soon af- ter, for another rm—Artaria—published the two op. quartets in . Work on the D-minor quartet took place in , as evidenced by a note on Haydn’s auto- graph manuscript: “di me giuseppe Haydn mprio ” (inscribed by me, Joseph Haydn, in ). Griesinger delivered the manuscript to Breitkopf & Härtel in , ful lling the composer’s promise to give the publisher his nal composition. Along with the two com- pleted movements, Haydn submitted his vis- iting card, which contained a short melody based on a text by Christian Fürchtegott Gel- lert, “Hin ist alle meine Kra , alt und schwach bin ich” (Gone is all my strength, old and weak am I.). Griesinger asked that the visiting card melody be printed in place of the miss- ing nal rondo. “Always, where this quartet is heard,” he explained, “one will immediately come to know why it is not complete, from the few words (of the card), and will be moved by them to feelings of sorrow.” The adventurous spirit had not entirely abandoned Haydn in his old age, as these two quartet movements attest. e Andante grazioso continues the bold harmonic and tonal experimentation of his other late quar- tets. Its charming melody opens in B-flat major. Haydn followed instantly with a new theme in the distant key of G- at major. e subsequent section varies this material in C-sharp minor. e music returns to familiar melodic and tonal ground in the nal section, a restatement of the opening B-flat-major theme. Haydn’s minuet—in a recently redis- covered sketch, this movement is marked “Scherzo”—turns to D minor, a key that con- trasts in mood with the central D-major trio. On January , , Griesinger reported the completion of an additional string quartet movement—the opening Allegro : “[Haydn] is finished with the Allegro , and Andante and variations, and the Minuet & Trio of his Quartet; only another Allegro is wanting.” The minuet movement, unfortunately, has not survived. With this statement, the era of Haydn, the esteemed and innovative compos- er, came to an end. Joseph Haydn by Thomas Hardy (1791) RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE