Ravinia 2023 Issue 1

BENOIT ROLLAND (FRIED) FERRUCCIO %USONI ɠ Violin Sonata No. in E minor, op. a Ferruccio Busoni was born near Florence to an Italian father (clarinetist Ferdinando Bu- soni) and a German mother (pianist Anna Weiss-Busoni). A precocious child, Ferruc- cio developed into one of the foremost piano virtuosos at the turn of the century. He also was a gi ed composer of operatic, orches- tral, chamber, and piano works and a skilled arranger of keyboard music. Busoni entered the Vienna Conservatory at the age of , and while still in his teens he received encourage- ment from Eduard Hanslick, Franz Liszt, and Anton Rubinstein. Busoni moved to Leipzig in , making acquaintances with Freder- ick Delius, Edvard Grieg, and Gustav Mahler. Two years later he relocated to Stockholm, where he met and married Gerda Herminia Sjöstrand. e Busonis settled in Berlin, but the outbreak of war forced them to Zürich. ese “exile years” ( – ) yielded a steady stream of compositions. Physical problems led Busoni to abandon his performance ca- reer in . Thereafter, completion of the epic opera Doktor Faustus consumed all his energy: two scenes remained un nished at his death in . Busoni composed the Violin Sonata No. in E minor, op. a, during the summer of . Violinist Viktor Nováček joined the compos- er-pianist in its world premiere performance on September in Helsinki. A er Viktor’s brother Ottokar, himself a violinist, died in the New York City on February , , Bu- soni revised the violin sonata and dedicated its score to his recently deceased friend. Ro- mantic in stylistic conception but neoclassical (or neo-baroque) in design, this sonata repre- sented Busoni’s rst fully mature composition, which he described as the true “Opus .” is continuous, fantasy-like sonata opens with a Langsam movement that ful lls the slow, introductory function of a Baroque key- board prelude. Busoni follows immediately with a rapid scherzo, whose galloping mi- nor-key theme contrasts with a warmer trio section in major. A er a one-measure pause, Ferruccio Busoni (1913) the third movement begins with a slow seg- ment followed by a large set of variations on the aria “Wie wohl ist mir, o Freund der Seel- en,” , from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach . Busoni also conceived an improvisation for two pia- nos on this same tune. -O+ANNES %RA+MS ɠ String Quintet No. in G major, op. Brahms “retired” in , apparently reach- ing an autumnal conclusion to his productive compositional career with the String Quintet No. for two violins, two violas, and cello. Few categories of composition—perhaps only theatrical and operatic genres—remained un- conquered by the -year-old musician. Re- ecting on his own mortality, Brahms dra ed a will in with which he bequeathed his library to the Gesellscha der Musikfreunde and his monetary resources to bene t needy musicians. Everything was placed in order as he entered the nal phase of his life. Brahms could not have realized that a resplendent, post-retirement blossoming would result in the glorious clarinet works (a trio, a quintet, and two sonatas), several sets of piano pieces, and his haunting Four Serious Songs . Planned from the outset as his valedictory address, the String Quintet No. is an ex- traordinary musical document—a conscious summation of Brahms’s style and aesthetic. e ve-member ensemble forms a mid-size group capable of achieving delicate chamber textures as well as quasi-symphonic gestures. Brahms underscored the individual personal- ity of his four movements with a wide range of textures. Melody, harmony, and rhythm re ect the vocabulary and grammar of the Brahmsian musical dialect: lyrical passages rich in motivic material, variation, luxurious harmonies, a carefully planned key scheme, and the occasional dislodging of rhythmic pulse through hemiola (two beats against three) patterns. e String Quintet No. never failed to pique the composer’s sense of nostalgia. Following a rehearsal for the premiere, Brahms was asked if the piece might secretly bear the subtitle “Brahms im Prater” (a er his favorite district in Vienna, the densely wooded Prater), to which he replied: “Precisely. And the many pretty girls therein.” Violinist Arnold Rosé and his quartet, with a guest violist, present- ed the rst public performance in Vienna on November , . ree months before his death, Brahms made a nal appearance on- stage to congratulate the Joachim Quartet on their performance of the String Quintet No. . Joseph Joachim remembered Brahms’s rare sense of pride on that occasion: “It was almost as if he was satis ed with his work.” A distinct Viennese quality permeates the Al- legro non troppo, ma con brio . Several th-century musicians detected faint traces of Johann Strauss Jr.’s Wine, Women, and Song Waltzes and Josef Strauss’s Frauenherz Polka . When the work reached rehearsals, the bal- ance between thick violin and viola tremolos and the solo-cello theme in the opening mea- sures proved difficult. Brahms considered thinning the accompaniment, but left his original idea intact, since this sonority high- lights crucial divisions of the movement. Two more themes round out the exposition: a lyr- ical viola duet and a second violin melody with a short–long rhythm. Brahms reorches- trates his three themes a er a dramatic devel- opment section. For the slow ( Adagio ) movement, Brahms composed a modestly sized, but highly ex- pressive, set of variations. e wistful, mel- ancholy D-minor theme in the rst viola rises above its translucent accompaniment—cello pizzicatos and second-viola countermelody. A more delicate scoring typi es the rst vari- ation. Brahms changes keys to G minor for the second variation. is movement crests in the third variation with its animated rhythm. A cadenza-like passage in the rst viola leads to the nal variations. e third movement is neither minuet nor scherzo but an intermezzo foreshadowing Brahms’s late piano pieces. Initially, the violin o ers a minor/modal theme in short, clipped phrases. A shi to major nds the violins and violas moving in pairs; the cello adds long, arching arpeggios. e initial minor theme returns, and then its major-key companion makes a brief nal appearance. Brahms adopted a Hungarian style in the - nale, perhaps as a tribute to the Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim, who had convinced him to write the Quintet No. . Triplet mo- tion in the second theme sets a more leisurely pace. e concise development reveals a viv- id harmonic imagination. In a coda follow- ing the restatement of his two main themes, Brahms propels the work to an animated conclusion. –Program notes © Todd E. Sullivan Johannes Brahms by Rudolf Krziwanek MIRIAM FRIED Born in Romania, Miriam Fried emigrated to Israel with her family at age , where she began taking violin lessons as a child with Al- ice Fenyves in Tel Aviv. While there she had the opportunity to meet and play for many of the world’s great violinists, such as Isaac Stern, Nathan Milstein, and Yehudi Menuhin. Stern encouraged her to study abroad and, a er brie y attending the Geneva Conser- vatory under Fenyves’s brother, she became a student of Josef Gingold at Indiana Univer- sity and later Ivan Galamian at e Juilliard School. While under Galamian’s tutelage, Fried won her rst competition, the Pa- ganini Contest in Genoa. ree years later she claimed the grand prize in the Queen Elisa- beth International Competition in Brussels, becoming the rst woman to win the award. Fried has been a regular guest of nearly ev- ery major orchestra in the world, including the Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Vienna, and London Symphony Orchestras; the Cleve- land, Paris, and Philadelphia Orchestras; and the Israel, (London) Royal, New York, Los Angeles, Czech, Berlin, and Saint Petersburg Philharmonics. She has recently appeared on recordings by the Grand Rapids Symphony, performing a violin concerto written for her by Donald Erb that she premiered with the same ensemble, and the Helsinki Philhar- monic, playing Sibelius’s Violin Concerto. For much of , Fried focused intensive study on Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, creating a series of online lectures and master classes for iClassical Academy. She toured the monumental works from Ravinia to Boston, Israel, Canada, and Europe, and made a new recording of them in . She played rst vi- olin for the Mendelssohn String Quartet until it disbanded in and is currently on the faculty of New England Conservatory. e director of the Ravinia Steans Music Institute Program for Piano & Strings since and the recipient of Ravinia’s inaugural Edward Gordon Award in , Miriam Fried made her rst appearance at the festival in . is performance continues her nd con- cert season at Ravinia and marks the rst of several celebrating her th and nal year in leadership at RSMI. RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JUNE 6 – JULY 2, 2023 I I