Ravinia 2025 Issue 2

BENNETT GORDON HALL 1:30 PM SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 2025 TONY SIQI YUN, piano † BRAHMS Theme and Variations in D minor, op. 18b * LISZT Isolde’s Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde , LW A239 BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, op. 57 (“Appassionata”) Allegro assai Andante con moto— Allegro ma non troppo –Intermission– BUSONI Berceuse from Elegies , BV 249 * SCHUMANN Etudes symphoniques in C-sharp minor, op. 13 Thema: Andante Etude 1 (Variation 1) Etude 2 (Variation 2) Etude 3 Etude 4 (Variation 3) Etude 5 (Variation 4) Etude 6 (Variation 5) Etude 7 (Variation 6) Etude 8 (Variation 7) Etude 9 Etude 10 (Variation 8) Etude 11 (Variation 9) Etude 12 (Finale) Variation 1, op. posth. Variation 2, op. posth. Variation 3, op. posth. Variation 4, op. posth. Variation 5, op. posth. † Ravinia debut * First performance at Ravinia JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833–1897) Theme and Variations in D minor, op. 18b The princely court at Lippe-Detmold supported a vibrant contingent of amateur and profession- al musicians. Prince Leopold II lavished enor- mous amounts of time and resources on a small orchestra, the choral society, and private piano instructors of the highest reputation for his daughter, Princess Friederike. Everyone at court, regardless of position, participated in at least one resident ensemble. In May 1857, the prince invit- ed Brahms to join the Detmold court, an offer the young musician graciously accepted. This appointment’s limited time commitment (three months annually, October to December) appealed to the multi-talented Brahms, who maintained a robust performance and compo- sition schedule during the remaining nine months of the year. Though Brahms left the Detmold court after only three seasons, his res- idency provided a fruitful laboratory for exper- imentation in large-ensemble composition. Works written in part or completely at Det- mold included the two orchestral serenades (opp. 11 and 16), several choral works, the Pia- no Concerto No. 1 in D minor, and his String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat major, op. 18. Few compositions for two violins, two violas, and two cellos existed before Brahms’s String Sextet No. 1. Luigi Boccherini composed the first examples in his 1775 collection of Six Sextets, op. 23. The Parisian publisher Jean-Georges Sie- ber issued these works as op. 24 in 1780. Some- what closer to Brahms, in terms of chronology and geography, was Louis Spohr’s String Sextet in C major, op. 140, composed in 1848 and pub- lished two years later by Carl Luckhardt in Kas- sel. There is no definitive evidence that Brahms knew any of these works, although he was famil- iar with other compositions by Spohr. Brahms completed the opening movement ( Al- legro ma non troppo ) of his new string sextet in November 1859. The Andante, ma moderato slow movement followed in December, and a scherzo was added by spring of the following year. In Johannes Brahms RAVINIAMAGAZINE • JUNE 16 – JUNE 29, 2025 62