Ravinia_2018_Issue_3_Week

MIRIAM FRIED,

violin

Born in Romania, Miriam Fried emigrated to

Israel with her family at age 2, where she be-

gan taking violin lessons as a child with Alice

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, Na-

than Milstein, and Yehudi Menuhin. Stern en-

couraged her to study abroad and, after briefly

attending the Geneva Conservatory under

Fenyves’s brother, she became a student of Jo-

sef Gingold at Indiana University and later Ivan

Galamian at The Juilliard School. While under

Galamian’s tutelage, Fried won her first com-

petition, the 1968 Paganini Contest in Genoa.

Three years later she claimed the grand prize

in the Queen Elisabeth International Competi-

tion in Brussels, becoming the first woman to

win the award. Fried has been a regular guest

of nearly every major orchestra in the world,

including the Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Vi-

enna, and London Symphony Orchestras; the

Cleveland, 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 Philharmonic, play-

ing Sibelius’s Violin Concerto. For much of 2015,

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 this

past December. She played first violin for the

Mendelssohn String Quartet until it disbanded

in 2009 and is currently on the faculty of New

England Conservatory. The director of Ravinia’s

Steans Music Institute Program for Piano and

Strings since 1994 and the recipient of Ravinia’s

inaugural Edward Gordon Award, Miriam Fried

made her first appearance at the festival in 1974.

Tonight she continues her 28th season perform-

ing at Ravinia.

with my concerto! It goes without saying that

I would have been able to do nothing without

him. He plays it marvelously!” In the end, how-

ever, Tchaikovsky dedicated the concerto to

Leopold Auer, though he refused to perform it,

claiming that it was “unviolinistic”—a situation

far too reminiscent of the Piano Concerto No. 1

debacle with Nikolai Rubinstein. Another vio-

linist, Adolf Brodsky, played the premiere.

The Violin Concerto in D major, op. 35, displays

an uncommon Classical balance in its first few

measures. Orchestral tension builds, the vio-

lin enters and, after a pause, the full-blooded

Romantic first theme is proclaimed. The solo

violin introduces a deeply felt second theme.

Following the development, there is a sparkling

cadenza and a restatement of the main themes.

Inspiration for the

Canzonetta

probably came

from Tchaikovsky’s recent trip to Italy. The

woodwind opening is succeeded by an embel-

lished Italianate violin melody. A second idea

weaves a continuous line. The initial violin and

wind themes return in reverse order. Without

pause, the wildly exuberant

Finale

follows. An

infectious folk-like spontaneity characterizes

the violin refrain. Rustic drones accompany a

sensuous second theme. The refrain, never far in

the background, finally catapults the movement

to its conclusion.

Capriccio Italien

, op. 45

Scored for three flutes, two oboes and English horn,

two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two cornets,

two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, side

drum, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, and strings

Tchaikovsky arrived in Rome on December 20,

1879, a weary and uninspired composer. The

copious art treasures of the Italian capital held

little allure, with the exception of Raphael’s

works. Constant noise barraged his suite at the

Hotel Constanzi, whose window opened onto

the cavalry barracks of the Royal Cuirassiers.

Nightly revelry stemmed from the raucous Car-

nival celebration. At its conclusion, Tchaikovsky

sighed: “The Carnival is finished, to my great re-

lief. The last day the madness and devilry of the

crowds surpassed everything imaginable. It was

all so exhausting and irritating so far as I was

concerned.” Adding to the strife was his father’s

sudden death on January 21.

On February 17, 1880 Tchaikovsky wrote of re-

newed inspiration in a letter to his benefactress,

Nadezhda von Meck: “I am still nervous and

irritable, sleep badly, and in general am out of

order. But I have been working, and during the

past few days have sketched the rough draft of

an Italian capriccio based on popular melodies.

I think it has a bright future; it will be effective

because of the wonderful melodies I happened

to pick up, partly from published collections and

partly out in the streets with my own ears.”

The

Capriccio Italien

—composed and or-

chestrated between January 16 and May 12,

1880—follows an episodic sequence of Itali-

anate themes flavored with Russian seasoning.

Tchaikovsky transcribed the daily fanfare of the

barracks trumpeter for the opening theme. A

slow-paced string melody adds a modal quality.

Two oboes (echoed by a pair of flutes) present a

singing folk tune with a sharp rhythmic ending

to each phrase. Vibrant string patterns support

a curiously Spanish-sounding melody with the

evocative tambourine and lazy triplets. The slow

theme returns as a transition to the

presto

tar-

antella, a folk tune known only as “Ciccuzza.”

Following a greatly expanded variation of ear-

lier melodic material, Tchaikovsky launches a

hurried romp to the conclusion.

1812

Festival Overture, op. 49

See page 109 for program notes.

KEN-DAVID MASUR,

conductor

Ken-David Masur’s biography appears on page 109

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1887)

Nadezhda von Meck