Where Quality Endures…And New Traditions Begin 91st Annual Concert Series
Hilary Hahn, violin and Valentina Lisitsa, piano Thursday, February 17, 2011
www.uniontheater.wisc.edu 608-265-ARTS 800 Langdon St., Madison, WI 53706 Wisconsin Union Theatre 1
Presented by the Wisconsin Union Directorate Performing Arts Committee, directed this year by Kiley Groose. This program is supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts Additional support provided by: ETC, WORT 89.9 FM, Wisconsin Public Radio, and AV Club.
UW-Madison students: to join the Wisconsin Union Directorate Performing Arts Committee, and help program our upcoming events, please contact Kiley Groose at kgroose@gmail.com
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PROGR A M “Variations on a Theme by Corelli”................................................................................ TARTINI arr. Kreisler Violin Sonata No. 5 in F Major, “Spring”............................................................... BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata No. 4..................................................................................................................... IVES Intermission Violin Partita No. 1 (solo violin)........................................................................................... BACH Violin Sonata No. 1............................................................................................................ ANTHEIL
PROGR A M NOTES BY NOR M AN GILLIL AND Fraud continues to muddy the distinction between what Fritz Kreisler wrote and attributed to obscure Baroque composers and what he merely arranged. Among his arrangements is a set of variations written circa 1747, possibly by Giuseppe Tartini, based on a Gavotte from a sonata written by Archangelo Corelli half a century earlier. Although some confusion remains about the lineage of the Variations on a Theme by Corelli, the taste and virtuosity required to play Kreisler’s arrangement are unmistakable. Ludwig van Beethoven faced a specific challenge when he wrote his ten sonatas for violin and piano: how to balance the expressiveness of the two instruments. He gave the problem plenty of thought. As early as 1794 he was sketching what would become the Sonata No. 5 in F but didn’t finish it until 1801. Despite the balance he achieved, Beethoven still thought of this work and its companions as “Sonatas for pianoforte with violin.” Its lyrical first movement may have been the inspiration for the nickname “Spring,” to which Beethoven had no objection. It’s the first of Beethoven’s violin sonatas to have four movements, the addition being a miniature scherzo and trio in which the violin keeps falling a beat behind the piano, a joke perhaps at the expense of Beethoven’s friend Johann Maelzel, inventor of the metronome. In his day job, he was a mover and shaker in the insurance industry, introduced the concept of estate planning and created schools for insurance executives, but Charles Ives was equally innovative when it came to writing music. His Violin Sonata No. 4, which he wrote from 1906 to 1915, is called “Children’s Day at the Camp Meeting.” In 1942 Ives described the sonata’s four movements. In the first, a boy indulges in marching around and singing off-key during hymns. The second movement is in three sections, beginning with a meditation on the final phrases of William Bradbury’s hymn “Jesus Loves Me.” In a boisterous central section of the movement, a piano solo evokes the moments during the church service when boys were allowed to “throw stones down on the rocks in the brook.” And the end of the movement returns to a reverent rendering of the opening hymn. The final movement is based on “Shall We Gather at the River” and ends without closure as if expecting the audience to complete it.
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PROGR A M NOTES BY NOR M AN GILLIL AND Johann Sebastian Bach’s sonatas and partitas for solo violin are so ingenious that centuries passed before performers and audiences appreciated their musical beauty. His Partita No. 1 in B minor is one of a set of three solo sonatas and three partitas completed by 1720 but unpublished until 1802, when they were used primarily as technical exercises. Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann both wrote piano accompaniments for them, despite Bach’s clear indication on the title page that they were to be for the violin only. Not until the late nineteenth century, when virtuoso Joseph Joachim gave them their concert debut, did the sonatas and partitas enter the performance repertory. The flamboyant, free-living American composer George Antheil titled his 1945 autobiography Bad Boy of Music. His two violin sonatas were commissioned in 1923 by poet Ezra Pound. Antheil wrote them to perform in Paris with violinist Olga Rudge of whom Antheil wrote: “Looking at her Irish adrenal personality, I decided that the sonatas must be as wildly strange as she looked, tailored to her special appearance and technique.”
A SupraNet Communications World Culture Series Event
Paddy Moloney & The Chieftains plus special guests
Thu, Mar 3, 7:30 PM $19.50 – $49.50 | overture Hall Sponsored by Media Sponsor
tickets: 608.258.4141
overturecenter.com
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MADISON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA John DeMain | Music Director
February
18th 19th 20th
Elgar Pomp & Circumstance March Op. 39 No. 5 Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 (Emperor) Prokofiev Symphony No. 5
Sponsors: THE MADISON CONCOURSE HOTEL & GOVERNOR’S CLUB
John DeMain Conductor Simone Dinnerstein Piano
FINDORFF WISCONSIN ARTS BOARD
25th 26th 27th Dvorˇák Carnival Overture Barber Violin Concerto Beethoven Symphony No. 3 (Eroica)
March
John DeMain Conductor Robert McDuffie Violin
Sponsors:
KW2 UNIVERSITY RESEARCH PARK HOOPER CORPORATION
WPS INSURANCE
WISCONSIN ARTS BOARD
15th 16th 17th Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme
April
by Thomas Tallis
Tchaikovsky Francesca da Rimini
John DeMain Conductor Christopher Taylor Piano Madison Symphony Chorus Beverly Taylor, Director
Sponsors:
P&C COLLINS FUND STEPHEN D. MORTON NICHOLAS & ELAINE MISCHLER WISCONSIN ARTS BOARD
Tickets on sale now Overture Center Box Office
608-258-4141
On-line
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$10 Student Rush Good for Best Available Seats on Day of Show! One student can buy up to two $10 tickets...bring a friend!
COMING SOON AT WISCONSIN UNION THEATER!
Saturday February 19 8 pm
Gaelic Storm
Tuesday March 22 7:30 pm Mills Hall Keyboard Conversations Š with Jeffrey Siegel
Paris -1911! A Century Celebration
Thursday April 21 7:30 pm
Jeremy Denk, piano
Thursday March 10 8 pm
Mon & Tues March 21 & 22 7:30 pm
Acoustic Africa East African Safari with Habib Koite, Oliver Mtukudzi and Afel Bocoum
Friday, April 8 8 pm
Isthmus Jazz Series
Dianne Reeves
Mon & Tues April 25 & 26 7:30 pm
with Rick Ray
Sunday, April 17 12:30 pm Neale-Silva Young Artists Competition Winners Recital FREE!
Fri-Sat June 3-4
Discovering the Dutch
Isthmus Jazz Festival
with Sandy Mortimer
FREE!
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