VCHpresents Chamber: James Ehnes In Recital

UPCOMING CONCERTS

REMEMBERING

SCHUBERT IV –

AFTER BEETHOVEN

Wed 26 Oct, 7:30pm

Musicians of the SSO

CHAMBER ORGAN

HALLOWEEN NIGHT

Sat 29 Oct, 8pm

Sun 30 Oct, 4pm

Loraine Muthiah organ

BAROQUE FESTIVAL

THE AROMA OF MUSIC

Thu 10 Nov, 7:30pm

Fri 11 Nov, 7:30pm

Peter Hanson violin/ leader

Joyce Lee Tung soprano

David Charles Tay tenor Martin Ng bass

Musicians of the SSO

THE LITTON DUO

Tue 29 Nov, 7:30pm

Andrew Litton piano

Katharina Kang Litton viola

CHAMBER

THE TROUT AND THE TRIO

Sun 11 Dec, 4pm

Musicians of the SSO

CHAMBER ORGAN

A CHRISTMAS

CARILLON

Wed 28 Dec, 7:30pm

Yap Wai Hoong organ

Evelyn Lim organ

Ministry of Bellz

Damien Lim

(Principal Conductor)

Valerie Lee (Associate Conductor)

PROGRAMME

James Ehnes violin/viola

TELEMANN

Fantasia in B-flat major 8 mins

HINDEMITH

Sonata for Solo Viola, Op. 25, No. 1 16 mins

YSAŸE

Sonata for Solo Violin in D minor, Op. 27, No. 3 “Ballade” 6 mins

Intermission 20 mins

J.S. BACH

Violin Sonata No. 2 in A minor, BWV 1003 20 mins

PAGANINI

Selections from 24 Caprices, Op. 1 15 mins

Post-concert autograph signing with James Ehnes at the Level 2 Foyer

CONCERT DURATION: approximately 1 hour and 30 mins (with 20 mins intermission)

JAMES EHNES violin

James Ehnes has established himself as one of the most sought-after violinists on the international stage. Gifted with a rare combination of stunning virtuosity, serene lyricism and an unfaltering musicality, Ehnes is a favourite guest of many of the world’s most respected conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Marin Alsop, Andrew Davis, Stéphane Denève, Mark Elder, Iván Fischer, Edward Gardner, Paavo Järvi, Juanjo Mena, Gianandrea Noseda, David Robertson and Donald Runnicles. Ehnes’s list of orchestras he has worked with include the Boston, Chicago, London, NHK and Vienna Symphony Orchestras, the Los Angeles, New York, Munich and Czech Philharmonic Orchestras, and the Cleveland, Philadelphia, Philharmonia and DSO Berlin Orchestras.

In 2021, Ehnes was announced as the recipient of the coveted Artist of the Year title in the 2021 Gramophone Awards, which celebrated his recent contributions to the recording industry. This includes the launch of a new online recital series entitled ‘Recitals from Home’, which was

released in June 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Recent orchestral highlights include the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall with Gianandrea Noseda, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig with Alexander Shelley, San Francisco Symphony with Marek Janowski, Frankfurt Radio Symphony with Andrés Orozco-Estrada, London Symphony with Daniel Harding, and Munich Philharmonic with Jaap van Zweden. In the 21/22 season, Ehnes was named the Artist-in-Residence with the National Arts Centre of Canada.

As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with leading artists such as Leif Ove Andsnes, Renaud Capuçon, Louis Lortie, Nikolai Lugansky, Yo-Yo Ma, Antoine Tamestit, Jan Vogler, Inon Barnatan and Yuja Wang. In 2010, he established the Ehnes Quartet. He is also the Artistic Director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society.

Ehnes plays the “Marsick” Stradivarius of 1715.

© BEN EALOVEGA

PROGRAMME NOTES

GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN

(1681 – 1767)

Fantasia in B-flat major

Georg Philipp Telemann was one of the most prolific composers of the Baroque era, and too often an afterthought after Bach. Almost entirely self-taught in music, he was the Leipzig Thomaskirche’s first choice for music director (Bach was a third choice). His 12 Fantasias for Solo Violin without Bass were composed and published in 1735, 15 years after Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, and show a very different personality at work. While fundamentally in the German Baroque tradition, these pieces have a far more improvisatory character and show Telemann’s openness to Italian influences.

PAUL HINDEMITH (1895 – 1963)

Sonata for Solo Viola, Op. 25, No. 1

I. Breit Viertel

II. Sehr frisch und straff

III. Sehr langsam

IV. Rasendes Zeitmass: Wild: Tonschönheit ist Nebensache

V. Langsam, mit viel Ausdruck

When a composer writes for an instrument that he plays, there is a particular intimacy that comes from a deep understanding of the instrument’s qualities and abilities. German composer Hindemith was himself an accomplished viola player and his solo viola sonatas give voice to the extraordinary sound worlds that lived in his mind.

Op. 25, No. 1 for Solo Viola is marked by unexpected harmonic shifts, unprepared and unresolved dissonances, ideas undeveloped then abandoned suddenly, and much more that seems to make no sense, but only if one views his music through earlier lenses – they must be seen in their context of place and time. Germany in 1922 was a time of political and social unrest, which are all reflected in Hindemith’s bleak and intellectual soundscapes.

The startling opening movement is marked Breit Viertel, alternatively aggressive and pleading, then a faster and shorter Sehr frisch und straff (very fresh and tight) movement. The third movement Sehr langsam (very slowly) while more lyrical, is marked by more unrest and flitting between ideas. Next comes a furious Rasendes Zeitmass (raging tempo), with buzzing and repeated machine-line crochets unrelentlessly sewing their way across the cloth of the page. The final movement Langsam mit viel Ausdrick (slow, with great expression) gives us respite from the industrial feel of the previous movement but still no resolution – the movement ends as it began, with a moment of wonder and expectation.

EUGÈNE YSAŸE (1858 – 1931)

Sonata for Solo Violin in D minor, Op. 27, No. 3 “Ballade”

Unusually, Ysaÿe’s Sonata for Solo Violin in D minor, Op. 27, No. 3 “Ballade” is in one movement. Written in 1923, after the Belgian violinist and composer had just resigned from his post music director at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, it was the third

in his set of Six Sonatas for Solo Violin, and remains the most played of the six.

Beginning slowly, it sprinkles hints of the motifs from later in the piece, using a whole tone as well as much dissonance and chromaticism. The main section is agitated and unsettled, its unrest emphasised by dotted rhythms, before a calmer middle section appears. The dotted agitation appears again before a coda and fiery conclusion.

J.S. BACH (1685 – 1750)

Violin Sonata No. 2 in A minor, BWV 1003

I. Grave

II. Fuga

III. Andante

IV. Allegro

Despite countless works by other composers emerging over the centuries, Bach’s works for solo violin remain a major pinnacle in the world of violin music. Likely composed circa 1720 in Cöthen, the Six Sonatas and Partitas for Violin without Bass are highly demanding in terms of both technical ability and expressivity (George Enescu called them ‘The Himalayas of violinists’), yet we know nothing about the circumstances of their composition, nor about their first performance—if indeed they were ever performed during his lifetime. Nevertheless, since the first edition appeared in Bonn in 1802, they have taken their place at the heart of the solo violin repertoire.

In the form of a sonata da chiesa (church sonata), the Sonata No. 2 in A minor opens with a melancholy,

swirling Grave that leads into a Fuga (fugue) where Bach manages to give us a strict fugue on only four strings, alternating these sections with freer flowing ones. The Andante seems almost a violin reduction of a slow movement from a violin concerto in how it presents a gentle flowing melody over a bass line of eighth notes from an imaginary orchestra, with fuller chords appearing at occasional points. An Allegro finale leaves harmonies behind, presents us with quick arpeggiated melodies, with implied harmonies hanging like ghosts in the echo.

NICCOLÒ PAGANINI (1782 – 1840)

Selections from 24 Caprices, Op. 1 No. 1

No. 9 No. 16 No. 24

The name of Paganini is often a byword for virtuosity and sheer technical brilliance, but perhaps that is only because few violinists can handle the technical aspects well enough to let the musicality of the music shine through.

No. 1 is filled with arpeggiated demisemiquavers bouncing across all four strings giving the illusion of great speed, but it is the harmonic rhythm (one change per half bar) that gives the walking pace to the piece. While being in E major, it rises chromatically through all the keys from G to D flat in the middle before returning to the home key.

No. 9, known as ‘the Hunt’, is in the form of a rondo, A-B-A-C-A, where the A sections are scored in thirds,

fifths and sixths, particularly a note pattern known as the ‘horn fifth’ given to the horns from their valveless days. Horn and flute imitations complete the hunting scene. Liszt liked this piece so much he made a piano transcription of it twice, both entitled ‘La Chasse’.

No. 16, while perhaps the simplest of the caprices, is still no walk in the park. A continuous stream of semiquavers, it is in two parts and requires a mastery of détaché (broad but separate) bowing as well as accurate intonation in the highest register.

No. 24 is perhaps the most famous of the lot, being considered one of the most difficult pieces ever written for solo violin. A showcase of virtuosity, it is one of those moments that remind us why Paganini was such sensation in his time, for the rockstar-like showmanship shines through even today.

Notes by Edward C. Yong

Founded in 1979, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is Singapore’s flagship orchestra, touching lives through classical music and providing the heartbeat of the cultural scene in the cosmopolitan city-state. Our Music Director is Hans Graf. While the SSO performs frequently at the Esplanade Concert Hall, for a more intimate experience, we return to the place of our beginnings, the Victoria Concert Hall (VCH) – the home of the SSO. The VCH is host to our popular Children’s, Family and biannual free Lunchtime Concerts as well as our VCHpresents chamber series.

HANS GRAF Music Director