Friday 11 May 2007, 7.30pm
Maxim Vengerov violin/director
Lawrence Power viola *
UBS Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra
Mozart Violin Concerto No.2 in D major 21’
Mozart Sinfonia Concertante in E flat major * 32’
interval
20’
Mozart Violin Concerto No.4 in D major 26’
Shostakovich arr. Barshai Chamber Symphony in C minor 20’
Barbican Hall
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Notes
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91)
Violin Concerto No.2 in D major, K.211
Allegro moderato
Andante
Rondeau: Allegro
Mozart
It used to be thought that all five of Mozart’s Violin
Concertos dated from 1775, but it’s now known that No.1,
K.207 in B flat – often considered not quite the equal of
the other four – dates from two years before. Mozart’s
enthusiastic embrace of the concerto genre at this time
follows his second visit to Italy in 1772-3, when he
probably heard concertos by Vivaldi and Pietro Nardini,
and coincides with his development from writing opera
seria to opera buffa. He must have been tempted to
explore the combination of soloist and orchestra, already
exploited in some of his opera arias, in the larger, multithemed structures the concerto afforded him.
Completed in September 1775, K.211 is somewhat
overshadowed by the three extraordinary concertos that
followed it. More than them, it seems poised on the cusp
between the late-Baroque or sprightly ‘galant’ style and
the fully-fledged Classical concerto. This is elegant,
courtly music, written to please and entertain. The first
movement is structured rather like a Vivaldi concerto, with
four tutti sections with three intervening solo episodes;
there are also passages in which the soloist is
accompanied only by the orchestral violins.
The lively upward flourishes of the first movement’s
opening theme, tossed playfully back and forth between
first and second violins and later between the soloist and
orchestral violins, immediately command attention. In the
languorous second movement, which has been
described as a musical equivalent of the Rococo
paintings of Fragonard and Watteau, the soloist sings a
kind of aria above the murmuring semiquaver figurations
in the strings. The finale, begun by the soloist, has the
character of a gracious minuet with contrasted episodes,
one of these being a seductive excursion into the minor.
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Notes
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Sinfonia Concertante in E flat
for violin, viola and orchestra, K.364
Allegro maestoso
Andante
Presto (Tempo di contraddanza)
This last and most magnificent of Mozart’s concertanti
(works for more than one instrument, with orchestra) was
written in the summer or early autumn of 1779 and is
often referred to as a double concerto for violin and
viola. But the terms ‘concerto’ and ‘sinfonia concertante’
had distinct meanings in the late 18th century. While the
former presents a dynamic relationship between soloist
and orchestra, the latter concentrates on the interplay
between the soloists themselves. And in fact this particular
Sinfonia Concertante strictly observes that thematic
distinction between solo and ensemble: not a single
theme from the first movement’s lengthy orchestral
introduction is taken up by either soloist, for instance.
orchestra’s exposition – introduce new themes of their
own, and continue in debonair conversation. The exciting
device of the ‘Mannheim crescendo’ over a pulsing
pedal-note, virtually unknown in Mozart’s previous music,
makes a rare appearance in this movement. A multitude
of melodic ideas occurs apparently spontaneously; yet
the design remains as lucid as the texture, so beautifully
balanced in its integration of tutti and soli. Here, as in the
other two movements, the cadenzas are Mozart’s own
and are less displays of flashy virtuosity than soliloquies
that seem to grow naturally out of what has gone before.
The Andante slow movement, in C minor, is one of his
most affecting inspirations. It is based largely on two
Mozart clearly devoted considerable thought to the
themes, each first announced by the orchestra, then
writing of this marvellous work. He obtains grand effects expanded by each soloist in turn and finally discussed in
from what was then his standard Salzburg orchestra of
poignant dialogue between them against a veiled
oboes, horns and strings. The orchestral strings are laid
orchestral background that is like the musical equivalent
out with first and second violas as well as first and second of a drop curtain. Their polyphonic intertwining contains
violins, creating a new richness of tone. The solo viola’s
some painfully expressive clashes before they eventually
part is written in D and the player is instructed to use
join in an ecstatically harmonious climax.
scordatura – that is, to tune the instrument a semitone
The Presto is a jovial, dance-like rondo described as ‘in
higher so that the part actually sounds in E flat. This
the measure of a contredanse’, a fast balletic dance in
device gives it a more brilliant and forceful sound than
2/4 time. In its splendid cavalcade of themes, optimism
the orchestral violas, so that it has greater parity with the
and gaiety are restored after the pathos of the slow
solo violin.
movement: there are no significant excursions into the
The first movement is constructed on a very grand scale; minor mode, and virtuosity abounds. The final climax is
the dignity of the E flat opening is stately yet lively, utterly
beautifully calculated to create a wholly satisfying end to
un-pompous yet symphonic in its breadth, with elegant
the proceedings: there are no cadenzas as such, but –
contrasting sections and subsidiary themes. The soloists – just before the end – first the viola and then the violin soar
soaring in (in octaves) over the conclusion of the
up elatedly, unaccompanied, to stratospheric heights.
interval
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Notes
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Violin Concerto No.4 in D major, K.218
Allegro
Andante cantabile
Rondeau: Andante grazioso – Allegro ma non troppo
Mozart
Completed in Salzburg in October 1775, the fourth of
Mozart’s violin concertos (and the second in D major) has
moved much closer to the fully-fledged Classical concerto
in its formal layout. The muscular first movement gives an
immediate impression of vigour, with a bright fanfarefigure at the outset, after which the orchestra unfolds a
succession of attractive ideas. Mozart adds several new
ones with the entrance of the soloist – who also begins
with the fanfare-figure, transposed upwards and made
lyrical. Indeed, the entire movement proceeds as a
stream of apparently spontaneous melodic statements
and recurrences, continually moving from one idea to the
next. The cadenza, which occurs just before the coda, is
left to the soloist: there is a tradition of distinguished
examples (including a famous one by Joseph Joachim)
but tonight, interestingly, Maxim Vengerov plays his own
cadenzas in both this concerto and K.211.
The following Andante cantabile opens and closes with
the orchestra; between these statements the violin
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announces its subjects with songfulness and grace, then
repeats them, taking an opportunity for a cadenza
shortly before the close.
The rondeau-form finale is unusual in its use of sharply
contrasting tempos and metres. Its recurring principal
theme begins in a questioning 2/4 Andante, answered
after a pause by a lively, tripping 6/8 idea. A central
episode begins with a simple gavotte-like melody and
continues with a ‘musette’ passage in which Mozart
creates a bagpipe effect coupled with a folk-dance-like
melody.
In letters of October 1777, Mozart and his father both call
this work his ‘Strasbourger’ Concerto, apparently because
this musette theme was modelled on a musette called
‘Ballo Strasburghese’ in a symphony by Mozart’s friend
and contemporary Dittersdorf. Unusually, there is no
animated coda: the movement fades away quietly once it
has said all it intends to say, ending almost in mid-phrase.
Notes
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
arr. Rudolf Barshai (b. 1924)
Chamber Symphony in C minor, Op.110a
(after Shostakovich’s String Quartet No.8, 1960)
Largo – Allegro molto – Allegretto – Largo – Largo
Shostakovich
Perhaps the most famous, and also the most personal of
Shostakovich’s 15 string quartets is No.8, which the
composer wrote in 1960 while staying in Görlitz, near
Dresden. He was working on the score for the film Five
Days, Five Nights, about the Allied bombing of the city,
large parts of which were still in ruins, and the quartet
bears a dedication ‘To the Victims of Fascism and War’,
wholly appropriate to the surroundings in which it was
conceived. But Shostakovich was thinking of one victim in
particular: himself.
Since the previous month he had been under strong official
pressure to join the Communist Party, and knew he would
be unable to hold out once he returned to the USSR. He
feared the Eighth Quartet would be his last work and
designed it as a personal requiem, as he wrote to his friend
Isaak Glickman:
One could write on the title-page, ‘dedicated to the
author of this quartet’. The main theme is the monogram
D, Es, C, H, that is – my initials. The quartet makes use of
themes from my works and the old revolutionary song
‘Tormented by Slavery’. Quite a little hotch-potch! The
pseudo-tragedy of the quartet is so great that while
composing it my tears flowed as abundantly as urine
after downing six pints of beer. Now that I’m home I
have tried playing it twice and have shed tears again,
not because of any tragedy but because of my own
wonder at the marvellous unity of form …
Indeed, nothing is more remarkable about a work which
is, on one level, a tissue of quotations than the fact that it
is a powerful and emotionally self-consistent experience
in itself. In several previous works Shostakovich had used
the ‘D-S-C-H’ figure (German musical nomenclature for
the notes D, E-flat, C, B-natural) as a musical monogram.
The gentle, sombre Largo first movement unfolds this
theme polyphonically, and also makes references to
themes from Shostakovich’s First and Fifth Symphonies.
This leads – for the quartet is played without a break – to
a fierce, heavily punctuated Allegro molto, with the air of
a danse macabre. Its most notable feature is a
passionate, protesting theme played by the violins in
octaves: this is taken from Shostakovich’s Second Piano
Trio, another highly personal work written in memory of
his close friend Ivan Sollertinsky.
A spectral waltz ensues, also opening with the D-S-C-H
figure and including the obstinate opening tune from the
First Cello Concerto. At the end of the movement the first
violin’s G string, creating a hollow, vibrato-less sound,
turns into something like the drone of a bomber aircraft.
This is interrupted by heavy, sforzando chords, like
gunfire. The music here is based on an episode in
Shostakovich’s film music The Young Guards that depicts
an execution. It leads to a melancholic Revolutionary
song, and then the cello takes the lead, with a melody
from his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. But the evil
drone and the gunfire-chords remain until the fifth
movement, which returns to the mood and materials of
the opening Largo (shorn now of the symphony
quotations), closing a circle of brooding despair.
The Eighth Quartet was premiered in Leningrad in 1960.
Before the year was out the conductor Rudolf Barshai,
with Shostakovich’s approval, made this version for
string orchestra, preserving much of the chamber-music
quality of the original. The addition of double basses
and multiple players reinforces the weight of tone and
enhances the sheer numbing expressivity of this unique
work.
Programme notes by Calum MacDonald © 2007
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About the performers
Maxim Vengerov
violin/director
In his early 30s, Maxim
Vengerov is recognised as one
of the world’s most exciting
violinists. In 1990, aged 15, he
won the Carl Flesch
International Violin
Competition, confirming his
reputation as a violinist of
exceptional musicianship.
After 10 successful years recording exclusively for Teldec
Classics he has, since May 2000, had an exclusive contract
with EMI Classics. In 2002 he was named Gramophone
Artist of the Year and in 2003 received an Edison Award for
his solo CD of Bach, Ysaÿe and Shchedrin. He was an
Edison Award and a Grammy Award winner in 2004 for his
CD of the Britten Violin Concerto/Walton Viola Concerto.
Recent discs include Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole, an
album of virtuoso pieces and Beethoven’s Violin Concerto.
In 1997 Maxim Vengerov was appointed Goodwill
Ambassador by UNICEF, the first classical musician to be
appointed in this role, giving him the opportunity to
inspire children worldwide and to encourage others to
raise funds for UNICEF-assisted programmes. In
addition to giving masterclasses Vengerov has been a
Professor of Violin at the Musikhochschule des
Saarlandes since 2000. As well as viola he also plays
Baroque violin and – following conducting studies with
Vag Papian, a pupil of Ilya Musin – he has begun to
appear in the combined role of soloist/director.
He appears regularly with all the major orchestras and
eminent conductors and his concerto, solo, and duo recital
tours take him all over the world. During a sabbatical year
he studied improvisation as well as the tango in preparation
for a new viola concerto by Benjamin Yusupov, which he
premiered with the NDR Orchestra in Hanover in 2005. He
has resumed his normal concert activities with worldwide
tours of the Mozart concertos with the UBS Verbier Festival
Chamber Orchestra as well as a recital tour.
He is currently in the process of recording the complete
Mozart Violin Concertos and the Sinfonia Concertante
(with violist Lawrence Power) for EMI Classics.
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Lawrence Power
viola
Lawrence Power is one of the
foremost violists today. After
winning prizes at many
international competitions, he
was selected for the BBC ‘New
Generation Artists’ scheme
which led to numerous
broadcasts both in recital and
as a soloist with the BBC orchestras. Since making his
debut as soloist with the Philharmonia, he has made
highly successful appearances with many leading
orchestras and conductors.
He is committed to expanding the viola repertoire and
has given the world premieres of many pieces written for
him, including works by Sally Beamish, John Kaefer,
Colin Matthews, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Andrew Toovey
and Huw Watkins. In addition to his solo career he is in
demand as a chamber musician, is violist in both the
Nash Ensemble and the Leopold String Trio and is a
frequent guest at international music festivals including
Verbier, Vancouver, Oslo, Edinburgh, Aldeburgh and
Cheltenham. His recordings include concertos by Cecil
Forsyth and York Bowen, Brahms’s Viola Sonatas, the
Walton and Rubbra Viola Concertos and Mozart’s
Sinfonia Concertante with Maxim Vengerov.
This season he has performed the Walton Concerto with
the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s Sinfonia
Concertante with the Lucerne Festival Strings, and a new
concerto by Sally Beamish with the Scottish Ensemble. He
will also tour Europe, North America and Japan with
Maxim Vengerov and the UBS Verbier Festival Chamber
Orchestra. This summer he returns to the Verbier Festival
and the BBC Proms. Other future engagements include
Bowen’s Viola Concerto in Mainz, Mozart’s Sinfonia
Concertante with Elisabeth Batiashvili in Germany and
Sweden, Miklós Róẑsa’s Viola Concerto in Liverpool and
Bartók’s Viola Concerto in Amsterdam.
Lawrence Power plays a rare viola by the Bolognese
maker Antonio Brensi (c.1610), its purchase supported by
the Nigel Brown instrument scheme.
About the performers
UBS Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra
Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra held its first public
performance in February 2005 in New York with Renée
Fleming. It has since toured Europe with the violinist
Joshua Bell and, in 2006, it made its debut at the Verbier
Festival and Academy with Barbara Hendricks, Emanuel
Ax, José van Dam and Dmitry Sitkovetsky.
The UBS Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra began its
collaboration with Maxim Vengerov in late 2005 when it
Since its creation in 2000, the UBS Verbier Festival
launched a two-year project to record and perform
Orchestra – fostered by the support of financial services
Mozart’s violin repertoire. In 2006 they performed
firm UBS – has achieved an outstanding international
together at Verbier, Interlaken and Menton, making their
reputation for quality, vitality and commitment under its
BBC Proms debut in August. The first Mozart recording
Conductor Laureate, James Levine. The orchestra’s
was released on EMI Classics in March 2007 and
musicians, aged from 17 to 29, are drawn from some 30
tonight’s performance is part of an extensive
countries. The UBS Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra –
international tour with Maxim Vengerov.
composed of the finest musicians and alumni from the
symphony orchestra – was created in 2005 as a small
The UBS Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra is managed
ensemble to perform chamber repertoire at the highest
by the Fondation de l’Orchestre de Verbier, a Swiss-based non-profit
level. Its size enables it to play in smaller locations and
organisation which promotes cultural, artistic and musical excellence
gives it the flexibility to tour, complementing the activities
through its support of young musicians.
of the full UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra. The UBS
Violin
Daniel Andai American
Sonia Coppey French
Annie Guénette Canadian
Evgeny Kaplan Spanish
Christoph Koncz Austrian
Polina Kozhevnikova American
Lu Lu Chinese
Etien Meneri Israeli
Philipp Mesin German
Aya Muraki American/Japanese
Olga Polonsky American
Sabina Rakcheyeva Azerbaijanian
Alexandros Sakarellos Greek
Mayumi Seiler Canadian/Austrian
Kristina Suklar Slovenian
Sayaka Takeuchi American/Japanese
Anna Wandtke Polish
Stephan Koncz Austrian
Martin Sedlák Czech
Maksim Velichkin Uzbek
Viola
Carrie Dreyer American
Aurélie Entringer French
Yael Kleinman Israeli
Miri Manasherov Israeli
Carolina Montes Argentinian/Italian
Parvaz Salimov Russian
Double Bass
Michael Fuller American
Sebastian Wypych Polish
Cello
Hélène Ferret French
Lars Kirvan American
Horn
Kostia Bourreau French
Jason Sugata American
Oboe
Dmitry Malkin Israeli
Viatcheslav Znatchenii Moldovian
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Programme edited by Edge-Wise, artwork by Jane Denton; printed by Vitesse London; advertising by Cabbell (tel. 020 8971 8450)
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