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Carla Trynchuk, violin; Carmen Roberts, piano
December, 1999
Concert Tour to India

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Sonata in e minor, K. 304

Concert tours dominated the life of Mozart between the years of 1762 and 1779. While the purpose of these journeys was primarily mercenary, the tours also gave the young Wolfgang opportunity to encounter a more cosmopolitan perspective of musical developments than what was normally available to him at home in Salzburg. During his last tour, he became acquainted with six “duets” for harpsichord and violin by Joseph Schuster of Dresden. Mozart was impressed with their structure in that the keyboard and violin form a true partnership rather than the earlier practice of one instrument accompanying the other. He composed a set of six of his own sonatas for piano and violin, K. 301-306, which was published in Paris in November of 1778.  The passionate character of the fifth work of this group, the Sonata in e minor, K. 304 (1778) is unique among Mozart’s works. It is important to note that the composer’s mother suffered her last illness and death in Paris around the time of the composition of this two-movement piece. Listen for the stark octaves of the opening, the many contrasts of forte and piano, syncopated and drumming passages. The more peaceful minuet brightens a bit with the major key of the trio, but turbulence returns for the close.

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Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) began composing his lyric tone poem The Lark Ascending in 1914, but laid it aside to serve in the British army during the first world war. As with other English composers, he returned from the war with a deepened love of eternal and natural things. This post-war period yielded some of his quietest, most meditative music, including a revision of this piece. The work was dedicated to brilliant violinist Marie Hall who gave the London premiere in 1921. The lark takes flight as the music follows the program suggested by George Meredith’s poem:

He rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound,
Of many links without a break,
In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake...

For singing till his heaven fills,
‘Tis love of earth that he instils,
And ever winging up and up,
Our valley is his golden cup
And he the wine which overflows
to lift us with him as he goes...

Till lost on his aerial rings
In light, and then the fancy sings.
 

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Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921)
Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28

Legendary French composer Camille Saint-Saens wrote his Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28 for the famous Spanish violinist, Pablo de Sarasate in 1863. The piece was inspired by the violinist’s purity of style, tone and tremendous flexibility. The opening section proceeds with a slow, melancholy gait.  The ensuing rondo displays a recurring theme, contrasting lyrical sections and plenty of virtuosic fireworks.

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The Havanaise, Op. 83, another display piece for violin and orchestra, was written in 1887 for Saint-Saens’ friend and colleague, Diaz Albertini. The work is based on the Habanera, a dance form of Cuban origin.  While languid in mood, the piece sports bursts of virtuosity, concluding in the quiet spirit of the opening.

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By the age of 12, Richard Strauss (1864-1949) had shown that he was well equipped to write for the orchestra; at 21 he was hailed as a successor to the greats of romanticism. Throughout his youth, the accomplished pianist and violinist had written a number of chamber pieces, but the Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 18 (1887) was to be his last contribution to this genre. While the overall form of the piece is that of a sonata, the resulting work shows where his heart was musically–immersed in the world of the orchestra, both as a conductor and composer. The piano part has the force and demands of a concerto; the violin that of the full string section of an orchestra. Listen for heroic, fanfare-like themes alternating with moments of repose in the other movements. The middle movement, originally published as a stand-alone work, is a song without words, full of simplicity and grace.

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Program notes by Linda Mack. Copyright 1999.
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