Ravel’s one-movement Sonata in A minor, otherwise known as Sonata Posthume, was his youthful student work composed in 1897. Compared to Ravel’s popular and often played Violin Sonata in G Major, composed later in the 1920s, his Sonata Posthume is seldom heard today and was only rediscovered long after his death, first published as late as 1975. It is lush, post-Romantic work, replete with impressionistic, cascading piano textures and soaring violin melodies. While the Sonata follows more or less a typical structural design of a sonata-allegro form, it occupies a unique, fantasy-like sound world of its own, with bold coloristic effects and atmospheric harmonies that pay homage to Cesar Frank and Gabriel Fauré, the latter being Ravel’s great mentor and lifetime friend.

Fauré, who was Ravel’s teacher and a pupil of Saint-Saens, is considered one of the foremost French composers of his generation whose lyrical and refined musical style had a great impact on many 20^th-century composers. His Sonata in A Major for violin and piano, op. 13 certainly exemplifies one of his early masterworks. It was composed in 1876 and was dedicated to the violinist Paul Viardot who premiered the work in Paris with Faure at the piano in 1877. The Viardots were a well-renowned musical family and Paul Viardot’s sister, Marianne, was even briefly engaged to Fauré. The Sonata is cast in four flowing and elegant movements. The first movement, Allegro molto, unfolds with a surging sweep of lyrical lines reminiscent of Schumann’s quintessentially poetic style, which gracefully interlace the movement throughout with a compelling forward momentum. In contrast to the joyful and extraverted Allegro molto, the tender second movement, Andante, marked pp, is cast in melancholy D-minor tonality and is quite understated and grave in character. The sorrowful violin melody soars above the haunting syncopated chords heard in the piano part in a somber dialogue, conveying a wistful and shadowy tone to the movement as a whole. The playful Scherzo that follows is full of French wit and charm. Marked Allegro vivo, it is light, fast, and whimsical in character in its outer sections with a more ruminative and impassioned F-sharp minor middle section. This playful scherzo style, as originally coined by Felix Mendelssohn, influenced later French scherzo movements by Saint-Saens, Ravel, and Debussy. The highly emotive and lyrical finale, Allegro quasi presto, concludes the sonata on a bold and brilliant note with a rapturous A-Major flourish.

Similar to the preceding works by Ravel and Faure, Olivier Messiaen’s Théme et variations delights in its wide-ranging coloristic harmonies, atmospheric sonorities, as well as complex, innovative rhythms, dense chordal textures, and spiritual overtones. Composed in 1932, this ten-minute work was written as a wedding present for Messiaen’s first wife, the violinist Claire Delbos, whom he married and with whom he premiered the work that same year. The Theme, marked Modéré, presents a poignant, lyrical theme in the violin part accompanied by slow, mysterious-sounding chords in the piano part, concluding with a hushed, unresolved chord. Variation 1, Modéré (berceur), begins with a gentle, lullaby-like, chromatically enriched melody in the piano solo later echoed by the violin. Toward the middle section, the chords grow in dynamic intensity and lush texture before vanishing into the distance. The livelier Variation 2, Modéré, un peu vif, reinvents the theme in a more grotesque guise, with piano’s opening playful staccato melody later imitatively bounced back and forth between the two players, gradually dying off into a distance. Variation 3, Modéré, avec éclat, is pompous and bold in character, with thick piano texture and rapidly shifting time signatures. It leads attacca into the impassioned and angst-filled Variation 4, Vif et passioné, toccata-like in style with its ongoing perpetual motion. After several energetic waves of crescendo that culminate with a resounding violin trill over the piano tremolo, marked fff, the theme makes a transcendent, almost spiritual comeback in Variation 5, Trés Lent, in piercing ffff dynamic and high and bright register before it gradually subsides in emotional intensity, accompanied by a dynamic drop to a ppp at the conclusion of this colorful and adventurous musical journey.

Camille Saint-Saëns, an important forerunner of Ravel and a teacher of Fauré, who was his favorite pupil and later his closest friend, composed in neo-Classical French style, marked by aristocratic refinement, brilliance, and charm. We find these signature traits in his Sonata no. 1 in D minor for violin and piano, op. 75 – a riveting and virtuosic staple of the Romantic French violin-piano repertoire, composed in 1885. The sonata boasts a large-scale, Beethovenian design, cast in four movements.  The huge opening movement, Allegro agitato, begins with a gripping first subject in D-minor, filled with great inward tension, and stated in stark unison by both players. The second subject, on the contrary, is more relaxed and lyrical in tone, with cascading arpeggiated sonorities, recast in relative F-Major, marked dolce espressivo. Following a fugato-like, contrapuntal development, the angst-filled opening music of the first subject returns, this time with a sinister tremolo in the piano part. The relaxed second subject returns at the end of the movement as a transitional bridge that segues into the Adagio, a dreamy and expressive second movement. The Allegretto moderato that follows is a sparkling Scherzo movement full of French grace and charm, reminiscent in its light, transparent, and whimsical style to that of Mendelssohn’s fairy-like scherzo movements. As the scherzo comes to a close, a chorale-like progression in the piano part leads attacca into the virtuosic tour de force finale, Allegro molto, set in sweeping perpetual motion that drives the work to its exhilarating, fff, D-Major ending.

- Program Notes by Dr. Yelena Grinberg

Beethoven’s Variations in E-flat Major on the theme “Bei Mannern, welche Liebe fuhlen” from Mozart’s opera Magic Flute, WoO 46 (1801) followed the two earlier sets of variations – the Handelian, G-Major set of 1796 and the Mozart-inspired, F-Major set of 1798. This time around, Beethoven took up yet another folk-like, popular aria from Mozart’s Singspiel opera The Magic Flute and imaginatively recast it into seven variations, which reveal a creative marriage of Mozartean playful wit and elegance and Beethovenian humor and mischief. The theme, Allegretto, is preceded by an introductory E-flat Major chord, marked forte, held over the fermata. This grand opening gesture foretells a very similar opening of the “Eroica” Variations composed just a year later, in 1802, which are, coincidentally, also cast in E-flat Major – a tonality associated with Beethoven’s bold, heroic, and grandiose works, such as his Eroica Symphony and the Emperor Concerto. The gentle, dancelike theme in 6/8 meter that follows this opening chord, marked piano, is then followed by seven contrasting variations. The first variation immediately enlivens the theme with zesty accents, dynamic staccato texture, and imitative counterpoint exchanged between the two players. The second variation underscores the playful aspect of the theme with rapid scalar passages, marked staccato, in a humorous, opera buffa style. The Pastorale-like, third variation takes on a more introverted and lyrical character, marked piano dolce. The fourth, chromatically embellished variation makes a sudden expressive switch to E-flat Minor – a very remote, dark, and mysterious tonality, quite rare for Beethoven’s time. The mournful Minore dissipates with the return of Maggiore in the fifth variation. This exuberant and sprightly variation foreshadows Mendelssohn’s scherzando style with its playful and light staccato texture. The sixth variation, marked Adagio and dolce, is lyrical and cantabile in character, with its bel canto, florid melodic writing exchanged in a love duet between the two players, which segues, attaca subito, into the final, seventh variation, marked Allegro ma non troppo. The gentle dance-like character of the initial theme makes a cyclic return here in a playful vein, followed by a sudden unexpected detour to a fiery, Beethovenian C-Minor Coda. The stormy pathos of the Coda quickly vanishes into the distance as the lighthearted music in E-flat Major home key makes a comic and heroic comeback, with a triumphant fortissimo ending.

In 1796, while on a visit to Berlin, Beethoven composed his first two sonatas for cello and piano, which became published as Opus 5. These two youthful sonatas were, in many ways, unprecedented and innovative for their democratic treatment of both players, both in terms of virtuosity and expressivity. In fact, Opus 5 emerged as the first opus of cello-piano sonatas comparable in prestige and caliber to Mozart’s violin sonatas, where the cellist is treated as an equal partner to the pianist. In fact, a number of new technical effects emerge in the cello part in these two early sonatas, such as virtuosic arpeggios, figuration patterns, tricky bowings, double-stops, challenging shifts of register, and unusual sonorities. Architecturally, both sonatas – opus 5, no. 1 in F Major and opus 5, no. 2 in G minor – begin with a slow introduction that comes to a mysterious halt at the dominant and then segues into an energetic Allegro, which is then followed by a charming Rondo finale to close each sonata.   In contrast to the more Mozartean Sonata in F Major, opus 5, no. 1, its sibling Sonata in G Minor for cello and piano, opus 5, no. 2 (1796) is more extended in form, and Beethovenian in its dramatic character. The first, lengthy G-minor movement, Allegro molto piu tosto, reveals a large-scale design and great emotional depth, and follows after the slow and long introduction, Adagio sostenuto e espressivo, with its haunting, French Overture-style dotted rhythms, arresting pauses, and constant chiaroscuro effect of light and shadow. In the Rondo – Allegro finale, the Sturm und Drang intensity of the first movement gets retransformed into a light-hearted, playful music, in the style of a contredanse, recast in G Major, with intervening lyrical and joyful episodes, shared reciprocally by both players throughout. In many ways, this charming, light, and humorous G-Major Rondo anticipates a similar type of finale as in Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto (also in G Major!), composed some ten years later.

With the two late cello-piano sonatas published as opus 102, Beethoven embarks on late-style experiments with rhetoric, structure, profound emotional expression, singing quality of melody, and Bach-inspired fugal counterpoint, as he becomes more fascinated with evocations of the celestial, sacred, and archaic. His last two cello-piano sonatas of Opus 102, both composed in 1815, certainly epitomize these late-style tendencies. In his celestial Sonata in C Major for cello and piano, op. 102, no. 1 (1815), Beethoven unfolds a lyrical melodic flow and thematic unity in the opening Andante introduction, which segues into a dramatic and tense Vivace in A minor, the main first movement. In the Romantic Adagio that follows, Beethoven revisits the formal plan of a sonata “quasi una fantasia” that brings a modified recall of the opening Andante just before the finale, as he did earlier in his Piano Sonata op. 27, no. 1. This brief, sixteen-measure Adagio is not a self-contained slow movement per se but rather a laconic, bel-canto bridge to the humorous and joyful finale, Allegro vivace, with its fugato-like development section – an idea that Beethoven exploits most fully in his Allegro Fugato finale of his next and final Sonata in D Major cello and piano, op. 102, no. 2 (1815). The D-Major Sonata is more intellectually complex and emotionally paradoxical in both its scope and construction that its C-Major counterpart. It features many detours and unpredictable surprises, paving the way for the crowning Fugal finale – one of Beethoven’s late-style, sublime endings, such as can be witnessed later in his Hammerklavier Piano Sonata, op. 106 and the Grosse Fuge, op. 133. From the very first fiery movement, Allegro con brio, the listener is confronted with even more concise thematic gestures that become continually disrupted with melodic and harmonic discontinuities. The volatile and rejoicing narrative of the first movement is counterbalanced by the lengthy, hymn-like D-minor slow movement, Adagio con molto sentimento d’affetto, full of utmost grief and pathos, with a serene and understated D-Major middle section. The even more tragic-sounding, varied reprise of the Adagio music leads attacca into the Allegro Fugato finale which, despite its thorny counterpoint and many stumbling blocks along the way – as in the case of the sudden, unexpected detour to a remote F-sharp-Major region half-way through the finale – concludes this late-style sonata and Beethoven’s whole cello-piano oeuvre on a note of triumphant affirmation and transcendence.

– Program Notes by Dr. Yelena Grinberg

Beethoven’s Variations in G Major on “See the conquering hero comes” from Judas Maccabaeaus, WoO 45, were composed in 1796 – the same year as his two cello-piano sonatas of Opus 5. It begins with a Handelian, Baroque theme, marked Allegretto, in the sunny, bucolic key of G Major. This stately theme is then followed by twelve contrasting variations. The first variation is written for piano solo while the second variation hands over the theme to the cello, with piano accompaniment set in triplets. Progressive diminution of the theme becomes evident by the third variation, which becomes recast and embellished in sixteenth notes. The fourth variation makes a sudden, expressive switch to G minor, with poignant chromaticism along its way. The cheerful G-Major home key reemerges in the fifth variation, marked dolce. The sixth variation subjects the theme to canonic imitation between the two players. The cello takes on a more active role in the seventh variation, with triplets set in perpetual motion against the chordal piano accompaniment, marked pp. Beethoven’s stormy, dramatic mood comes to the fore in the eighth, fiery G-minor variation, marked forte. The original theme’s melody, albeit more chromatically embellished, is heard in the ninth variation with the return to the G-Major mode and the tenth variation, where the melody is assigned to the cello with a forte accompaniment in the piano. The eleventh variation is recast in Adagio tempo, with an improvisational, cadenza-like piano opening. In the final, twelfth variation, a quick Allegro in 3/8 rounds off this charming set of variations on an exuberant note with a ff ending.

In the same year, 1796, while on a visit to Berlin, Beethoven also composed his first two cello-piano sonatas, which became published as Opus 5. These two youthful sonatas were, in many ways, unprecedented and ingenious for their democratic treatment of both players on both virtuosic and expressive grounds. In fact, Opus 5 emerged as first true cello-piano sonatas comparable in prestige and caliber to Mozart’s violin sonatas (Mozart, alas, never wrote any sonatas for cello and piano), where the cellist is treated as an equal partner to the pianist. In fact, a number of new technical effects emerge in the cello part in these two early sonatas, such as virtuosic arpeggios, figuration patterns, tricky bowings, double stops, challenging shifts of register, and unusual sonorities. Architecturally, both sonatas – opus 5, no. 1 in F Major and opus 5, no. 2 in G minor – begin with a slow introduction that comes to a halt at the dominant and then segues into a full-bodied Allegro, which is then followed by a charming Rondo finale to close each sonata.  In the first Sonata in F Major for cello and piano, opus 5 – the more Mozartean of the two – Beethoven achieves thematic balance between both players as Mozart already revealed in his violin-piano sonatas. That is, both players share thematic material equally in a continual, exciting musical dialogue with one another. In the Rondo, we likewise hear an ongoing, concerto-like contrast between the main theme and the intervening episodes which are shared reciprocally by both players throughout.

Cast in the same tonality and cheerful mood as Opus 5, no. 1, Beethoven’s Variations in F Major on “win Madchen oder Weibchen” form The Magic Flute, op. 66, were composed just two years later, in 1798. Inspired by Mozart’s Singspiel opera, The Magic Flute (1791), Beethoven took up the catchy, folk-like Allegretto theme and subjected it to twelve delightful variations, which reveal a creative marriage of Mozartean wit and charm and Beethovenian humor and mischief. The first variation is written for piano solo, while the second variation gives the lead to the cello part, with chromatic saturation in the piano part. The third variation gives back the spotlight to the piano with its increasing virtuosic brilliance. The fourth variation constitutes a sweet (dolce) dialogue between the two players. The fifth variation recasts the theme in dotted rhythms with imitative counterpoint. The sixth variation is a virtuosic study in broken arpeggios, while the seventh, more smooth and lyrical variation, is marked sempre pianissimo for both players alike. The eighth variation reverts to a playful, sempre staccato, texture with parallel thirds in the piano part. In the ninth variation, the theme is subjected to learned canonic imitation. The tenth and eleventh variations form a pair, both recast in doleful, F-minor mode. The tenth variation is a poignant, ornamented Adagio, while the eleventh variation, Poco Adagio, quasi Andante, is even more chromatic and expressive than its preceding counterpart with a pulsating piano accompaniment. The final, twelfth variation, Allegro, dispels the shadow of F-minor mode of the last two variations with the return, attacca subito, to F-Major and comes to an end on a surprisingly understated note, in pianissimo.

The kind of cello-piano reciprocity that can be witnessed in Opus 5 is elevated to an even more grandiose level of brilliance and virtuosity in Beethoven’s Sonata in A Major for cello and piano, op. 69, composed a decade later, in 1807/1808. This was the only cello-piano sonata written during his so-called Heroic Middle Period. Cast in four movements, Opus 69 is written on a larger scale, and is concerto-like in both its scope and sound. The first movement, Allegro ma non tango, unfolds in an extended sonata allegro form that begins with cello’s thematic solo entrance, which is then imitated by the piano with a brilliant flourish. Two contrasting themes alternate in mood and expression – heroic and lyrical, respectively. The second movement, a rather lengthy and rhythmically tense Scherzo – Allegro molto, with two identical Trios, is syncopated throughout with zesty, offbeat sf accents. A short, third movement, Adagio cantabile, which serves as a slow and expressive inner movement, acts more like a transitional bridge to the brilliant and virtuosic Finale, Adagio vivace, that propels the music to its exhilarating A-Major ending.

- Program Notes by Yelena Grinberg

Beethoven’s Sonata for cello and piano in G minor, opus 5, no. 2 belongs to the composer’s Early Period. It was written in 1796 in Berlin, and dedicated to the King of Prussia. It follows its sibling sonata, opus 5, no. 1 in F Major, albeit this time around, written on a more intellectually impressive, grand scale. It consists of just two movements. The first – one of the longest sonata movements Beethoven ever composed – begins with a slow, solemn introduction in G minor, with its austere French Overture dotted-rhythms, full of startling dynamic contrasts and mysterious rests, which segues into the main body of the work, Allegro. This energetic first movement, cast in the sonata allegro form, features two contrasting themes – the first in G minor, dramatic and full of angst, the second in relative B-flat Major, leisurely and graceful – and ends, surprisingly, in G Major. The second movement that follows is a charming, lightweight, bucolic Rondo in G Major, written in a popular style of a contre-danse, which anticipates the G-major Fourth Piano Concerto in its light-hearted and rather playful mood and its beginning on the dominant rather than the tonic.

Brahms’s Sonata no. 2 for cello and piano in F Major, op. 99, unlike Beethoven’s early opus 5, no. 2, belongs to the composer’s mature, Late Period of composition. Written in 1886, around the time of Brahms’s Sonata no. 2 for Violin and Piano, op. 100 and Piano Trio no. 3 in C minor, op. 101, it is cast in a large-scale, four-movement design. It begins on a grand note, in an almost orchestral manner with a continual tremolo in the piano part heard against sustained notes in the cello. Structured as an expansive, sonata allegro form, the first movement is technically and expressively demanding throughout for both players alike. The second movement, a poignant Adagio affetuoso, explores the remote region of the Neapolitan key, being cast in a remote and unusual F-sharp major tonality, with the cello’s delicate pizzicato melody heard against the supporting, chordal piano part. Toward the middle section, there is a moment of escalating anguish, albeit brief, dispelled with the soothing reprise of the opening music. The third movement, Allegro appassionato, exemplifies Brahmsian scherzo in the appassionato key of F minor, quite reminiscent in its angst and relentless drive to his earlier Sonatensatz in C minor for violin and piano. The contrasting F-major Trio subtly revisits the remote region of F-sharp Major before the Scherzo returns to round off the movement. Following all the great emotional drama of the preceding three movements, the Sonata rounds off on a surprisingly anticlimactic, gentle and lighthearted, note with a Rondo in F Major – similar in its jovial mood to the Rondo that concludes Beethoven’s G-minor Sonata, opus 5, no. 2 – that propels the finale to its rejoicing conclusion.

- Program Notes by Yelena Grinberg

Today, Serafim and I performed two great masterpieces for cello and piano  - Beethoven’s Sonata in G minor, op. 5, no. 2 and Brahms’s Sonata no. 2 in F Major, op. 99 – at 180 Maiden Lane to a very enthusiastic audience. Thank you to everyone who came to hear us!