Emanuel Ax, Piano
Leonidas Kavakos, Violin
Yo-Yo Ma, Cello
To mark the centenary of Isaac Stern's birth, a present-day dream team—Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma—pays tribute to the legendary violinist and the ensembles he anchored, which included pianist Eugene Istomin and cellist Leonard Rose. This all-Beethoven program features an otherworldly cello sonata from the composer’s late period, a gentle violin sonata dedicated to his patron Archduke Rudolf, and an intense trio that helped redefine contemporary notions of chamber music.
Part of: Beethoven Celebration
Please note that if you purchase stage seating, please arrive one hour before concert time.
There is a limit of 8 tickets per household. Additional orders exceeding the ticket limit may be cancelled without notice. This includes orders associated with the same name, email address, billing address, credit card number and/or other information.
Emanuel Ax is also performing October 15, March 6, March 8, and May 14.
Leonidas Kavakos is also performing October 26, March 6, and March 8.
Performers
Emanuel Ax, Piano
Leonidas Kavakos, Violin
Yo-Yo Ma, Cello
Program
BEETHOVEN Seven Variations on “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen” after Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Wo0 46
BEETHOVEN Cello Sonata No. 4 in C Major
BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata No. 10 in G Major
BEETHOVEN Piano Trio in C Minor, Op. 1, No. 3
Encore:
SCHUBERT Andante un poco mosso from Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat Major, D. 898
Event Duration
The printed program will last approximately two hours, including one 20-minute intermission.Lead support for the Beethoven Celebration is provided by The Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund.
Public support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.
In honor of the centenary of his birth, Carnegie Hall’s 2019–2020 season is dedicated to the memory of Isaac Stern in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to Carnegie Hall, arts advocacy, and the field of music.
At a Glance
BEETHOVEN Seven Variations on “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen” after Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, WoO 46
Written a mere decade after Mozart’s untimely death, this lighthearted work—the last of three sets of variations for cello and piano that Beethoven composed early in his career—is based on Pamina and Papageno’s chastely lyrical duet from the first act of Die Zauberflöte.
BEETHOVEN Cello Sonata No. 4 in C Major, Op. 102, No. 1
Unlike Beethoven’s 10 violin sonatas, all but one of which were written between 1797 and 1803, the five cello sonatas are spread out over nearly two decades. The boldly dramatic Op. 102 sonatas, written in 1815, push the language of Viennese Classicism toward its limits.
BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata No. 10 in G Major, Op. 96
Although Beethoven made his reputation as a virtuoso pianist in the 1790s, he learned to play the violin as a child and remained keenly interested in the technical innovations introduced by such violinists as Rodolphe Kreutzer and Pierre Rode. It was with Rode’s tasteful virtuosity in mind that Beethoven wrote his last violin sonata, Op. 96 in G Major, in 1812 after a hiatus of nearly a decade.
BEETHOVEN Piano Trio in C Minor, Op. 1, No. 3
An offshoot of the Baroque trio sonata, the piano trio genre was still in its infancy when Beethoven penned his first renditions in the early 1790s. The three Op. 1 trios—of which the last is decidedly the most adventurous—were designed both to showcase the composer’s own virtuosity on the piano, and to experiment with musical forms and techniques that would bear fruit in other genres.
Bios
Emanuel Ax
Born in Lvov, Poland, Emanuel Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy. He made his New York debut in the Young Concert Artists Series and in 1974 won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv. Mr. Ax won the Michaels Award of the Young Concert Artists in 1975, followed four years later by the Avery Fisher Prize.
Highlights of the 2019–2020 season include a tour of European summer festivals with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and longtime collaborative partner Bernard Haitink, a tour of Asia with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle, US concerts with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Lahav Shani, and three concerts with Leonidas Kavakos and Yo-Yo Ma. Further participation in Carnegie Hall’s Beethoven Celebration will culminate in a solo recital in May, which is preceded by recitals in Madison, Santa Barbara, Orange County, Washington, Las Vegas, and Colorado Springs. Mr. Ax performs with orchestras in Houston, Baltimore, Atlanta, San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Montreal, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis. In Europe and abroad, he can be heard with orchestras in London, Frankfurt, Berlin, Rome, Zurich, Rotterdam, and Tel Aviv.
Mr. Ax has been an exclusive Sony Classical recording artist since 1987. One of his most recent recording features Brahms’s piano trios with Mr. Kavakos and Mr. Ma. He has received Grammy Awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn’s piano sonatas, and made a series of Grammy-winning recordings of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano with Mr. Ma. In the 2004–2005 season, Mr. Ax contributed to an International Emmy Award–winning BBC documentary commemorating the Holocaust, which aired on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. His recording Variations received the ECHO Klassik award for Solo Recording of the Year in 2013.
Mr. Ax is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and holds honorary doctorate degrees in music from Skidmore College, Yale University, and Columbia University. For more information, visit emanuelax.com.
Leonidas Kavakos
Leonidas Kavakos is recognized as a violinist and artist of rare quality, known for his virtuosity, musicianship, and integrity of his playing. By age 21, he had won three major competitions: the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition (1985), Paganini Competition (1988), and Naumburg International Violin Competition (1988). This success led to his recording Sibelius’s Violin Concerto—the first recording of this work in history—which won the Gramophone Concerto of the Year Award in 1991. Mr. Kavakos was awarded the Gramophone Artist of the Year Award in 2014, and was the 2017 winner of Denmark’s Léonie Sonning Music Prize.
Highlights of Mr. Kavakos’s 2019–2020 season include a tour with Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma performing Beethoven trios; solo performances with the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, and Montreal; and appearances with the Munich Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in Boston. In Europe, he performs with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Mariinsky Orchestra, and Orchestre de Paris, among others. He performs in Asia with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan.
Mr. Kavakos has developed close relationships with many of the world’s leading orchestras; more recently, he has also built a strong profile as a conductor. This season, he conducts the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Czech Philharmonic, and RAI National Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Kavakos has an exclusive contract with Sony Classical, for whom he has recorded Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, Mozart’s violin concertos (play-conducting with Camerata Salzburg), and Brahms’s trios with Mr. Ma and Mr. Ax. In October 2019, he released a recording of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, play-conducting with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Upcoming recording projects include J. S. Bach’s complete solo sonatas and partitas.
Mr. Kavakos plays the “Willemotte” Stradivarius violin of 1734.
Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma’s multifaceted career is a testament to his enduring belief in culture’s power to generate trust and understanding. Whether performing new or familiar works from the cello repertoire, collaborating with communities and institutions to explore culture’s social impact, or delving into unexpected musical forms, Mr. Ma strives to foster connections that stimulate our imagination and reinforce our humanity.
With partners from around the world and across disciplines, he creates programs that stretch the boundaries of genre and tradition to explore music-making not only as a means to share and express meaning, but also as a model for the cultural collaboration he considers essential to a strong society. It was this belief that inspired Mr. Ma to establish Silkroad, a collective of artists from around the world who create music that engages their many traditions.
In August 2018, Mr. Ma began a new journey, setting out to perform J. S. Bach’s six suites for solo cello in one sitting in 36 locations around the world: iconic venues that encompass our cultural heritage, creativity, and the challenges of peace and understanding that will shape our future. Each concert is an example of culture’s power to create moments of shared recognition, as well as an invitation to a larger conversation about culture, society, and the themes that connect us all.