Maxim Vengerov, Violin
Polina Osetinskaya, Piano
Violinist Maxim Vengerov is one of the world’s most sought-after musicians of the past 40-plus years. Tonight, he adds two more pieces to the stunning list of works he’s performed on our stages, and he returns to an all-time favorite. Hear Shostakovich’s volatile Violin Sonata, a complex and forceful work that offers incredible interpretive possibilities; Schubert’s Violin Sonata in G Minor (a refreshingly digestible “sonatina,” as it was posthumously labeled); and Brahms’s impassioned Violin Sonata No. 3.
Part of: Perspectives: Maxim Vengerov
Performers
Maxim Vengerov, Violin
Polina Osetinskaya, Piano
Program
SCHUBERT Violin Sonata in G Minor
SHOSTAKOVICH Violin Sonata
BRAHMS Violin Sonata No. 3
Encores:
BRAHMS Hungarian Dance No. 17 in F-sharp Minor (arr. Kreisler)
TCHAIKOVSKY Mélodie in E-flat Major, Op. 42, No. 3
PROKOFIEV March from The Love for Three Oranges
KREISLER Miniature Viennese March
FAURÉ "Après un rêve," Op. 7, No. 1
Event Duration
The printed program will last approximately two hours, including one 20-minute intermission.At a Glance
SCHUBERT Violin Sonata in G Minor, D. 408
This richly melodious four-movement sonata, originally marketed as a duo “for piano with violin accompaniment,” is one of a series of works that the teenage Schubert composed for his older brother Ferdinand, an amateur violinist, in 1816. It was probably first performed at one of the musical soirées that were held regularly in the family home in Vienna.
SHOSTAKOVICH Violin Sonata, Op. 134
Composed in 1968, Shostakovich’s Violin Sonata has much in common with his youthful, high-spirited Cello Sonata and the elegiac Viola Sonata. At the same time, the score features two notable distinctive elements: It marks Shostakovich’s first use of 12-note melodies and his last use of the Baroque passacaglia form. In its marriage of old and new, the work illustrates Shostakovich’s advice to his fellow musicians: “By building bridges into the future, we must take care not to burn the bridges connecting today’s culture to its immortal past.”
BRAHMS Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 108
Brahms was in his mid-50s when he wrote the last of his three violin sonatas. Dark and impassioned, the music may allude to the platonic love affair Brahms had long carried on with pianist-composer Clara Schumann after her husband, Robert, passed away.