Program Description

Two masterworks of the piano-violin repertoire form the pillars of this program.  Though completed within twenty-five years of each other, when Beethoven and Schubert were each barely over 30 years of age and residing in Vienna, each work displays the unique stylistic and temperamental qualities of its composer.

The four movements of Beethoven’s familiar Sonata in C Minor, op. 30 no. 2, which opens the program, could not be more contrasting.  The first movement’s mystery and excitement are followed by a tender slow movement, a witty Scherzo, and a robust finale with a whirlwind ending.  The sublime second movement is in the richly resonant key of A-flat major, the same key Schubert chooses for the variations of his Fantasie, to be heard later in this program.

Listeners may be surprised to hear similarities between the Beethoven sonata and the next work on the program, composed in Boston 144 years later, the Sonata for Violin and Piano (1946) of Irving Fine.  With its clear articulation, buoyant motives tossed between violin and piano, and rhythmically driving, yet varied, accentual patterns, this youthful neo-classical work acknowledges a debt to Beethoven while reminding today’s listener of the composer’s mentors, Stravinsky and Copland.

Schubert’s remarkable C-major Fantasie fills the entire second half of the program.  Ever popular, exquisitely beautiful, yet an incredibly difficult tour de force for both performers, it lures us back into a more intimate world where we appreciate subtle shadings of dynamics and nuances of time. In four sections played without interruption, we are led through an ethereal four-minute opening of shimmering piano tremolos and silken violin lines, followed by a spirited minor-key section, a leisurely theme with increasingly virtuosic variations based on Schubert’s popular song “Sei mir gegrusst,” and a rousing finale.  How magical is the return of the gentle song theme just before the fireworks of the conclusion!

As Schubert’s Fantasie comes to an end, we realize that our evening, which began with the turbulent drama of Beethoven in C Minor, has concluded with the triumphant radiance of Schubert in C Major.

Program Notes

Beethoven: Sonata, op. 30 no. 2
Irving Fine: Sonata (1946)
Schubert: Fantasie, D. 934