BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY OF NORTHERN IRELAND 1959-1960 SIXTH RECITAL under the auspices of THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST PINA CARMIRELLI Violin PIER NARCISO MASI Pianoforte SIR WILLIAM WHITLA HALL Queen's University, Belfast FRIDAY, 12th FEBRUARY at 7.45 p.m.

Sonata in A Major, Op. 1000 Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Allegro amabile.ge Andante tranquillo vivace Allegretto grazioso (quasi andante) (Written in 1886). It has been well said that the word amabile applies not merely to the first movement, but to the whole of this tender and endearing work, which Brahms seems to have written in a mood of benign exaltation. The resemblance of the opening phrase of the first movement to that of the Prize Song of Wagner's Meistersinger once caused tongues to wag, but is not likely to bother us. The second movement has a contrasting scherzo for the middle section, and the finale is a rondo in slow time. Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano Bela Bartók (1881-1945) Molto moderato Allegretto Bartók wrote two violin and piano sonatas in 1921 and 1923 respectively for Jelly d'Aranyi, the grand-niece of Joachim; senior members of this Society will remember several of her appearances in Belfast about that time and later. She gave the first per- formances of both in London in the years of their composition. The second sonata together with the third string quartet represents Bartók at his most uncompromising, determined to pursue the logic of his musical thought to the end (many would say the bitter end), regardless of the amenities. The third quartet is in one movement, of three parts, and this sonata is in conception a one movement work also. The first part is a rhapsody in parlando rubato style, the second in tempo giusto, a complex and intricate rhythmic system, without, as one would expect, direct reference to the folk-song idiom that often plays so large a part in his writing. For practically the whole of the work violin and piano pursue entirely independent courses. They share no thematic material together; when one instrument approaches some tonality to which hopefully the name of a key may be attached, we need not be surprised if the other is not remotely concerned with it; and only players possessed of a resolute sense of rhythm could keep their heads and build the disparate motions into a whole. Bartók continued with his quartet writing to produce a body of work of fundamental significance in modern music, but he left the two violin and piano sonatas without successors, and, so individual is their style, without imitators. INTERVAL

Sonata in A major, Op. 47 Adagio sostenuto presto Andante con variazioni Finale Presto Beethoven wrote this sonata in 1803, the year of the Eroica Symphony, for the mulatto violinist George Bridgetower (1779- 1860), whom he had met in Vienna. He was a virtuoso player of great accomplishment and must have been a remarkable sight- reader for he had not seen his part before the first performance at which Beethoven seems to have improvised much of the piano- forte part. After a quarrel with him, however, the work was dedicated to Rodolphe Kreutzer (1776-1831), a French violinist and composer. From the opening adagio, given out by the violin, to the end of the first movement, the emotional and technical grandeur of the music shows plainly the hand of the composer of the Eroica. The variations of the slow movement explore the virtuoso possibilities of the two instruments to the full. The finale was originally intended for another violin sonata in A (Op. 30); musically it does not live up to the other two movements, but its brilliant excitement brings the work to an end with magnificent effect. NEXT CONCERTS: Friday, March 4th: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) QUINTETTO CHIGIANO Quintet in D minor Quintet Quintet Saturday, March 19th: SMETANA QUARTET Quartet in D minor, K. 421 Quartet No. 2 Quartet No. 1 in E minor Boccherini Shostakovich Schumann Mozart Janacek Smetana

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