fr BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY OF NORTHERN IRELAND bud ERICH GRUENBERG (violin) Sumon FOURTH RECITAL with JOANNA GRUENBERG (piano). Saturday 14 February 1981 Elmwood Hall 7.30pm stori -tokyotion wit MO bus

Sonata in G minor (Devil's Trill) Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770) Most of Tartini's life was spent in Padua where he founded a school of violin playing. His importance as a player, teacher and theorist cannot be over-valued, and his many violin concertos and sonatas are important in the establishment of the eighteenth-century sonata form. It is ironic that for so long only one work from his considerable corpus has remained in the public imagination, and that mainly because of its title and story. Published originally after Tartini's death, the sonata is said to have been in- spired by a dream in which the Devil appeared to the composer and played a beautiful violin solo to him. Apparently all that Tartini could remember on awakening was the trill which has made the final movement famous. The three-movement sonata, written between about 1730 and 1740, is not yet very far along the path to sonata form: both the violin and keyboard writing are still nearer to the melodic and figurative style of the baroque. The slow open- ing movement in binary form is a vehicle for a long orna- mented melody for the violin - also, perhaps, a memory of the Devil's solo! Rapid passage work dominates the fast middle movement. The finale alternated three short state- ments of a slow declamatory passage with three longer and faster virtuoso violin sections, all developing at each appearance. Partita in D minor (BWV 1004) J.S. Bach (1685-1750) Allemande Courante Sarabande - Gigue Chaconne The six sonatas for unaccompanied violin and the six suites for unaccompanied cello were written during Bach's sojurn as Kapellmeister and director of chamber music to the Prince of Anhalt-Cöthen. They remain severe tests for the string player and supreme examples of the polyphonic art, wonderfully concentrated by the fact that only one instru- mental line is involved. The violin set consists of three church sonatas and and three chamber sonatas or partitas. This partita consists

of the four conventional suite movements and a chaconne. A smoothly-flowing allemande is followed by a quick courante mainly in triplets, an eloquent, slow sarabande and a delightful gigue. The famous chaconne which con- cludes the partita is built on a constantly repeated bass of D, D, C sharp, D, B flat, G, A, occasionally simplified,, sometimes concealed in the texture, and, in the middle major section, subtly varied. Above its strict design is woven an amazing filigree of improvisatory textures. sal of *************** INTERVAL *************** Sonata for violin and piano Allegro vivo Intermède (fantasque st léger) Finale (très animé) Claude Debussy (1862-1918) The violin sonata was the third of a planned six sonatas "for divers instruments" of which the last three were never written. This work was completed early in 1917; Debussy himself was the pianist at its premiere. All commentators refer to these late works as being i in a neo-classic style, and Debussy invites this by his title and published comments. Certainly this sonata is less impressionistic than much of his music: there is a clear melodic and harmonic design strongly diatonic in texture. Formally, however, the structure is so condensed that only close analysis reveals the many melodic and harmonic intervallic relationships. The first audiences for Debussy's late works felt uncomfortable in his new purity; the modern listener will find them forward-looking rather than backward, and curiously appealing.

The material of the first movement is all found in the opening section, but is considerably altered throughout. A middle section (a sort of development) moves magically from G minor to E major, and repeats its line in C and then E flat minor with a Chopin-like enharmonic change back to the home key of G minor for a free recapitulation and increasingly impassioned coda. A whimsical middle movement is all stops and starts and is reminiscent of such pieces as Golliwogg's Cakewalk. Here too, there are moments of great passion and beauty. The ambivalent cadence seems to decide that the movement has been heading for C major, but the music slyly continues downward to settle on G. It The finale begins with an impressionistic wash of colour, through which is heard a reference to the first movement theme, but explodes into a kind of perpetuum mobile interrupted by some still, faraway moments. all becomes more menacing and disturbed, culminating in high trills for the violin and a sudden unconvincing cadence in G major. One is reminded that the work was written in the darkest days of World War I. Four Romantic Pieces, Op.75 1. Allegro moderato 2. Allegro maestoso 3. Allegro appassionato 4. Larghetto Antonin Dvorak (othing) (1841-1904) Most of Dvorak's considerable amount of chamber music was written for immediate performance and often for players of Dvorak's own aquaintance. In 1887, he composed the Terzetto, Op.74, for two violins and viola for a chemistry student living in the same lodgings as Dvorak to play with his violin teacher and the composer himself on the viola.

It seems, however, that the violin parts we re beyond the young musician, and Dvorak set about sketching some simpler pieces for the same combination. They were completed and published in the present form, which suited the musical material better. As so often in Dvorak's work, Bohemian spirit colours the musical language of the nineteenth-century mainstream. Tzigane Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Ravel became particularly interested in writing for the violin during the composition of his Violin Sonata which took from 1923 1927. The unashamedly virtuosic Tzigane was written in 1924 for the Hungarian violinist Jelly d'Aranyi, who gave the first performance in London after only three days' study of the work. It is a clever pastiche of Hungarian gypsy style as filtered through café society and the dance band. Its challenging tech- nical problems were set after a study of Paganini's Caprices as well as the tzigane sound. 201 A long and brilliant solo cadenza is followed by a series of fast and increasingly difficult variations. on a couple of similar themes. Programme notes by Hilary Bracefield Leovisno en T

TONIGHT'S ARTISTS Born in Vienna, Erich Gruenberg started his musical education in his native city. He continued his studies at the Jerusalem Conservatoire and came to the United Kingdom at the age of 22 gaining outstanding recognition through winning the Carl Flesch International Violin Competition which launched him on an international career. Since then, he has made his home in London. Erich Gruenberg appears regularly with all leading orchestras in Britain and spends considerable time touring abroad, throughout Europe, the United States and Canada, as well as South America. He is a regular performer on London's South Bank and at the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts as well as at many European Festivals and has recorded for many Radio networks throughout the world. In addition, he has made many recordings, the most recent of which is of Bach's unaccompanied Partitas. 490006 3230 Erich Gruenberg enjoys teaching and has been invited as a guest professor to the Britten-Pears School of Advanced Musical Studies. Erich Gruenberg plays on an Antonio Stradivarius violin made in 1731. Joanna Gruenberg was born in Stockholm and is 22 years old. She has studied with Fanny Waterman, Gordon Green and at the Guildhall School of Music with James Gibb, where she was awarded the School Piano Prize. Joanna has also been under the guidance of the renowned pianist Louis Kentner. She has already made appearances at the Aldeburgh and Harrogate Festivals, and made her debut at the Royal Festival Hall in the Ernest Read concert series in 1978 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Joanna has also appeared at the Royal Albert Hall where she played the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1.

NEXT RECITAL IMOGEN COOPER (piano) Wednesday 4 March 1981 Elmwood Hall 7.30pm We would like to remind our members once again that the ALIRIO DIAZ guitar recital has been transferred to FRIDAY 27 MARCH, and will not be taking place as advertised on Saturday 26 March. His programme will include music from Spain, Italy and Venezuela.

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