THE BELFAST MUSIC SOCIETY in association with THE ARTS COUNCIL FOR NORTHERN IRELAND and THE MUSIC DEPARTMENT, QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY SOPHIE LANGDON (violin) SHELAGH SUTHERLAND (piano) Sunday 9 March 1986 3.30 p.m. Elmwood Hall

Violin Sonata the Elegiac Variation Rhapsody no. 1 PROGRAMME Sonata in F, Op. 24 'Spring' L. Janáček P. Hammond B. Bartók L. van Beethoven

Violin Sonata 1 Con moto - Adagio - Con moto Ballade: Con moto Allegretto Adagio L. Janáček (1854-1928) The Czech composer Leos Janáček only published two works that he titled 'sonata'; the powerful two-movement Piano Sonata of 1905, and the Violin Sonata, actually the third work he composed in this form; the two earlier ones are lost. He composed it in 1914, but revised it considerably before publication in 1921. The work shows all the characteristics of Janáček's very individual mature style - frequent changes of mood, tiny fragments of material alternating with more lyrical passages that are often extremely passionate, trills and tremolandos, grey troubled clouds that suddenly part to reveal beautifully clear folksong-like melodies. All these fingerprints are clearly present in the outer movements of the Violin Sonata. The second movement is the most consistently lyrical of the four, but even here there is a more disturbed central section. The third movement is a sort of scherzo, but the innocence of the simple four bar folksong-like theme is destroyed by the menacing trills and strange downward glissandos that accompany it. In the finale, the central lyrical theme is particularly beautiful, but its appearance is all too brief, its attempts to resurface fail, and the music gradually subsides to end in tiny disturbed wisps of sound. THI

Elegiac Variation 2 P. Hammond (b. 1951) Philip Hammond's Elegiac Variation was written for Sophie Langdon and was commissioned with funds provided by the South East Arts Association. "All that is left to one who grieves Is convalescence. No change of heart or spiritual Conversion, for the heart has changed And the soul has been converted To a thing that sees How much it costs to lose a friend it loved" Those lines from the ancient Sumerian epic poem 'Gilgamesh' (translated by Herbert Mason) can be taken as the literary starting-point of the Elegiac Variation. Personally, it is an exorcism of ghosts from the past. The piece is cast in a ternary structure, the central section of which provides not only the musical apex of the work but also its emotional core. Only in this central section do the two instruments come together as a cohesive entity; in the two flanking sections there is almost a sense of estrangement and separation between them. All the basic musical material of the piece is derived from the opening violin statement and the corresponding reply on the piano. INTERVAL (Note by Philip Hammond)

Rhapsody no. 1 3 Moderato Allegretto moderato-Allegro B. Bartók (1881-1945) The folk music of his native Hungary was a major influence on Bartók's music from the early years of this century when he first started to collect and transcribe the rapidly vanishing repertoire of country singers and dancers. Even in his most complex music from the 1920's and 1930's, melody, harmony, rhythm and texture are all influenced by the folk tradition, even if this influence is not immediately obvious; folk music was by this time totally absorbed into his musical thought. Davo Apart from the more esoteric use of the folk idiom in large scale works, Bartók continued right through his composing career to write simpler pieces in which the folk influence is quite obvious. Outside of the straightforward arrangements of folk music (for example the well known set of Rumanian folk dances for piano or string orchestra of 1915), the most blatantly Hungarian of all his works is this First Rhapsody, written in 1928. The Hungarian character is even more underlined in the version with orchestral accompaniment, with its prominent part for the dulcimer-like cimbalom, but the present piano version (Bartók also made a version for cello and piano) is still unmistakably a typically Hungarian dance, both in sound (with the violinist performing the duties of the village fiddler), and in the characteristic two-part form - a lassú (slow) section introducing the faster friss part. adale s (1081)

4 E Es Violin Sonata no. 5 in F, Op. 24 'Spring' Bords Allegro Adagio molto espressivo Scherzo: Allegro molto Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo L. van Beethoven (1770-1827) Whoever it was that gave this sonata the nickname 'Spring', it is particularly appropriate for one of Beethoven's most immediately accessible compositions. Each one of the sonata's four movements contains much for performers and listeners alike to enjoy. The first movement opens with one of Beethoven's best themes - and one that, as we can see from his sketchbooks, gave him a considerable amount of trouble, as he gradually moulded his initial rather four-square sketches into the memorable finished product. The contrasting second subject shows how a theme can be constructed out of the simplest and seemingly most unpromising material in this case a repeated G followed by the descending notes of a dominant 7th chord. Often this falling passage is mirrored by a rising passage in the other part. The second movement is a Romance, but there is nothing too profound, and again there are many felicitous touches, including a couple of rather curious bars of a rather ungainly waltz, and, just before the end, the interesting effect of a simultaneous tremolando in both violin and piano parts. at t The classical sonata's third movement in the form of a stately minuet - was, at the time this sonata was written (1801), in the process of metamorphosis into the much faster and usually light-hearted scherzo. The present scherzo (the word means 'joke') must be the shortest movement Beethoven ever wrote seventy-odd seconds of Webernesque brevity, but with a wit entirely lacking in Webern's brief

5 compositions - note especially the passage where the violinist and the pianist seem to have trouble in keeping together. The finale continues in the same bright springlike vein, and even when the music briefly turns to the minor key, constant triplets keep the momentum going. The music only pauses briefly for a breath towards the end, before setting off again to its fortissimo conclusion. Programme notes by Alec Macdonald * * * * * *

TONIGHT'S ARTISTS sjon SOPHIE LANGDON was born in Hertfordshire in 1958 and studied the violin in London, New York and Philadelphia. She became a member of the Trio Zingara, but came to public notice as a soloist at the 1983 Spitalfields Festival with the performance of the Kurt Weill Concerto. Since then her career has blossomed rapidly, with numerous performances in Britain, North America and Europe. She has also made a number of broadcasts for the B.B.C. SHELAGH SUTHERLAND trained and qualified as a pianist, violinist and singer, and is known both as a soloist and chember musician. She has been specialising in Czech piano music, particularly that of Janáček, and has made broadcasts for B.B.C. Radio 3. She has wide concert experience in chember music, performing regularly on the South Bank and other major London concert halls, notably with the Lontano ensemble. *********** Contrasts - Bartók NEXT RECITAL Saturday 26 April 1986, Elmwood Hall, 7.30 p.m. NOBUKO IMAI (viola), JANET HILTON (clarinet), ANTHONY GOLDSTONE (piano) Trio in E flat major, K498 Mozart Viola Sonata - Shostakovich ******