THE BELFAST MUSIC SOCIETY in association with THE ARTS COUNCIL OF NORTHERN IRELAND and THE MUSIC DEPARTMENT, QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY presents FELIX SCHMIDT (Cello) ANNETTE COLE (Piano) Saturday 30 January 1988 7.30 pm Elmwood Hall

7 Variations on 'Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen' 1 Ludwig van Beethoven Variations on themes from familiar operas were very popular in the early 19th century, and vast numbers were written, especially by composers who are now merely names in history books. But the great composers were not adverse to earning a few pounds in turning their hands to such trifles, and Beethoven was no exception. He wrote a number of sets of variations for various chamber groupings, including three for cello and piano: on the famous Judas Maccabaeus theme by Handel, and on two arias from Mozart's 'Magic Flute'. These were a set of 12 on 'Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen' (1796), and the present set of 7 on 'Bei Männern...', composed in 1801, and dedicated to Johann Georg von Browne. Allegro moderato Adagio Allegretto There is nothing very profound about these variations; all but one are in the theme's key of E flat (the fourth is in the tonic minor), and all but one share the theme's 6/8 time-signature. The 6th variation, an Adagio in 4/4, leads directly into the final Allegro ma non troppo. • Eternity Sonata in a minor, D 821 (Arpeggione) Franz Schubert 1797-1828 kalk Schubert spent the summer of 1824 in Zseliz, as music master to the Esterhazy family. They were productive months; among the pieces he composed there was the magnificent Grand Duo for piano duet, but he was lonely - "I often long damnably for Vienna," he wrote, "in spite of the certain attractive star". (The 'star' he was referring to was 19 year old Caroline Esterhazy!) rate, he returned to Vienna in September "well and divinely frivolous, rejuvenated by delight and pain and a At any

2 pleasant life", and this is reflected in the sonata he now composed for Vincenz Schuster, the best known exponent of the Arpeggione or 'Guitar d'armour', just recently invented by one J Staufer of Vienna. This was of cello size, and bowed like a cello, but was fretted and tuned like a six string guitar. A number of compositions were written for this short-lived hybrid, including at least one concerto, but Schubert's is the only work still to be performed, generally in a transcription for cello (though it has been performed and recorded on the instrument for which it was written). If not one of its composer's most profound compositions it is certainly one of the most attractive. The second movement, a singing Adagio in E major, leads directly into the A major finale, which includes a wonderfully jaunty contrasting theme in the minor. Vocalise, Op. 34 no. 14 Oriental Dance, Op. 2 no. 2 ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ INTERVAL ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ Sergei Rachmaninov 1873-1943 In 1891, about the time of the first version of the first piano concerto, but before he had written any of the works by which he is well known apart from the c sharp minor prelude, Rachmaninov wrote a piano prelude in F major. The following year he transcribed it for cello and piano, composed an Oriental dance to go with it, and published the pair of pieces as his Opus 2. They were composed for his friend Brandoukov, for whom Rachmaninov wrote, nine years later, his important Sonata for the instrument. The Vocalise has become well-known in a variety of arrangements. It began life in 1912, as the 14th of a set of songs for voice and piano: the other songs in the set have words by various Russian poets, but in Vocalise the

3 soprano sings a beautiful soaring wordless melody, that, not surprisingly, lends itself readily to instrumental performance. Sonata in d minor, Op. 40 Allegro non troppo Allegro Largo Allegro Dmitri Shostakovich 1906-1975 The upheavals Shostakovich had to face in his music after the disgrace brought about by his opera Lady Macbeth in 1936 were still two years away when he composed his Cello Sonata, by far the earliest of his three works for solo stringed instrument and piano (the violin and viola sonatas date from 1968 and 1975 respectively). In 1934, Shostakovich was considered as something of an enfant terrible, having composed music that was often sarcastic and highly dissonant works such as The Age of Gold, The Bolt, the first piano concerto and, of course, Lady Macbeth, that were drawing disapproving glances from the Soviet hierarchy. Yet the Cello Sonata, like the Preludes for piano of the previous year, doesn't show much of this. idiom, except perhaps for moments in the diabolical It may be that the much scherzo and in the finale. publicised volte-face after 1936, in works such as the fifth symphony - 'A Soviet artist's reply to just criticism' as Shostakovich titled it, was not as forced on him by the events surrounding Lady Macbeth as is sometimes stated. The Cello Sonata has more in common with the fifth symphony than with the withdrawn fourth symphony of 1936, and perhaps Shostakovich's style was already moving away from that of his 'experimental' period. The sonata is basically a meditative work; a private exercise after several public 'challenges'. The emotional centre of the work is the intense Largo, a movement in arch-like form. The composer scored some of his most attractive music for the cello (at opposite ends of the

4 scale, the first cello concerto, and the Romance from the music for the film, The Gadfly), and the first movement of this sonata, with its long passionate out-pourings from the cello, is another fine example of its composer's lyrical gifts. *********** TONIGHT'S ARTISTS Alec Macdonald FELIX SCHMIDT began his musical training with the French cellist Maurice Gendron, with whom he continued to study at the Menuhin school and, later, at the Paris Conservatoire. He went on to study with William Pleeth in London and has recently worked with Rostropovich. In 1982 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Ciffra Foundation as the most promising young artist of the year. He has appeared extensively on French, Dutch, and German television and radio and has played regularly in Gstaad with Menuhin. *********** ANNETTE COLE was a pupil of the Purcell school, and has studied with Kenneth van Barthold. In 1978 she formed the Trio Zingara, with which she has won many awards. She has performed at many Festivals both in Europe and at home, including Bath, Harrogate and Cheltenham. NEXT RECITAL voz COULL STRING QUARTET Saturday 20 February 7.30 pm - Elmwood Hall The Quartet will also give a public masterclass at 10 am that day in the Harty Room.