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Midori, the Japanese-American virtuoso, arrives in San Francicso this week. She's one of the world's most prominent violinists, yet she's a little soft on style when given contemporary music to perform. Nevertheless, she often sells out concerts at Davies Symphony Hall, causing us to book tickets well in advance. Last year, she gave us only an average performance of Prokofiev's Violin Concerto #1, and this year, she will render Benjamin Britten's Violin Concerto, a very rare treat in any symphony hall! Obviously, I look forward to her performance this coming Friday, and we'll hold our breaths and trust that she will deliver the finest Britten yet.
Drugs
In October 2005, I blogged profusely regarding a series of events involving a troubled roommate at the time, which just happened to include Midori's concert that we attended together. After the Midori concert this week, I will repost and update that disappointing story, as few readers have learned of this drug-related disaster that actually wound up in court. It is a worthwhile read, however, since the unhealthy choices and egregious mistakes that the ex-roommate (and PhD student) made should be lessons learned for the rest of us.
Classical Music Lesson #1
And since I'm able to spin anything into a positive light, let me now offer you a quick lesson in classical music, which appropriately focuses on violin music! We'll listen to two different forms of violin music, from two different eras, to compare and contrast the styles of two vastly different composers.
The first excerpt is the adagio from Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 5, for violin and piano. This is referred to a chamber work, meaning that the score calls for only a few instrumentalists, or two in this case. In very easy terms, it is called a sonata mainly due to the fact that it features a piano and another instrument. You'll hear a simple and perfectly-formed romance in this movement, which is one of my favorite of Beethoven's masterpieces.
And the second excerpt is, of course, from the Britten Violin Concerto in D Minor, as performed by the violinist Ida Haendel. You'll hear the unsettling second movement, in which you'll hear both virtuosity but also insecurity. It takes a damned good violinist to open the audience up to this concerto, which was finished just days before World War II broke out. Will Midori save this eccentric work next week, or will she toss it forever into the symphonic abyss below Davies Hall? I will also be very interested to hear whether you could bear listening to the whole movement, and what you think of this idiomatic style of mid-20th century British music.
Beethoven: Violin Sonata #5 in F Major, Op. 24: Adagio
Britten: Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 15: Vivace
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