Violin Recital: Frank Huang

Description

Violin Fantasies Frank HuangSchubert Ernst Schoenberg WaxmanFranz Schubert wrote his Fantasy in C major, D.934,relatively late in his short career. The son of a Vienna schoolmaster, he hadserved as a chorister in the Imperial Chapel, left after his voice had brokento qualify himself as a schoolteacher, and thereafter spent much of his time inthe company of like-minded friends. Prolific, particularly in his compositionof songs, he had begun to achieve some public success by the time of his death,with the first official concert devoted to his music given in 1828 and growinginterest from music publishers. The Fantasy was written towards the end of 1827for Josef Slavik, one of the first great Czech violin virtuosi, who died inBudapest in 1833 at the age of 27. Slavik gave the first performance of thework in January 1828 with Carl Maria von Bocklet, when the demands it made onthe audience persuaded some, including critics, to leave before the end, inspite of a virtuoso element in the writing that was calculated to appeal tocontemporary taste. The work is in four sections, marked respectively Andantemolto, Allegretto, Andantino and Allegro, before moving to a reminiscentAllegretto and a final Presto, with a key pattern that moves from C major to Aminor and A major, and then, in the third section, to A flat major, a keyrecalled after a return to C major, to which the final Presto returns.  The violin first enters above thetremoli of the piano, both suggesting, as so often, a song of serenity andpassing sadness. A violin melody of another kind opens the A minor Allegrettosection, violin and piano taking turns with the melody. Moving into A major,the music becomes rapider, hinting often at Austrian popular musicaltraditions, before the A minor theme returns. There are shifts of key as apreparation for the Andantino, with three variations on the song Sei mirgegr??sst, the heart of the work. The fourth version of the theme ends with acadenza-like passage for the violin, followed by a brief return of the opening,before the cheerful Allegro, its violin tremoli leading to a moment oftranquillity in the mood of the song and variations. The respite isshort-lived, capped soon by a final virtuoso Presto.The violinist and composer Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst was bornin Brno in 1814 and after early study in his native city entered the ViennaConservatory in 1825 as a pupil of Bohm and of Seyfried. He heard Paganini inVienna three years later and soon abandoned his studies, after disciplinaryaction against him for unauthorised absence. Setting out on a concert tour, hemade his way to Paris, where he was able to hear more of Paganini, whoseunpublished compositions he played by ear, in 1837 anticipating Paganini'sarrival in Marseille by giving his own concert there. He continued to appearthroughout Europe until about 1857, when he turned his attention rather tochamber music, collaborating from 1859 with Joachim, Wieniawski and Piatti inthe Beethoven Quartet Society.