Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897)               Sonata in G major, Nr 1, op. 78  for Violin and Piano

                                                                                     1) Vivace ma non troppo 2) Adagio 3) Allegro molto moderato

Franz Liszt (1811 – 1886)                             Petrarch’s Sonnet Nr 104  from Années de Pèlerinage Vol. 2 ( piano solo)

Cyril Scott (1879 – 1970)                               Lotusland (arr. Fritz Kreisler)

Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)             Daisies, Op 38, Nr 3 (arr. Fritz Kreisler)

Manuel de Falla (1876 – 1946)                    Danse Espagnole (from La vida breve), (trans. Fritz Kreisler)

Isaac Albeniz (1860 – 1909)                        Sevilla from Suite Española, op 47 , (trans. Jascha Heifitz)

 Mike Mower   (b. 1958)                                 Mes-Merengue

Violinist David Johnson and I are delighted to be giving a benefit farewell concert for the philosopher Dr. Gerd B. Achenbach, founder of the International Society for Philosophical Practice in Germany. Together with his partner, Laura, Dr Achenbach will be relocating to the South Tyrolean Ulten Valley in North Italy. After discussions with them both, David and I have devised a programme which celebrates both their long association and contribution to the cultural life of Germany and their move to warmer climes!

We begin our concert with a work by Johannes Brahms, one of Germany’s most well-known composers. The violin and piano sonata in G major, Op 78, composed in the summer months of 1878 and 1879, is a work laden with poignant personal overtones. The theme of the 1st and 3rd movements derives from the melody common to two songs by Brahms: Regenlied (Rain Song), Op 59 No 3 is a wistful remembrance of childhood and Nachklang (Lingering Sound), Op 59, No 4, in which raindrops are compared to tears, earning it the nickname, Regensonate (Rain Sonata). His great friend, the renowned pianist Clara Schumann held this sonata especially dear, “I wish that the last movement could accompany me in my journey from here to the next world”. She also wrote to Brahms in July 1879, “you can imagine my delight when in the third movement, I rediscovered my melody that I love so ardently, with its delightful eighth-note rhythm”. A document came to light in 2004 which shows just how intertwined this sonata was with Clara and her youngest son, Felix. Brahms’ life-long connection with the Schumann family began when he met the famous musical couple in 1853, a year before Robert Schumann’s suicide attempt and subsequent hospitalization at the psychiatric institute in Endenich where he eventually died in 1856. During those two years, Brahms helped take care of Clara and her 7 children, even standing as godfather to Felix, the youngest of the Schumann children born after his father had been confined to the mental asylum. Felix was a talented violinist and poet (Brahms set three of his poems) but was diagnosed with tuberculosis and died aged only 25 on 16th February 1879. A few days earlier, Brahms had sent Clara the first 24 bars of the Adagio, beautifully written out by hand and on the back he wrote, “Dear Clara, if you play the material overleaf very slowly, it will say to you, more clearly than I otherwise could, how affectionately I think of you and Felix – even of his violin, which I believe to be silent…”.The musical excerpt ends significantly where the funeral march-like middle section begins. Given that Brahms composed the 3rd movement in the summer of 1879, several months after Felix’s death, the reference to the raindrop melody with its allusion to tears takes on a more poignant meaning.

When we were exploring music with Italian connections what came to mind was the second volume of “Années de Pèlerinage’ (Years of Pilgrimage) by virtuoso pianist and composer Franz Liszt. Inspired by his travels in Italy, he paid homage in this volume of compositions to the works of visual artists such as Raphael, Michelangelo, Salvatore Rosa, and the Renaissance poets, Dante and Petrarch. In 1838-39 Liszt set three sonnets by the Italian Renaissance poet Francesco Petrarch for tenor and piano and subsequently reworked these for solo piano in 1846 and then in 1858. Sonnet no 104 is the most passionate and dramatic of the three and expresses the frustration of unrequited love. Petrarch’s muse was Laura de Noves, with whom he fell in love as a young man and to whom he dedicated hundreds of poems. It was very much a one-sided passion as she was married, and it is not even clear if he ever even conversed with her!

Each of the next two pieces, in their own way, symbolize the profound emotional attachment to one’s homeland. “Daisies” by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov is the third song from his Op 38, the last group of songs that Rachmaninov completed before his self-imposed exile. After he left Russia in 1917, he composed very little and admitted later that by leaving Russia, “I left behind my desire to compose: losing my country, I also lost myself”. Coincidentally, daisies also symbolize new beginnings in the language of flowers. “Lotusland” by English composer Cyril Scott was originally composed for solo piano: the harmonic language was influenced by the craze at the turn of the century for all things oriental. However, the title alludes to the idyllic land in Homer’s Odyssey where Odysseus’ men ate the delicious ‘lotus’ which made them forget their homeland. They pleaded with Odysseus to let them stay forever in this idyllic land, the “lotusland”.

Spain is our next port of call. Both Isaac Albeniz and Manuel de Falla are considered two of Spain’s most important composers from the beginning of the 20th century. Albeniz’s “Suite Española” is a collection of piano works celebrating dances from regions around Spain, including Sevilla in the south. On the other hand, the “Danse Espagnole” by de Falla is taken from his opera “La Vida Breve” (Life is short). The opera is rarely performed these days but the music from Act 2 lives on in this transcription by Fritz Kreisler, who also transcribed the pieces by Rachmaninov and Cyril Scott. “Sevilla” by Albeniz was arranged for violin and piano by yet another 20th century virtuoso violinist, Jasha Heifitz, who, like Rachmaninov, fled his native Russia at the outbreak of the Revolution. After making his debut at the Carnegie Hall, Fritz Kreisler was heard to remark, “We might as well take our fiddles and break them across our knees”!

 We end our programme with a jazzy piece by the British composer, Mike Mower. “Mes-Merengue” was originally commissioned by flautist James Galway and the Safri percussion duo from Denmark. Mike then re-arranged it for flute and later for violin. It is inspired by ‘Merengue’ music which originated in the Dominican Republic and is now popular throughout Latin America. The style of Merengue music is repetitive and mesmerising, hence the title, Mes-Merengue.