Four Centuries of Great Music July 3, 2022 Four Centuries of Solo Violin Music

Today on  Four Centuries of Great Music we are following pieces written for the solo violin through the centuries.  With the exception of a few pieces written by performers during the romantic period, most of the compositions for the solo violin date from the baroque period and the 20th and 21st centuries.   The inspiration for today’s Four Centuries of Great Music episode came from the relatively recent releases of the Bach partitas and sonatas for solo violin by Leonidas  Kavakos and the release just this past Friday of a set of newly composed works for solo violin by Johnny Gandelsman.  

So let’s start with Johann Sebastian Bach.  Like many of his contemporaries, Bach was capable of creating great structures in sound, making use of the full panoply of choir, orchestra and soloists. He was unique, however, in his ability to conjure similar architectural marvels out of a single instrument. Bach titled his set of six partitas and sonatas for solo violin Sei Solo – both a description of the work itself (‘six solos’) and a reminder of the challenge to the player: ‘you are alone.’

The Partita No. 3 in E major for solo violin, BWV 1006.  This is the last work in Johann Sebastian Bach's set of Six Sonatas and Partitas and written around 1703. It consists of the following movements:  Preludio, Loure, Gavotte en Rondeau, Menuets (I and II), Bourrée and Gigue


OK so the next work you may say is cheating a little bit, because it was a work originally written for cello and transcribed for violin by Johnny Gandelsman and this is the first suite for solo cello by Johann Sebastian Bach.  And every time I joke with Johnny or others about Johnny “stealing this music” for the violin, I am reminded that these 6 suites are simply great pieces of music.  

The first cello suite is BWV 1007 which immediately follows  the last solo violin work that we just heard which is numbered 1006.   This requires some explanation.  The BWV - Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (or Bach works catalog) developed in 1950 was organized by type of work and then sorta but not always chronologically.  So both works are solo instrumental works by genre and the cello suites were composed during the years 1717–1723 which is of course chronologically after the violin partitas and sonatas.  

Due to the works' technical demands, étude-like nature, and difficulty in interpretation because of the non-annotated nature of the surviving copies, the cello suites were little known and rarely publicly performed until they were recorded by Pablo Casals in the early 20th century. They have since been performed and recorded by many renowned cellists and have been transcribed for numerous other instruments; they are considered some of Bach's greatest musical achievements.  The violinist Johnny Gandelsman after many years of chamber and orchestral performances was moving back toward doing solo performance and recording.  Of course he started with recordings of the Bach partitas and sonatas, but soon began looking for other works.  In addition to commissioning works by 21st century composers, he decided to transcribe the Bach cello suites for violin.  So lets listen to his transcription of the first cello suite  in G major BWV 1007 (transposed to D major for violin performance) which as all the suites has 6 movements.  Here these movements are: Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, two menuets and Gugue

We are going to close this first hour of this episode of Four Centuries of Great Music on violin solos throughout the centuries with one more piece from the Baroque era, Giuseppe Tartini’s Sonata #14 in G major for violin solo.  Tartini was a prominent Italian composer and violinist.  His most famous work was said to be inspired by a dream where he asked the devil to play his violin which is his Sonata for solo violin in G minor “The Devil’s Trill” sonata.  He is one of the first to be known to own a violin created by Antonio Stradivari which is presently known as the Lipinski Stradivarius and is on loan from an anonymous donor to Frank Almond who is concert master of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.   Tartini was also a music theorist who published his findings in his "Trattato di musica secondo la vera scienza dell'armonia" or “Treatise on music according to the true science of harmony”.  He also wrote a text on ornamentation and one on violin technique that is used today for modern historically informed performance by violinists. 


Let’s start this second hour of Four Centuries of Great Music with music by Niccolò Paganini.  Niccolò Paganini’s 24 Caprices, Op. 1: 1-8.  Paganini was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of the early 19th century, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique.   He was an accomplished composer for the violin and before his death wrote several publications on violin technique.  It is said he owned several violins created by masters such as Amati, Stradivari, and Guarneri.  He also owned Stradivari violas and cellos.  But after bad investments near the time of his death, he had to sell all of his instruments.  Four of these instruments were played by the Tokyo String Quartet.   His skill as a performer was so amazing there were rumors that he was possessed by the devil.  A week before his death he refused last rites. But within a week he died suddenly before a priest could be summoned. Because of this, and his widely rumored association with the devil, the Church denied his body a Catholic burial.  

His 24 Caprices for Solo Violin Op. 1 are among the best known of his compositions and have served as an inspiration for many prominent composers.  Today we will be listening to a performance of the first 8 of Niccolò Paganini’s 24 Caprices, Op. 1:  1. E major - Andante; 2. B minor - Moderato; 3. E minor - Sostenuto/Presto/Sostenuto; 4. C minor - Maestoso; 5. A minor - Agitato; 6. G minor - Lento; 7. A minor - Posato and 8. E-flat minor Maestoso.  


We are going to close today’s Four Centuries of Great Music with Charles Auguste de Bériot’s 9 Studies for solo violin.  Charles Auguste de Bériot was a celebrated concert violinist from Belgium whose career overlapped with Paganini even though he was 20 years younger than Paganini.  In much of northern Europe the two virtuoso's playing styles were often compared.   He was trained in both Belgium and France, served in several of the royal courts in Northern Europe.    De Bériot lived with and eventually married the opera singer Maria Malibran.  To celebrate their wedding, Felix Mendelssohn wrote an aria accompanied by a solo violin especially for the couple.    They had a child, Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot, who became an accomplished pianist and piano professor.   Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot taught Maurice Ravel, Ricardo Viñes, Enrique Granados among others.  


Charles Auguste de Bériot ended his career as a teacher at the Belgium Conservatory of Music after turning down a similar position in Paris.  He retired at the age of 50 because of failing eyesight and by 64 had to give up all performing because of paralysis of his left arm and died 4 years later.

Today we will be listening to a performance of his 9 studies for solo violin marked Allegro agitato, allegro moderato, moderato, energize, largo, andantino, moderato, vivace and moderato.