Student Recital: Ysaye, Chopin, Ropartz, Ravel

A student recital. The program:

Eugène Ysaÿe: Sonata in E minor, Op. 27, No. 4
Timothy Chooi, violin

Eugène Ysaÿe was a Belgian violinist and composer who lived between 1858 and 1931, Ysaÿe was view as “The King of the Violin.” He composed six sonatas for solo violin in 1923 and each was dedicated to one of his comtemporary violinists. Sonata in E minor, Op.27, No. 4 was dedicated to Austrian-born violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler, one of the greatest violinists of all time. The three movements are marked: Allemanda, Sarabande, and Finale.

Chopin: Mazurkas, Op. 59
Eric Lu, piano

Frédéric Chopin:(1810-1849) Mazurkas, Op.59 are a set of three Mazurkas for solo piano composed and published in 1845, rather late in Chopin’s life. The first Mazurka No.1 in A minor: Moderato is introverted and may leave the audience with feelings of warmth. Follow by Mazurka No. 2 in A-flat major: Allegretto the shortest of the three mazurkas, begins with the main theme and finishes with interesting accidentals and chromatic harmonies. No. 3 the final Mazurka in F-sharp minor: Vivace is a waltz like composition.

J. Guy Ropartz: Prélude, Marine et Chansons
Henry Woolf, flute; Maria Ioudenitch, violin; Erika Gray, viola; Zachary Mowitz, cello and Héloïse Carlean-Jones, harp

J. Guy Ropartz was a French composer and conductor. His Prélude, Marine et Chansons is an uncommon instrumentation for a Quintet. It consists of flute, violin, viola, cello and harp.

Ravel: Sonata for Violin and Piano (1927)
Brandon Garbot, violin; Jungeun Kim, piano

The influences of American jazz and blues is felt in this Sonata for Violin and Piano written by Maurice Ravel between 1923 and 1927. This was a late composition in Ravel’s life and it took him four years to complete. Ravel once said; “In the writing of the Sonata for Violin and Piano, two fundamentally incompatible instruments, I assumed the task, far from bringing their differences into equilibrium, of emphasizing their irreconcilability through their independence.” This sonata is the most popular French Sonatas to perform.