George Yang MUSI 317 4/13/13 Violin Masters Recital by Alex Gonzalez Accompanied by pianist Kyung-A Yoo April

13, 2013 My first impression of Mr. Gonzalez as he walked in was nothing notable; however, as he picked up his violin and began to play, his entire demeanor changed. As if playing the violin was more natural than not playing it, he gained an air of comfortableness and even joy that was a very pleasant sight to see. The first piece of the recital was Suite in the Old Style, by the Russian composer, Alfred Schittke. As its name suggests, it partakes less of the modern style of atonality and is instead a generally diatonic work. In each movement, there are distinct and short motives that get transposed or modulated to minor versions of themselves and back. The first movement was a very light-sounding piece. The second movement came with a downshift in tempo, but it remained a cheery-sounding affair. The following minuet was much more suppressed and minor, however. A return of increased tempo ushered in the fugue. This particular movement had an excess of great interval leaps in the violin part. Mr. Gonzalez executed the leaps with skilled staccato bow-work and fingerings. Finally, the piece was rounded out with another light and lyrical movement: the Pantomime. During this part, there was a section when a long and high note is held by the violinist while the piano plays a flurry of changing bass notes, so that the key and harmony changed even while the main melody note did not. This helps demonstrate that the bass has much more power in defining the key and harmonies of the piece than the soprano. This entire musical piece was less of a harmony, and more a dialogue between the piano and violin. Frequently, both instruments would not concurrently sound. The second piece is Sonata for the Violin and Piano by Janacek. This piece is much more of the atonal style. In fact it comes very close to the time of Schoenberg. Janacek also has a similar backstory to one we heard about in class. As a composer who also witnesses the horrors of World War I, his piece reflects some of the sadness of that conflict. The first movement has a great amount of tempo changes. I cannot tell what the meter of the piece was. There was also some pizzicato in the violin part. This part has a repeating 3-note motive. The second movement is more idyllic and in the style of folk-tunes. This section was more diatonic than the first, although there were many chromatic passing tones and neighbors. The 3rd movement, an Allegretto, returned to atonality. Even with just a pianist and violinist, the piece somehow was imposing, thunderous, and voluminous. Here, Mr. Gonzalez adeptly performed many difficult 2 simultaneous string harmonies. Finally, the fourth movement is a solemn Adagio, where there is occasional usage of the violins mute. Notably for both Suite and Sonata, it seems as if both of their composers disliked the usage of the typical authentic cadence. There is much usage of deceptive cadences. Even at the end of the entire work (not just a single movement), each piece lacked the tonic based cadence. After the intermission, a more classical piece by Beethoven was performed: Sonata No.7 in C minor. As mentioned in the program, the theory of that time period suggests that a piece in C minor represents the tragedy and turmoil of the composer. Not coincidentally, this work was written around the time that Beethoven began to go deaf. The first movement in 4/4 time was my favorite part of the entire recital for several reasons. Still in the era of diatonicism, this particular piece was very powerful. Additionally, I could clearly see the enjoyment of the other audience members, as they moved their heads to the beat of the commanding rhythm. An adagio cantabile followed, which notably did not end with a perfect cadence either. The third movement had an often-repeating motive to which many transpositions and inversions were applied. Finally, in the last piece of the night, there was a lot of root motion to change the piece back and forth from minor to major. I enjoyed Mr. Gonzalezs performance a lot. His accompanying pianist was quite impressive to behold as well. As usual, my favorite piece was the one that was most typical of the classical period of music, though I seem to like atonal works more than I used to.