Homage to Bartók

This Concert is sponsored by Ariel Premium Supply, Inc.

November 8
​7:30 PM

Free Admission 

Grace United Methodist Church
6199 Waterman Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63112
​
Free parking at the venue  
PROGRAM
George Enescu: Violin Sonata No.1 in D major, Op.2
Béla Bartók - Divertimento op. BB118
FEATURED ARTISTS

Young-Whun Kim, Piano
Jessie Chen, Violin
Nicolae Bica, Violin
Nathan Lowry, Violin
Xi Zhang, Viola
 Ken Kulosa , Cello
Aleck Belcher, Bass
​Program notes by Ann Fink
George Enescu: Violin Sonata No.1 in D major, Op.2 
George Enescu (1881-1955) was born in Liveni, Romania to a landholder (father) and the daughter of an Orthodox priest. Enescu’s parents had seven children who died in infancy before he was born. From a very early age, Enescu showed signs that he was a musical prodigy. His earliest surviving work, Romanian Land for Violin and Piano, was written when he was only five years old! He was admitted to the Vienna Conservatory at the age of seven, an honor shared only by the young violinist Fritz Kreisler who was also admitted at age 7, in 1882. Once Enescu graduated at age 12, he continued his studies at the Paris Conservatory.

Enescu would have a long and successful career. Not only did he compose a large library of works, but he conducted all over the world including the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. He was also a sought after violin professor and taught several famous violinists, including Yehudi Menuhin. The legendary cellist, Pablo Casals, considered Enescu a musical genius second only to Mozart.

Violin Sonata No. 1 was composed in 1897, when Enescu was 16 years old. While a student at Vienna Conservatory, Enescu lived with one of his teachers, Joseph Hellmesberger, who introduced him to Johannes Brahms. The influence that Brahms had on the young composer is obvious from the beginning of Enescu’s first sonata. While the first sonata doesn’t sound like the work of a student, it’s interesting to note the increasing complexity and innovation of each ensuing violin sonata, with the third sonata being completed nearly 30 years later, in 1926.

Béla Bartók - Divertimento op. BB118
Béla Bartók (1881-1945), was born in the Kingdom of Hungary. His mother, quite an accomplished pianist herself, gave music lessons to Bartok before he fully learned to speak! It was no surprise then that Bartok decided to pursue a musical career, and in 1899, began studies at the Royal Academy of Music in Budapest. It was at school that Bartok met Zoltán Kodály, a fellow Hungarian composer. Bartok and Kodaly both had a keen interest in studying the music of Hungary’s native people. Together, they traveled the countryside and collected Magyar (an ethnic group native to Hungary) folk songs and melodies. They were among the founders of comparative musicology, which would eventually lead to the study of Ethnomusicology.

Bartok was quite successful as a composer and performer while living in Hungary. However, when the situation in Europe worsened during World War II, Bartok, who was adamantly opposed to fascism and Hungary’s alliance with Germany, decided to immigrate to the United States. Life was more difficult for Bartok while living in New York City, where he and his wife settled. Although he maintained a modest living, he wasn’t as in demand for performance and commissions as he had been while living in
Europe. Thankfully, he had research grants from Columbia University for many years that allowed him to continue studying and cataloging folk music. After years of health issues, Bartok died of leukemia in 1945 at the age of 64.

Bartok wrote his Divertimento in the summer of 1939, months before composing his sixth and final string quartet and fleeing to the United States. The piece is neoclassical in style and makes use of modal tonalities inspired by Hungary’s native folk music. It was composed for string orchestra, and it’s rarely performed by string quintet due to its level of difficulty!