Karen Kido and SHigetoshi Ezawa 2022 "Brahms' Three Violin Sonatas"

Brahms' Three Violin Sonatas: Life nurtured in the Second "Forest of Masterpieces”

The three violin sonatas to be performed today were all written during Brahms's "peak" period of creative activity (K. Geiringer), when he was "surrounded by fame" (Hidekazu Yoshida), the highest point in his life as a composer. The culmination period, which lasted about 15 years, began with the Symphony No. 1 in C minor and ended with the String Quintet in G major, Op. 111.

Brahms believed that there was no point in composing unless he could surpass Beethoven. In 1876, after 21 years of preparation, Brahms finally released his first symphony, and with the help of Hans von Bülow's active “promotion”, “which he declared the first symphony Beethoven's 10th Symphony", the audience and the society accepted it as being in Beethoven's authentic lineage. From then on, Brahms's creative activities became more and more extraordinary. The second to fourth symphonies, the violin concerto, and the two rhapsodies are just a few examples. His music changed, by abandoning his tendency to be introspective but at the same time self-indulgent, and developed a quality that truly appeals to the listener.

Aware of Beethoven's "forest of masterpieces" (Romain Rolland), Brahms went on to write works that surpassed them. The fifteen years at the peak of his career are indeed a second forest of masterpieces and embraced the Brahms’ greatest fame of his life. Starting from the appointment for conductor of the Vienna Musikverein, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Breslau in 1879, and in 1889, Brahms was made an honorary citizen of Hamburg and presented with the Order of Leopold by the Austrian Emperor.

In 1890, after the completion of his String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 111, Brahms began to feel a loss of passion in his creative energy: "Lately I have not been able to make any progress with my symphonies. I think I'm getting too old, so I've decided not to write any more. I have worked diligently all my life and I think I have done all I can do. I have worked very hard all my life and I think I have done everything I can do..." (Hidekazu Yoshida, "Brahms' Music and Life," Ongaku no Tomo Sha). In a letter to his close friend Eusebius Mandyczewski, he expressed his feelings. (Brahms, however, is reborn soon. He resumes composing before the roots of his will are dry, and he is blessed with a blissful final creative period. After meeting the clarinetist R. Mühlfeldt, his works are the fruit of his soul, free from the forest of masterpieces and unleashed on the fields.)

In today's concert, we will hear in one day three pieces written at the height of his composing career. It is a great opportunity to understand the movement of Brahms' mind in his peak time. Karin Kido and Shigetoshi Ezawa are young and talented performers. At their age, Brahms had completed his study period, but had no works that could be presented to the society. I strongly hope that the experience of playing Brahms's three violin sonatas, written at the peak of his career, will lead to further growth and maturity for Karin Kido and Shigetoshi Ezawa in the future.

Program note: Dr. Satoshi Ogihara,

Representative of The OCCA/One-Coin Concert for ALL Executive Committee

Ezawa is a talented pianist who has won many prizes in competitions. He won the third prize in the Piano Division of the 81st Japan Music Competition. He has also won the 35th Pitina Piano Competition G Class Gold Prize, as well as the Governor of Tokyo Award, Yomiuri Shimbun Award, Oji Hall Award, Hinoki Award, and Senzoku Gakuen Maeda Award. He won the prize, at At the 33rd Kirishima International Music Festival, and the Grand Prize the 1st Sengawa Piano Audition. More to go: the first prize at the 3rd Toho Piano Competition and beng a finalist at Stradella International Piano Competition. He has won prizes in many other competitions in Japan and abroad. He was invited to give a recital at "Fresh Artists from Yokosuka".

As a chamber musician, he has formed a duo with Karen Kido ever since XXXX and is actively performing. He is a 2014 and 2015 ROHM Music Foundation Scholar. After graduating from Toho Gakuen School of Music, he studied at the Salzburg Mozarteum Conservatory, where he received his Master's degree.

Ezawa has studied solo with Yuko Ninomiya, Shinji Ohno, Akira Eguchi, Andreas Grothhuizen, and chamber music with Stephan Mendel in the degree programs. He has received trainings from many famous pianists, including Mikhail Voskresensky, Alexander Kobrin, Pascal Dvaillon, Dina Joffe, and Eliso Vilsarese.

＜Brahms’ Violin Sonatas: Days to the Ischl Testament＞

Do you know that Brahms left his last testament? In 1890, at the age of 57, Brahms, who had reached the peak of his fame and at the same time felt that his creative urge was waning, wrote his String Quintet Op. 111, and decided to break his pen. He wrote down his thoughts in the "Ischl Testament. Ischl is the name of a small region in Austria. Brahms did not want to commit suicide at all, but he wanted to stop his creative activities. He had decided not to attend any public events either.

The three violin sonatas that Karin Kido and Shigetoshi Ezawa will be performing today are three sonatas that are on the way to the peak of Brahms' creativity. The three sonatas, Op. 78, 100, and 108, were composed in the years 1878, 1886, and 1888, just a few years before Brahms wrote the "Ischl Testament. The second and third pieces were composed just a few years before the writing of the "Ischl Testament", at a time when Brahms was aware that his fame as a composer was reaching its peak.

The mysterious "Ischl Testament”, being mysterious because the meaning a will with no intention of dying, has a remarkable similarity to the "Heiligenstadt Testament" of Beethoven, whom Brahms admired. It is only my imagination, but I think that Brahms put down his pen just in time, hoping that the desire to create would come back to him. Beethoven's "Heiligenstadt Testament" (1802, Beethoven at the age 31) was written with the real determined intention of dying for fear of losing his hearing. Later, however, although he never regained his hearing, he overcame his difficulties with his love for music and left behind a group of masterpieces known as the "Forest of Master Pieces/une forêt de chefs-d'œuvre (Romain Rolland). Brahms knew this.

The two composers write their living will likewise It will not be so important whether or not the testament is really based on suicide, because for a composer, to stop creating is tantamount to suicide. Brahms's "retirement" without the premise of death is exactly his "death" as a composer itself, and it must have had the same weight as Beethoven's testament with the premise of death.

Beethoven is often said to have overcome his difficulties by his strong passion for music when he encounted with the big struggles in his life. But is it really so? Did Beethoven overcome despair and regain his creative will by the power of will inherent in himself? Is it really possible for a human being to possess such strength and live autonomously without relying on the power of others? A testament is not a good example for us to answer this question, because most of us would not have written a will (except for inheritance documents!). ). So, let's take the difficulties we have shared as an example. Let's rephrase the question to explore the better answer. Are we supporting ourselves on our own in the current Corona disasters we are equally experiencing? No, notAre we as vulnerable as we are now as stand-alone selves, and are we finally supporting ourselves in relation to others (some of whom we hate)?

Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 “Eroica", the opera "Fidelio", and the Violin Concerto are the highlights of his Forest of Master Pieces. All of them can be interpreted as motivated strongly by the bond with others, though being in many ways, long or short, unilateral or otherwise. Beethoven dedicated the Eroica Symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte, as Beethoven believed Napoleon Bonaparte embodied the democratic and anti-monarchist ideals of the French Revolution. Fidelio was inspired by the themes of personal sacrifice, heroism, and triumph in the original scenario, which fit perfectly with Beethoven's political aesthetic. The birth of the violin concerto can not be talked about without the presence of a great violinist named Franz Clement. As you can see, even the "great man" Beethoven did not come back to life by himself.

So, did Brahms meet a "forest of masterpieces"? In March 1891, the year after his "testament," Brahms met a clarinetist named Richard Muhlfeld, when the ink must not have yet dried on his testament…, and profoundly inspired by him. In the summer of that year already, he composed the clarinet trio, the two clarinet sonatas, and in the following year, a masterpiece the clarinet quintet.

I do no mean to say that composers are as simple as this at all. When we learn about the mental dynamics of these two composers, we realize how their creative energy, which we automatically tend to imagine as a spring from within, is created in the context of human relationships. It is only because Beethoven and Brahms were so pure that we can see this so clearly.

The OCCA/One-Coin Concert for ALL in February is a concert of the complete violin sonatas of Brahms by Karin Kido and Shigetoshi Ezawa. It is exciting to see young people giving their all. As I have already mentioned the three works were born in the process of Brahms' fame as a composer reaching its peak, I would like to add one last thing. A last testament is not something you just write down one day. It may have been written on a single day in 1890, when Brahms was 57 years old, but I wonder how long and how deeply Brahms was in pain leading up to that day. The emotional landscape of that day can surely be heard in the violin sonatas, though some are highly sublimated.

Program note: Dr. Satoshi Ogihara, Representative of The OCCA/One-Coin Concert for ALL Executive Committee