Sonata for Violin and Keyboard in C minor, BWV 1017

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS

Korean American violinist Christine Choi enjoys a versatile career as both a performer and educator. She made her concerto debut at the age of eleven and has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Italy, and China. Her appearances have included major venues such as Alice Tully Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, and Jordan Hall. A dedicated chamber musician, she has appeared as a Guest Artist at Music in the Vineyards and was an Artist of the Music for Food concert series in Boston.

Committed to education and community engagement, Dr. Choi has served as a teaching assistant to Bayla Keyes at Boston University and the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, and as an orchestral coach at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is also the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Sora Music Society. Dr. Choi holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, and Boston University, and maintains an active private studio.

Pianist Shinae Kim is an active soloist and collaborator who debuted with the Seoul Symphony Orchestra at age eleven. She has appeared as soloist with orchestras of Puerto Rico, California, and North Carolina, and has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, Merkin Hall, and the Mondavi Center. Dr. Kim holds degrees from The Boston Conservatory, New York University, and Stony Brook University, and studied at the Franz-Schubert-Institut. As experienced educator, she has taught in New York City schools and universities. She founded An die Musik NYC, and now resides in Sacramento, performing widely as a collaborative pianist and chamber musician.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

J.S. Bach’s Sonata for Violin and Keyboard in C minor, BWV 1017 is the fourth of the set of six that Bach composed during his time in Cöthen (1717-23). The structure follows the trendy Italian style of four movements, slow-fast-slow-fast, with the beginning Siciliano violin line being one of Bach’s most famous melodies. The role of the keyboard is more than the filler continuo accompaniment, but particularly the fast movements are filled with the violin and keyboard dancing together through Bach’s brilliant contrapuntal writing. 

Robert Schumann struggled with his position as municipal director in Düsseldorf and perhaps out of frustration of dealing with larger orchestra and chorus, he wrote a number of intimate chamber music pieces for his best instrumentalists starting in the fall of 1851. Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in A minor, Op. 105 was written just in a few days, and R. Schumann claimed that he didn’t like the way it turned out. Even after his young concertmaster Wasielewski and his wife Clara Schumann performed the piece several times, he was not satisfied as they were not able to convey the “brusque tone” he was looking for. The sonata was published in the following year in 1852 and Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim continued playing it after Robert’s death. Violinist Jelly d’Arányi once claimed she was visited by Robert Schumann’s spirit and then revived his violin concerto. She is also the dedicatee of violin sonatas of Ralph Vaughan Williams and Béla Bartók. Hungarian born violinist d’Arányi was none other than the great-niece of Joseph Joachim (the most distinguished violinist of the 19th century) and she was visited by Maurice Ravel himself in London in the early 1920’s.

After a concert where she had played one of his pieces, Ravel asked her to play him some Gypsy melodies and this went on until 5 in the morning, which was evidently the birth moment of Tzigane. Other than its fame for its virtuosic violin writing, the other striking element to listen for is the timbre of the piano part which was originally written for piano-luthéal, a modified grand piano that could produce lute and harpsichord like sounds, similar to cimbalom (Hungarian instrument that is a hammered dulcimer traceable back to 16th century.