Beethoven is best known to us as a composer of grandiose symphonies, but he was also a master of the small format, especially in terms of his compositions for piano. Piano was his instrument, and it was as a supremely gifted virtuoso and improvisation artist he made a name for himself in Vienna in the 1790s. His thirty-two piano sonatas are central to the piano repertoire, and he worked on them during the best part of his life, between 1782 and 1822. This music spans every conceivable musical emotion, from calm and peaceful to diabolic fits of anger.

Most of the thirty-two sonatas consist of three movements. However, the final sonata, composed during a few hectic weeks in the beginning of 1822, only has two movements, which made his publisher, Maurice Schlesinger, wonder whether the copyist had simply forgotten the last movement. Naturally, this was not the case. The work is perfectly balanced with the two movements in perfect contrast to one another: the first is powerful, the second is in a completely different mood in the form of a theme with variations. It is entitled Arietta: Adagio molto semplice e cantabile (Arietta: Adagio, very simple and singable). The beginning of this movement is serene and idyllic, with the singable theme presenting an especially poignant mood. It is extremely direct, but it also has a suspended, mysterious quality. This is sublime, ethereal music.

Axel Lindhe

“The etiquette on a bottle of Arietta wine displays a couple of bars of the Arietta theme from the manuscript of Beethoven’s last piano sonata, No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111. When I was asked to compose a piece in honour of this fabulous wine, I naturally decided that this theme should have a key role. But whereas Beethoven produces a set of rigorous variations with a steadily increasing intensity curve (the Arietta theme, serenely beautiful and calm in the beginning, culminating in what can best be described as the first ragtime in music history, before fading back to serenity) – my Kongsgaard Variations are more like meditations, with no directional process.

The music floats aimlessly through the centuries, displaying reminiscences of Baroque, Folk, Renaissance and Romantic musics, but always with Beethoven’s Arietta theme at its epicentre. Although scarcely audible, the piece actually starts with music directly derived from the Arietta theme, leaving out the melody but maintaining the same rhythmical flow and harmonic landscape, as if Beethoven’s music is dreaming about yet another variation of itself. Arietta means ‘little song’, and these opening bars are then cloned and mutated into other ‘little songs’ that occur on several occasions in the piece.

After the introductory section the first violin takes on a simple, thoughtful solo motif which is again cloned and mutated and appears later in the piece in different shapes. Then comes a viola solo – joyful, as in a trance – which leads to a section where all instruments sing in praise of wine and music. Shortly after the middle of the piece, we hear the Arietta theme for the first time, but strangely distorted and stretched, in the same way a cubist painting twists the motif it uses – almost as if the music is being played backwards. A simple chorale follows which lands us in the music that began the piece, and then, finally, comes the first part of Beethoven’s theme in C major in its pure, original shape. This is succeeded by the second part of the theme in A minor (here again distorted in the manner described earlier) before the music evaporates into a mist of harmonics.

Kongsgaard Variations is warmly dedicated to John and Maggy Kongsgaard.”

Anders Hillborg

An air of mystery surrounds Bach’s six sonatas and partitas for solo violin. Although it is generally agreed that he completed the composition in 1720, while he was Hofkapellmeister at Köthen, there is less certainty about the details. We do not know exactly when, where or for whom the pieces were written. Nor do we know whether it was ever performed in Bach’s lifetime. For many years, the music was generally believed to be study pieces. It was not until the arrival of the 20^th century and stars such as Yehudi Menuhin and George Enescu that these pieces achieved their present status.

While the three sonatas follow a regular pattern, generally with four movements, the partitas have a less rigid structure, often in the form of well-known dance movements: Allemande, Courante, Sarabande and Gigue. The third partita is the most frequently performed. It has seven movements: six dance movements preceded by a prelude, which is often performed separately, as in this concert. Bach seems to have been very fond of this virtuoso prelude; he later returned to this composition, for example in two of his cantatas.

George Enescu called Bach’s sonatas and partitas “the Himalayas of violinists”. There is no doubt that this music constitutes a technical and musical challenge to the soloist. This is innovative, not to say exhilarating, music, maybe best described by the composer and author Johann Friedrich Reichardt who characterized it as “perhaps the greatest example in any art form of a master’s ability to move with freedom and assurance, even in chains”.

Axel Lindhe

During the first years of his highly successful career, Esa-Pekka Salonen spent a significant amount of time at Berwaldhallen in his capacity as principal conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra 1985–1995. He then held prestigious posts, for example in Los Angeles and London. As of the 2020/21 season, Salonen is principal conductor of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Throughout the ages, successful conductors have more often than not also been composers. Wilhelm Furtwängler, Otto Klemperer, Bruno Walter and Leonard Bernstein were not only conductors, they were composers too. With his dual roles, Salonen – who has composed over 50 works, from chamber music to violin, cello and piano concertos and orchestral works – can be said to be the bearer of a longstanding tradition.

Esa-Pekka Salonen was commissioned by the Colburn School in Los Angeles to write Fog in celebration of the architect Frank O. Gehry’s ninetieth birthday. When Salonen began to work on the composition, he went back to when he and Gehry attended their first performance at the Walt Disney Concert Hall (designed by Gehry). The piece they heard was the prelude to Bach’s third Partita for Solo Violin, performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic led by Martin Chalifour. This piece became a natural starting point in his own work on Fog. Many of the harmonies in the piece are based on Gehry’s name: FAGEH.

In an interview conducted in connection with the performance of the piece in Houston earlier this year, Salonen described his work as “… a fantasy around the prelude … a dream where the prelude is always there, under the surface or really in front of us or somewhere completely in the background, but it’s always there …”

Axel Lindhe

I. Allegretto
II. Andante; ma rubato
III. Vivacissimo
IV. Finale: Allegro moderato