Season Concert

Brahms’ Violin (Cancelled - See the Watch & Listen tab on the Events page to watch a special performance from home!)

featuring

Chee-Yun, violin

Tickets

May 31, 2020

3:00 pm

Mount Baker Theatre

Johannes Brahms | Violin Concerto
Johannes Brahms / Arnold Schoenberg | Piano Quartet No. 1

Of Note:
‍

Speculative theories have emerged about the history of Chee-Yun’s violin, including a theory that the instrument may have spent 200 years buried alongside a previous owner.

Brahms started his Violin Concerto in summer 1878, finalizing the composition in December 1879 with fewer than 3 weeks for the soloist to learn the piece before its Leipzig Gewandhaus premiere.

Schoenberg’s orchestrated version of Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 1 was made into a ballet called Brahms–Schoenberg Quartet by George Balanchine.

Join us as we finish our season with a powerful All-Brahms program, featuring violinist Chee-Yun for Brahms’ Violin Concerto, followed by Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 1 as orchestrated by one of the 20th century’s most influential music theorists, Arnold Schoenberg.

First, Violinist Chee-Yun joins us for Brahms’ one and only Violin Concerto. Composed in 1878 for his friend, violinist Joseph Joachim, Brahms’ Violin Concerto is known as one of the four great German violin concertos and is often compared to Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in the same key. Brahms’ compositions are heavily influenced by Hungarian folk melodies, which become particularly apparent in the final movement.

Born in Seoul, Chee-Yun is a world-renowned soloist, recitalist, recording artist, and educator. She gave her first public performance at the age of 8 and traveled to the United States at the age of 13 to play for the New York Philharmonic in their Young People’s Concert. Chee-Yun’s violin was made in 1669 by Francesco Ruggieri.

We wrap up our season with Arnold Schoenberg’s orchestration of Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 1. Despite having been composed for quartet, Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 1 has a symphonic quality to it, which inspired Schoenberg to write a new orchestration for the piece in 1937. The Schoenberg orchestration is a creative interpretation of an already beautiful work, enabling the strings to be heard over the piano more frequently throughout and incorporating more percussive elements.

A Pre-Concert Lecture about the program will take place at 2:15PM in the Walton Theatre. Doors open at 2PM and seating is limited, so please plan accordingly.

Tickets: $15 to $54