Queen City Connections

March 19/20, 2023 

Stefani Matsuo, violin

Ilya Finkelshteyn, cello

Soyeon Kate Lee, piano

Cincinnati is home to many world-class artists, and these three musicians are certainly counted among them. Celebrated pianist Soyeon Kate Lee performs with CSO principals Stefani Matsuo and Ilya Finkelshteyn in a program that features a dazzling Mendelssohn trio, a brooding Chopin sonata, and a lyrical Brahms sonata.

Program Notes

Frederic Chopin (1810 – 1849)

Sonata for Cello & Piano in G Minor, Op. 65

Chopin’s name is practically synonymous with the piano. Given the breadth and quality of his piano repertoire, it is easy to overlook his focus on any other instrument. Even so, Chopin seemed to hold a special regard for the cello. Of the handful of chamber works Chopin composed, three were for cello and piano. Written for and dedicated to the renowned cellist Auguste Franchomme, the G Minor cello sonata was the last of Chopin’s works published in his lifetime. Despite his declining health and relative lack experience composing both sonatas and cello works, Chopin created a remarkably concentrated sonata. 

The sonata opens with a melancholy piano solo that only hints at the main them. The cello interrupts with a full statement of the opening statement that outlines the material for much of the first movement and establishes themes that appear throughout the entire work. As the two instruments proceed through a series of passionate interchanges before calming to the simplicity of the second theme. After a rhapsodic development, the opening material returns, followed by a verbatim restatement of the second theme before giving way to an appropriately stormy conclusion.

The Scherzo is driven by the hammering momentum of rapidly repeated notes. Chopin alternates between lyrical phrases and thunderous chords for a display that is equal parts virtuosic and quirky. This folk-inspired energy stands in sharp contrast to the following Largo which stands as a brief moment of tranquility; the only extended period of peaceful music in the entire sonata. The finale snaps the sonata back to its complex drama. Here, the melodic and harmonic chromaticism of Chopin’s late style is on full display as the sonata roars to a rapid, triumphant conclusion.

Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897)

Sonata No. 2 for Violin & Piano in A Major, Op. 100

Brahms spent the summer of 1886 at his favorite retreat at Lake Thun, near Interlaken, Switzerland. While there, he concentrated on writing lieder and chamber works, and, invigorated by the company of friends and the young German contralto Hermine Spies, he produced three of his most beloved chamber works in rapid succession – the F major Cello Sonata, the Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor, and the Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Major.

Brahms’s vocal inspiration comes through in the opening movement’s lyrical main theme. Direct and immediate, the theme is first presented by the piano and then taken up by the violin. This main melody’s sweet simplicity lends it a lyrical power without bombast, and aptly sets up the musical drama that unfolds throughout the later movements.

While the opening movement is defined by the flowing interchange of themes, the second movement is driven by contrast. It is organized into alternating sections beginning with the bucolic Andante and leading to the folk-like Vivace. This organization effectively combines the traditional slow movement and scherzo we might expect into a single idea that expresses both serenity and light humor before ending in a blaze of excitement.

The finale lacks the usual bravura excitement in Romantic period works. Instead, the graceful and elegant rondo begins with a soulful line expressed in sustained legato. The contrasting theme comes as a flurry of arpeggiated chords rather than a true “tune” before returning to the rondo refrain. The second episode presents a new, though still songful, idea before returning to a poignantly calm variation on the opening theme to end the work in an expression of triumphant dignity.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809 – 1847)

Trio No. 2 for Violin, Cello, & Piano in C Minor, Op. 66

Felix Mendelssohn was already a brilliant pianist when he was still only a child. This early start meant that, despite his short life, the composer left behind a huge library of works featuring the piano ranging from solo works and concerti to chamber accompaniments. In January of 1832, while visiting Paris, Mendelssohn wrote to his sister Fanny, “I should like to compose a couple of good trios.” Though he had already completed his C minor trio at this point, the two “good trios” he created – the D minor, Op. 49 and C minor, Op. 66 – are some of the most enduring of their era. The Op. 66 was Mendelssohn’s last trio; composed only two years before the end of his life. It demonstrates his mastery of his craft as the trio is laid out on a large scale with soaring, lyrical melodies accented by intricate virtuosic passages for all three instruments. 

The trio’s first movement stems from the basic building block of an arpeggio. The first theme begins as restless piano arpeggios played pianissimo over sustained notes in the cello and violin. More atmospheric than melodic, this establishes tension that is only increased as the arpeggiated theme moves to the strings. When the music finally breaks into a passionate strain for the violin and cello against the piano’s 16^th note accompaniment it provides a welcome relief. The second theme presents a dramatic contrast as it enters at a full forte in the strings with the cello soaring in its upper register. While this melody is more lyrical, the piano maintains the 16^th-note arpeggio and holds the tension through the dramatic development until the arpeggio pattern is more fully-explored in the movement’s coda.

The second movement presents a more relaxed theme that provides a welcome respite from the urgency of the opening. A graceful song without words flows in a steady, elongated 9/8 that gently flows with the theme alternating between the piano and strings. This leads to a third movement scherzo that is distinctly Mendelssohn. Swift, light, and nimble, the movement’s delicate theme weaves seamlessly between instruments in a sense of perpetual motion with brilliant glints of major tonality.

The spirited finale – again in sonata form – opens with a sweeping cello melody before giving way to a second theme stated by all three instruments. The development presents the most dramatic section of the movement as the piano introduces a chorale-like melody based on the Lutheran hymn Vor Deinem Thron. The final coda serves as the climax of the entire trio as this chorale returns, proclaimed fortissimo by all three instruments with an almost orchestral sonority.