Belknap-Beus Duo
7:30 PM | SEPT. 24, 2026 | RECITAL HALL | MUSIC BUILDING
Sonatina (for Violin and Piano-2026) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NEIL THORNOCK Punchy, vigorous Flowing, somewhat quick Floating, relaxed
b. 1977
Kaleidoscope, op. 50 (1893) 24 miniatures written for Violin and Piano . . . . . . . . . . . . CÉSAR CUI Moment intime Dans la brume Musette Simple chanson Berceuse ("Dors, petit gas") Notturino Intermezzo Cantabile Orientale (The most famous movement in the suite) Questions et réponses Arioso Spiccato (Perpetuum mobile) Badinage Appassionato Danse rustique Barcarola (Barcarolle) Prélude (Based on Petit prélude No. 1 for piano) Mazurka Valse Novelette Lettre d'amour Scherzetto Petite caprice Allegro scherzoso
1835–1918
Tzigane, Concert Rhapsody for Violin and Piano (1924) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MAURICE RAVEL 1875–1937
Program Notes Sonatina (for Violin and Piano-2026) I have always enjoyed incorporating dance forms into my music—baroque dance suites, fiddle tunes, and ragtime. The first movement of this piece opens with a wild, restless, distorted gallop that transitions into a waltz before turning to a rambunctious finish. A bit worn from the wild rumpus, the middle movement settles into a flowing folk-tune-inspired melody. And then the final movement floats off like a balloon in a completely different direction. – Neil Thornock, composer Kaleidoscope, op. 50 (1893) César Antonovich Cui occupies a unique position in music history as both a romantic composer and a high-ranking military general. The son of a French officer who settled in Vilnius after Napoleon’s retreat, Cui became a leading authority on military fortifications, eventually teaching the future Tsar Nicholas II. He spent his days lecturing at military academies in Saint Petersburg and his nights working as a composer and a fiercely opinionated music critic. As a founding member of The Mighty Handful (also known as The Five), alongside Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Borodin, and Balakirev, Cui championed a distinct Russian national style, though his own compositions often favored the delicate elegance of Western European salon music. Composed in 1893, Kaleidoscope is a collection of 24 miniatures specifically written for violin and piano. True to its title, the set functions like a musical kaleidoscope, shifting rapidly from one distinct color, texture, and mood to another. Across the 24 pieces, Cui explores standard romantic forms— including a Berceuse, a Barcarolle, a Scherzetto, and a Valse— utilizing short, lyrical phrases and balancing the technical demands of both instruments.
While the full set is rarely performed in its entirety, individual movements remain vital staples of the violin repertoire. Chief among these is No. 9, Orientale, an exquisite example of late 19th-century musical exoticism. Written in a lilting 6/8 meter, it opens with a hypnotic, repetitive ostinato in the piano that mimics a traditional hand drum. Above this pulse, the violin introduces a winding, melancholic melody rich with chromatic inflections and modal shifts, capturing a sultry, evocative atmosphere that made it one of the most celebrated parlor encores of the early 20th century.
Tzigane, Concert Rhapsody for violin and orchestra During one of Maurice Ravel’s visits to London, following a private musicale during which the Hungarian violinist Jelly d’Arányi performed the composer’s recent Sonata for Violin and Cello with the cellist Hans Kindler, Ravel asked Mlle. d’Arányi— who was a grandniece of the famed Austro-Hungarian violinistcomposer-conductor-teacher Joseph Joachim—to play him some Gypsy melodies. This went on until five in the morning and presumably was the first event in the history of Ravel’s Tzigane for violin and orchestra. Ravel completed the Tzigane (which means “Gypsy”) just shortly before its premiere in April 1924; the orchestral version was given for the first time half a year later. On both these occasions, the soloist was Mlle. d’Arányi, who was dedicatee of the violin sonatas by Vaughan Williams and Bartók as well as of the present work. It was also she who spurred the unearthing of Robert Schumann’s Violin Concerto in 1937 by claiming the composer’s spirit had visited her. When it was new, a striking feature of Tzigane in its original violin-and-piano version was Ravel’s use of the recently devised piano-luthéal, a modified grand piano that allowed the player to alter the timbre of the instrument by employing harmonium-like stops set above the keyboard to produce a variety of sounds (lute- and harpsichord-like, as well as the normal timbre of the piano). One of these stops—fittingly, for Tzigane—created
a sound similar to the Hungarian cimbalom, a hammered dulcimer whose use in that country is traceable back to the 16th century. Ravel also called for this instrument in his opera L’Enfant et les sortilèges (“The Child and the Magic Spells”), completed in 1925. In any event, the first performance of Tzigane astounded both the composer and the audience, especially given the limited rehearsal time. Ravel’s ability to write for an instrument he had never studied also attracted notice. The reviewer for the London Times, however, was skeptical. Describing the piece as “rhapsodical in the literal meaning of the word, being a series of episodes in the Hungarian manner strung together,” he was “puzzled to understand what M. Ravel is at. Either the work is a parody of the Liszt-Hubay-Brahms-Joachim school of Hungarian violin music…or it is an attempt to get away from the limited sphere of his previous compositions to infuse into his work a little of the warm blood it needs.” Such commentary seems superfluous. Tzigane is, simply and straightforwardly, a virtuoso showpiece, opening with an extended “quasi cadenza” for the soloist and, along the way, using just about every violinist trick in the book. - Note by Marc Mandel, Boston Symphony Orchestra
Your donations open doors for BYU School of Music students!
D O NATE N OW