Jones-Valve duo

Friday, 13 July at 8pm

Timo-Veikko Valve (Principal ‘Cellist, ACO), Brenda Jones (piano)

Programme

BEETHOVEN – Twelve variations for 'cello and piano on Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, op 66

MOZART – Sonata in F for solo piano, K533/494

INTERVAL

BEETHOVEN – Seven variations for 'cello and piano on Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, WoO 46

BEETHOVEN – Sonata in A for 'cello and piano, op 69

About the Artists

Pianist Brenda Jones enjoys a diverse career as a collaborative pianist and piano teacher. Since moving to Australia in 2005, Brenda has relished the opportunity to pursue her passion for chamber music. She is a frequent recital partner to musicians in the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Sydney Symphony. Brenda has appeared in concert with many chamber ensembles including the Grainger Quartet, Nexus, Opus 2 duo, Sonus Piano Quartet and can be heard at chamber music at festivals across the country.

Before moving to Australia, Brenda had a successful career as a solo pianist. Solo orchestral engagements include the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Kalamazoo Symphony, YMF Orchestra, and the Irish National Symphony Orchestra. She toured Germany and Australia on the KAWAI European concert series and performed throughout the United States, Spain, England, France and Belgium.

Brenda was a top prize winner in the 2003 Dublin International Piano Competition and a semi-finalist in the 2004 Sydney International Piano Competition after winning several top prizes in America at the national level. In 1998, she was named a Gilmore Young Artist, one of America’s most prestigious honours given to pianists. The National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts awarded her its highest Level 1 honor and named her as a finalist for the Presidential Scholar of the Arts award. She was a featured artist on National Public Radio’s Performance Today program as well as WMUK, KUSC, and RTE Ireland radio stations. In Australia she can be heard on ABC Classic FM and 2MBS radio stations.

Brenda received her Bachelors (cum laude) and Masters of Music degrees under full scholarship from the University of Southern California, where she had the honour of studying with renowned pedagogue Prof John Perry. She continued her studies in London with Joan Havill on a full scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. At chamber music festivals across the USA, Brenda has worked with Robert Levin, Anne Epperson, Timothy Eddy, Charles Niedich, and Joseph Silverstein.

Brenda believes strongly in the intrinsic value of music education for people of all ability levels and has maintained an active teaching studio since leaving University. She has adjudicated several competitions in Australia, including the Ku-ring Gai Philharmonic Concerto Competition and the Sydney Eisteddfod.

Timo-Veikko Valve began his studies at the West-Helsinki Music Institute when he was six years old with Eleonora Joffe. In 1997 he moved on to study at the Sibelius Academy. His main teachers were Heikki Rautasalo, Marko Ylönen and Teemu Kupiainen. Valve continued on to study in Edsberg, Stockholm with Torleif Thedéen and Mats Zetterqvist. He graduated from Edsberg in 2006 and from the Sibelius Academy in 2007 focusing on solo performance and chamber music in both institutions.

Timo-Veikko has performed as a soloist with the Helsinki Filharmonia, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Lahti, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Tampere Filharmonia and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra among others. He has also appeared both as a soloist and a chamber musician in Europe, Asia, Australia and in the USA.

Valve has appeared at the Helsinki Festival, Musica Nova Helsinki, Kuhmo Chamber Music, Lahti Sibelius-festival, Järvenpää Sibelius-festival and many other festivals abroad.  He records regularly for the Finnish Broadcasting Company and has given world premiere performances of youth works by Jean Sibelius as well as many other works by contemporary composers, most recently concertos by Aulis Sallinen and Olli Virtaperko.

In November 2006, he was appointed Principal Cello of the Australian Chamber Orchestra and frequently appears as a soloist with his own orchestra.  Valve is also a founding member of Jousia Ensemble and Jousia Quartet.  He performs also regularly with pianist Joonas Ahonen and accordionist Veli Kujala.

Highlights in 2011-12 included his debut performances of the Dvořák Concerto in Melbourne and Helsinki as well as a recording of the concerto.  Other important concerts included the Brahms Double Concerto with Tapiola Sinfonietta.  In 2013, he will play the world première of a new ‘cello concerto written for him by Eero Hämeenniemi with the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra as well as a world premiere of a new piece by Olli Mustonen.

Valve’s instrument is attributed to both Giuseppe Guarneri (filius Andreæ) and Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri (del Gesù) from 1729.  The ‘cello has been generously made available for him by Mr Peter Weiss AM.
www.timo-veikkovalve.fi

Programme Notes 

BEETHOVEN – Twelve variations for 'cello and piano on Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, op 66

Opera and song themes seemed to fascinate Beethoven and he wrote solo keyboard variations on many of them. As well, he wrote four variations on operatic themes for the duo combination of a single stringed instrument and piano.

In 1792-3, he wrote variations on Se vuol ballare from Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro for violin and piano (WoO 40). He followed this in 1796 with Twelve variations for 'cello and piano on Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen from Die Zauberflöte (op 66) and, for the same combination, variations on See, the Conqu'ring Hero Comes from Händel's three-act oratorio, Judas Maccabeus (WoO 45). Five years later, in 1801, he wrote Seven variations for 'cello and piano on Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen again from Die Zauberflöte (WoO 46).

Towards the second act of Die Zauberflöte, Papageno (unlike Tamino) has broken the vows he made at the beginning of the Trials. He is lonely and wants company – preferably female. The forlorn bird-catcher sings the aria, Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen wünscht Papageno sich (A maiden or a little wife is what Papageno desires). At the end of this outpouring, an old woman appears and, after a short conversation with Papageno (who grudgingly says that he'll have to make do with her), miraculously turns into a beautiful young bird-catcher girl. Beethoven, however, doesn't include this happy ending in his variations.

MOZART Sonata in F for solo piano, K533/494

Allegro / Andante / Rondo: Allegretto

Mozart put this oddly labelled piano sonata (K 533/494) together from two separate works. The rondo was composed as a stand-alone work in 1786. The allegro and the andante were written a year later and Mozart subsequently added them to the rondo at the request of his publisher.

Although this sonata was completed by a relatively young composer (aged 32), it is actually a late work for Mozart (who died aged 35) and offers an especially advanced treatment of the traditional sonata architecture.

The first movement begins with a four-bar line of notes in the treble clef – a statement of the first theme, which is more reminiscent of a fugue subject than the formal opening for a sonata. Throughout the movement, there is a considerable contrapuntal interplay which separates this work from most of the earlier sonatas. Substantial chromaticism and unexpected tonal excursions mask the underlying sonata-form structure, putting this sonata in a category of special beauty.

The second and third movements are equally unusual. The second is particularly emotional and, on the surface, has a fantasy-like quality. The third movement is anything but the typical, jovial and driving rondo. Like the first movement, it has its episodes of contrapuntal interplay. A twenty-two bar, two-section, part written in the minor key (both sections being repeated, occurs near the middle of the movement. Unlike the previous two movements, the concluding bars contain unusually low notes, both hands playing in the lower register of the instrument.

BEETHOVEN Seven variations for 'cello and piano on Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, WoO 46

Near the end of the first act of Die Zauberflöte, princess Pamina has been talking to bird-catcher Papageno about her beloved Prince Tamino and how he is taking so long to come to her. Papageno has been lamenting to Pamina that he doesn't even have a girl-friend, let alone a wife. This conversation is followed by the duet, sung by Pamina and Papageno, Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühle, fehlt auch ein gutes Herze nicht (In men who feel love, a good heart, too, is never lacking).

BEETHOVEN Sonata in A for 'cello and piano, op 69

Allegro ma non tanto / Scherzo: allegro molto / Adagio cantabile. Allegro vivace

Beethoven's first pair of two-movement sonatas for 'cello and piano, op 5, which appeared in 1796, established a new form of chamber music and marked the emancipation of the bass member of the violin family. By the time the three-movement A major sonata, op 69, was written in 1808, the spike had been added to the 'cello (formerly, the instrument had been held between the player's knees), giving it more physical stability and increasing its resonance thereby giving it the richer, baritone sound that allowed it to emerge as a proper solo instrument.

The A major sonata was composed at the time of the fifth and sixth symphonies. It was composed in 1808 and dedicated to baron Gleichenstein. The catilena melody, with which the unaccompanied 'cello opens the work, sets the scene for this serenely lyrical work. Beethoven wrote inter lacrymus et luctus (between tearfulness and lamentation) on a copy of this sonata, perhaps referring to the minor-key sections of the first movement and the A minor scherzo. The lovely adagio cantabile breaks off after eighteen bars, giving way to an allegro vivace that returns us to the spirit of the opening movement.