program note
mystery sonatas was premiered 29 April 2014 by Augustin Hadelich, in Zankel Hall, as part of the series I curated called ‘collected stories,’ and in conjunction with my year as the holder of Carnegie Hall’s Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair.
‘Mystery Sonatas’ is the name of a remarkable set of violin pieces from the 1670’s by the Bohemian composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, one of the great violin virtuosi of his day. This is a bizarre and fiery set of sonatas in which Biber depicts the story of the birth, the crucifixion, and the resurrection of Jesus, in 15 separate sonatas, each of them with their own individual movements, each telling one part of the story of Jesus. More interesting, perhaps, is that each sonata is in its own special tuning, requiring a pause between movements in performance so that the strings of the violin can be completely adjusted. And to me more interesting still is the idea that one might want to express one’s most personal, most intimate, most spiritual thoughts through wild displays of virtuosity. Because Biber’s pieces really are wild.
I decided to make my own virtuosic pieces, about my most intimate, most spiritual thoughts. Mine are not about Jesus, and the violin is not retuned between movements, but I did keep one of Biber’s distinctions. He divides Jesus’s life into three phases– the joyous, the sorrowful, and the glorious. The central pieces of my mystery sonatas are called ‘joy,’ ‘sorrow,’ and ‘glory,’ but in my piece these are all quiet, internal, reflective states of being.
I want to thank Augustin Hadelich for his commitment and musicality, and Carnegie Hall for letting me do this piece, this concert, this series and this year.
