JANINE JANSEN / MISCHA MAISKY / MARTHA ARGERICH
Last year, Martha Argerich and Mischa Maisky celebrated their fiftieth anniversary of performing together on stage in Verbier. Ever-loyal fixtures of the Festival, they reunite with the magnificent Janine Jansen for a chamber music program not to be missed.
Programme
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Cello Sonata No. 2 in G minor Op. 5 No. 2
Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major Op. 47 “Kreutzer”
Interval
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)
Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor Op. 67
Martha Argerich and Mischa Maisky play Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 5 in D Major, Op. 102 No. 2
The first half opens with Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 2, one of the earliest major works written for this pairing of instruments. Its dynamic and expressive contrasts unfold through a dialogue between Mischa Maisky and Martha Argerich shaped by decades of musical friendship. It is followed by the virtuosic “Kreutzer” Sonata, written by Beethoven in the manner of a concerto and contemporary with his famous Eroica Symphony. Dismissed at its premiere as “artistic terrorism”, it has since become one of the most beloved sonatas in the repertoire, “a true hand-to-hand combat between the two instruments”, in the words of musicologist Chantavoine.
The second half brings Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 2, composed in 1944 as a tribute to his friend Ivan Sollertinsky, who had died that same year. One of the most devastating works in the chamber repertoire of the 20th century: steeped in grief and the composer’s characteristic bitter irony, it brings all three instruments together with devastating force.
