BRAHMS VIOLIN SONATA NO.3 IN D MINOR OP.108

MASTERCLASS

From Brahms Sonatas for Piano and Violin. Urtext edition, paperbound with marked and unmarked string parts. Ed. Hans Hiekel. Pf fingering Hans-Martin Theopold. Vn fingering and bowing Karl Röhrig. Order no. HN 194, ISMN 979-02018-0194-0, €33.50. Printed with permission of G. Henle Verlag, Munich © 1967/1995

Brahms was very critical about his own compositions. He probably burnt more pieces than he published, starting with at least one violin sonata - possibly four_- that he wrote when he was 20. Initially the first one, in A minor, was rejected by his publisher, Breitkopf and Härtel, and later he destroyed that and the others because they failed to meet his own high standards. These standards never diminished: he wrote this Third Sonata in his fifties, and it is a great, temperamental and inspirational piece, in perfectly constructed sonata-allegro form, worked out so carefully that you can’t take out one note or add one in. To me, it is one of the most important and immaculate pieces written for the violin.

Intimate chamber music

Although Brahms has a reputation for being expansive, with a huge piano sound, in reality his sonatas are intimate pieces of chamber music. When in 1888 he premiered the Third Sonata with Jeno Hubay - who taught my teacher, Ilona Fehér - a ‘big’ concert hall could seat a maximum of 400 to 500 people. Performances would have been much smaller than they are today. In his summer house in Mürzzuschlag, Austria, the saloon contains a small stage, a_Viennese piano with a far lighter sound than today’s Steinways, and space for only around 30 people. Accordingly, there isn’t a single fortissimo in his first two violin sonatas, and in the third the violin has just one, in the last movement.

A detailed score

One should pay close attention to the dynamics, slurs, rhythms, instructions and articulations that Brahms chose to include or omit in his music. He marked these very carefully, as he wished them to be played.is first movement begins with an intimate sotto voce ma espressivo, with a transparent sound. Some violinists play a big crescendo into the second bar, but Brahms didn’t want that if he didn’t write it. If anything, the first bar should be heavier than the second, firstly because Brahms’s musical emphasis usually falls from heavy to light, as with the music of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Mendelssohn. Secondly, the two notes are slurred, so the second note should naturally taper away from the first.

YOEL LEVY

THE SOLOIST

NAME

HAGAI SHAHAM

NATIONALITY

ISRAELI

STUDIED WITH

ILONA FEHÉR, EMANUEL BOROK,

ARNOLD STEINHARDT

RECORDED FOR

NIMBUS, HYPERION, DECCA,

CHANDOS, NAXOS, AVIE

'Play with integrity, rather than tipping backwards and forwards like a boat on a stormy sea'

For information about Hagai Shaham’s latest recordings and engagements, visit www.hagaishaham.œm

There are ten hairpins in the first theme alone, which is a lot even for Brahms! These do not indicate huge crescendos and diminuendos, but opportunities to take time, add vibrato and vary the speed of the bow. He places sostenutos, ritardandos and swells carefully, to let you know when to play with more freedom.

The rests in bars 10, 41 and elsewhere are like little gasps of excitement, but they shouldn’t interrupt the flow of the phrase. I.choose my bowing to avoid accenting the notes that come after them. Try to bring out the secondary ‘hidden’ rhythm of three minims (h) created by Brahms’s slurs, as in bars 10-11 (F-D-C sharp), and avoid playing the dots on the last two notes of bar.23 too short, or they will risk sounding inappropriately happy.

When the second theme appears in the violin part from bar.61 (it is first played by the piano from bar 48), look how many markings there are: slurs, dots, crescendos, diminuendos, sforzandos! It’s very fussy, with a.lot of information to help you play expressively. Try to follow all of these markings as they are written - particularly in bar.232, where people often begin the diminuendo too soon. Brahms wrote what he wanted us to play and.I.think that we should take good care of these things.

Expressive style

To build a better understanding of how Brahms would have heard this sonata, it can be helpful to.listen to recordings of.Joseph Joachim, Hubay and Arnold Rosé, all of whom premiered his pieces, and of their students, including Joseph Szigeti (bit.ly/2Rnl8Bg). In their recordings, Joachim and Rosé use minimal vibrato; Hubay uses much more. All fill the music with expressive, vocal shifts, portamento and rubato.

Fingerings and portamento

Fingerings are to do with interpretation and I.like to change mine every time I.play any piece. Sometimes I.will mark three or four options and move between them, depending on how I.feel, although I’ve limited myself to two here! If I.am performing in a big hall or a dry acoustic, I.might play more on the E string instead of high up the A string, and split the bows more often. In an intimate set-up, I’ll.use more A string, with fewer bow changes.

For slurs, I.try to stay on one string, to.maintain one beautiful colour, as in bars.57-59. I.don’t write glissando lines in my music, but I do play little slides to show the.melodic tension and distance of each interval here. Sometimes I add a glissando in bar 63, after the second theme begins for the violin, and another one for the shift near the end of the theme in bar.72, for added sweetness.

I use a lot of extensions and stretches, but I.don’t slide every time. Most of.my shifts are clean, for example in bars.45-46, into bar.66 and into bar.89. When you feel it’s right, you can slide. Otherwise, avoid it: slides should come from the heart, not from the fingers! Only play portamento in good taste, without exaggeration, so that it sounds noble and never cheap.

Slides should come from the heart, not from the singer

I.use open strings in places where the sound doesn’t need to be espressivo, such as bars.21 and 233, but I.don’t think anything should be set in stone. I.always write in pencil and use an.eraser. Sometimes I.will think, ‘This is.a great idea!’ and then a year later I.will look at my markings and go, ‘What is that? Forget about it!’

Brahms’s bowings

Ideally I.would always use Brahms’s bowings, but this isn’t always practical. For the passage from bar.120, I.split the bow to give myself more air, so that I.can play as though the sun is really shining before falling back into sadness. Splitting the bow doesn’t mean to play an accent or with an obvious bow change, of course: it should be legato. Use whichever bowings you deem necessary to sound at your best.

Tempo and timing

This Allegro should flow forward, with rubato for the expressive swells.the first theme is beautiful, but if you play it too slowly it will be difficult to continue in that tempo from bar.25, where many people hit the gas and rush ahead.

Instead try to find a common tempo for the first and second themes, and work out how exible you can be within that. You don’t have to play with a.metronome - just find a.thread to tie the movement together. Play.with integrity, rather than tipping backwards and forwards like a boat on a stormy sea.

When I.was younger I.would play a crescendo or a diminuendo every four bars, and take more time for every beautiful harmony. Nowadays I.interpret the recurring piano left-hand rhythmic drone A from bar.84 to indicate a.more serious, straight tempo. I.have also come to think of.the passages from bars.84, 96 and 236 as being calm and rhythmically stable, like a Bach pedal point. They should sound haunting and fragile, with the two strings played almost together, legatissimo. In bar.89, it is as though a new voice has suddenly woken up and risen above all the others in the swamp, before returning to the cool material of bar.92 and coming out again for bar.101. The music is constantly shifting, in the violin and in the piano.

An interpretative approach

My approach today is more minimalistic and introverted than it used to be. I have come to.see the whole sonata as one unit connected by four movements. Finding an interpretation has become like going on a journey. If you stop for too long to look at a small, beautiful ower on the way, you may not have time to visit a big, exciting feature further along the road. I.try to live each moment as it unfolds, to.deliver the composer’s ideas as clearly and convincingly as possible.

This is a sonata to come back to again and again.as you grow musically. Each time.you work on it you will develop a better understanding of Brahms’s music and the connections within it. The material is so fresh that it’s possible to perform it over and over again, without ever getting bored. That, at least, is my experience, and I’ve been playing it.for 35 years.