The Community Arts Music Association (CAMA) will present a recital in its “Masterseries” at 8 p.m. Monday in the Lobero Theatre. The sole performer will be the amazing virtuoso fiddler, Christian Tetzlaff, in his first concert in Santa Barbara all by his lonesome since 2008, although he was here in 2011 with the Tetzlaff Quartet.
Tetzlaff’s program will be a demanding — one might even say courageous — one. He will play Eugène Ysaÿe’s Sonata for Violin Solo in g-minor, Opus 27, No. 1, “Joseph Szigeti”; Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonata for Violin Solo No. 3 in C-Major, BWV 1005; Selections from György Kurtág’s Signs, Games and Messages (“Hommage à J.S. Bach,” “In memoriam Tamás Blum,” “Vivo,” “The Carenza Jig,” “Doloroso,” and “Zank-Chromatisch”); and Béla Bartók’s Sonata for Violin Solo, Sz. 117 (1944).
This is a fascinating, even mind-boggling program of great intellectual distinction. The connections between the pieces — some obvious, some subtle to the point of obscurity — suggest that Tetzlaff is deep into a somewhat esoteric investigation of the potentialities of his instrument. (For instance, Ysaÿe was inspired to compose the six solo sonatas of Opus 27 — each dedicated to a virtuoso violinist — when he heard Joseph Szigeti play the Bach sonata on this program. The first sonata is didicated to Szigeti, and contains a fugue and several quotations from the Bach. The Bartók also contains a fugue and was written for Yehudi Menuhin, a student of Georges Enesco, another of the dedicatees of an Opus 27 sonata. The Kurtág contains a piece that is an “Hommage” to Bach. And so on.) That said, it would interest me to know what sort of music lovers he imagines sitting out there in the 600 seats of the Lobero, as intensely committed to his exploration as he is.
Tickets for Christian Tetzlaff are $33 to $43. Click here to purchase tickets online, call or drop by the Lobero Theatre Box Office, 33 E. Canon Perdido, at 805.963.0761.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributing writer. He can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). The opinions expressed are his own.
Comments
