The next free concert from the benevolent folks of the Santa Barbara Music Club takes place at 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, in the Faulkner Gallery of the downtown branch of the Santa Barbara Public Library, located at 40 E. Anapamu Street.
The hour-long program will consist of two dramatically different sonatas: first, cellist Elizabeth Olson and pianist Rosa LoGiudice will perform Ludwig van Beethoven‘s Sonata No. 3, Op. 69 (1808); then Adriane Hill (flute) and Christopher Davis (piano) play Sergey Prokofiev‘s Flute Sonata, Op. 94 (1943).
The Beethoven sonata is the middle work of his five essays in the cello-piano form, written twelve years after the first two (Op. 5, Nos. 1 and 2), and seven years before the last two (Op. 102, Nos. 1 and 2).
All five are unique works, the two of Op. 5 being as different from each other as each is from Op. 69 or the two of Op. 102, which are also different from each other.
The Op. 69 sonata is my favorite, not just of the five cello-piano sonatas, but of all his sonatas featuring two instruments.
I don’t claim that it is the greatest, mind you, just that I prefer it, mainly because of the prancing Walpurgisnacht of a scherzo. It is a playful movement, with just a hint of menace — or, perhaps, menacing, with tongue in cheek.
Of all Beethoven moods, I like this one best. It crops up quite a bit, fortunately, usually involving the piano, his instrument of instruments.
The Prokofiev piece is the Russian composer’s only flute-piano sonata; although, it is sometimes known as his second because David Oistrakh begged him to transcribe the work for violin and piano, which he did.
The flute version, written in 1942, was premiered in 1943. The violin transcription, made in 1943, was premiered by Oistrakh in 1944 — two years before the official number one violin-piano sonata, which he had been working on since 1938.
The issue of which came first, the flute-piano or the violin-piano, is a problem only for obsessive-compulsives.
The most striking thing about the Prokofiev, for me, is how much it sounds like Francis Poulenc.
Composed in the middle of Stalin’s Russia, during the darkest days of World War II — when it was by no means obvious to most people that the Allies were going to triumph over the Axis powers — it is only technically a war composition, and obviously looks back to the much happier times of Paris in the 1920s.
Poulenc and Prokofiev were friends and stayed friends until Prokofiev’s death in 1953. Influence is a slippery commodity, but it is there for anybody with unprejudiced ears.
It is a thoroughly engaging sonata, light-hearted and tuneful.
Thanks to the folks at Santa Barbara Music Club, both major sonatas can be enjoyed from 3-4:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributing writer. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are his own.