Violinist and conductor Pinchas Zukerman

PROGRAMME:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Overture from the opera Die Zauberflöte
Violin Concerto No 3 in G Major, KV 216

Johannes Brahms
Symphony No 1 in C Minor, Op. 68

PERFORMERS:
Soloists and conductor: Pinchas Zukerman
The Mariinsky Orchestra

Pinchas Zukerman is one of the most preeminent violinists of the present day. He was born in Tel Aviv in 1948 to a family of Polish Jews who miraculously survived the Holocaust. His first teacher was his father, who before WW II was a violinist with the Warsaw Philharmonic. As a boy he subsequently studied at the Tel Aviv School of Music and at the age of twelve made his debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. One year later, during a tour of Israel, Zukerman was heard by Isaac Stern and Pablo Casals who recommended he receive a grant to study in the USA. At the Juilliard School in New York Zukerman was taught by Ivan Alexandrovich Galamian, who had himself studied under Konstantin Mostras at the Philharmonic School in Moscow – you just can’t get away from the Russian violin school! In line with established tradition, extending almost back to the times of Bach, Zukerman also perfected his technique as a violist. His victory at the International Leventritt Competition in New York in 1967 opened the doors to prestigious concert halls and contracts with major recording companies. In 1969 Zukerman appeared with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Bernstein, and two years later gave a recital in New York. That was when he took up conducting seriously.
Today Pinchas Zukerman appears across the globe as a soloist (violin and viola) and as a conductor, collaborating with major concert agencies, the finest orchestras and the most outstanding musicians. He has always had a great passion for chamber music. His numerous awards and prizes include a 1994 Grammy for a recording of Trios for Strings by Beethoven together with Itzhak Perlman and Lynn Harrell.
He has yet another unexpected artistic talent as an actor; he has appeared in the popular US series Judge, Jury, Executioner, The Bell Telephone Hour, American Masters and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Valery Gergiev never fails to speak with delight about his concerts with Zukerman. At the most recent Easter Festival they appeared in Kazan, Kaliningrad, Murmansk, Petrozavodsk and even Belomorsk as well as in Moscow and St Petersburg.
At this year’s Stars of the White Nights festival Zukerman will be appearing twice: on 25 June he will be the soloist in a Beethoven concert (conducted by Valery Gergiev), and on 28 June he will appear as soloist and conductor in a performance of Mozart’s Violin Concerto in G Major, the overture from Die Zauberflöte and Brahms’ First Symphony.
Iosif Raiskin

“... You know yourself how well you play the violin – indeed, you could be the finest violinist in Europe,” Leopold Mozart wrote to his son. His opinion may be taken as a fact – this was not just a father’s praise; the author of Versuch einer Gründlichen Violinschule and one of the finest teachers of his age was the great composer’s first teacher and mentor. The young Mozart’s performances delighted audiences in Salzburg, where Wolfgang Amadeus served under the Archbishop Hieronymus von Colloredo.
Mozart’s legacy for the violin includes more than forty sonatas and variations for violin and harpsichord, concerti and chamber duets for strings and solo concert works. Of the seven violin concerti the five which were composed in 1775 stand out. These include Concerto No 3 in G Major (K. 216). It was at this time that the nineteen-year-old Mozart was successfully performing as a solo violinist and, apparently, composing concerti to expand his own repertoire. The orchestra in these concerti is incredibly small and, basically, plays a secondary, accompanying role.
Their dazzling melodic richness, the incredibly subtle knowledge of the nature of the instrument and the brilliance of the form have made Mozart’s concerti an integral part of the “gold reserves” of violin music.
Iosif Raiskin

Having just become familiar with his piano sonatas, Robert Schumann saw a symphony composer in Brahms. Composing for an orchestra was Schumann’s legacy to his younger colleague. And Clara Schumann, who had at one time inspired her brilliant husband to turn to the symphony genre, now inspired Brahms to work in that genre too (interestingly, both composers wrote four symphonies).
In Brahms’ First Symphony (1862–1876) there is much that is reminiscent of Beethoven. The music moves “from darkness into light,” here you can sense the desire and readiness “to grab destiny by the throat” and the entire first movement flows in a battle between upper and bass registers. Following the example of Haydn’s late sonatas and Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, the second movement was composed in a tonality very remote from the main one. The third movement is a gracious and feminine scherzo. The finale is one of Brahms’ loftiest achievements, and one of which he was justifiably proud. The broad theme in major key from the introduction may have suggested to Mahler the idea that a “symphony should be like the world.” The main theme with its many voices resounds like a chorale, in parts resembling the theme of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy: after the battle in the first movement, in the finale a long-awaited unification occurs.
The symphony was published by Simrock, and published so well that Brahms wrote to his publisher of their joint work that “It is lying on the piano and is delighting and surprising everyone; I have to stop young composers seeing it, otherwise you would be sent too many symphonies.”
Anna Bulycheva

Pinchas Zukerman’s appearances at the Mariinsky are made possible by the generous support of Frederick Iseman to The Mariinsky Foundation of America.