Programs.

for heaven’s sake.

  • First Half

    Version 1
    György Ligeti – Sonata for Solo Viola (17’)

    Or Version 2
    Fazıl Say – Sonata for Solo Viola (11’)

    Krzysztof Penderecki – Cadenza for Solo Viola (9’)

    Johann Sebastian Bach – Chaconne (originally for violin, performed in viola version) (16’)

    — Intermission —

    Second Half

    Michael Kugel – Prelude to Ysaÿe (5’)

    Johann Sebastian Bach / Zoltán Kodály – Chromatic Fantasy (originally for keyboard, arranged for viola) (10’)

    Niccolò Paganini / Michael Kugel – “La Molinara” (Nel cor più non mi sento) (originally for violin, arranged for viola) (12’)

  • This program is built on contrast — not of style, but of character.

    Some works reach upward, toward order, transcendence, and spiritual architecture. Others lean toward tension, darkness, irony, and theatrical intensity. The viola becomes the medium through which these opposing forces confront one another.

    Bach represents elevation — clarity of structure, inevitability of harmony, music that stands almost beyond the individual performer. In contrast, composers such as Paganini, Ligeti, and Fazıl Say explore the restless, human, and at times unsettling side of expression: virtuosity, fragmentation, urgency, and emotional extremity.

    For Heaven’s Sake is therefore not a religious statement, but a dramatic one. It reflects the full emotional spectrum of solo music — from the sublime to the provocative.

  • Ligeti or Say & Penderecki

    Ligeti’s Sonata for Solo Viola presents a world of sharp contrasts and unpredictable shifts. It challenges both performer and listener with its abrupt gestures and refined structural thinking. The music often feels unstable, as if constantly testing the limits of control.

    Fazıl Say’s Sonata for Solo Viola carries a deeply personal background. Say had long intended to write for the viola, but only composed the sonata after the death of a close friend. The work carries an undercurrent of regret and urgency, shaped by both grief and reflection. Paired with Penderecki’s concentrated and dramatic Cadenza, this version of the program foregrounds intensity and immediacy.

    Both options establish the darker, more restless pole of the recital.

    Johann Sebastian Bach – Chaconne

    Originally written for solo violin, Bach’s Chaconne remains one of the most profound statements in Western music. Performed on the viola, its harmonic weight acquires additional depth and gravity.

    Here, the music moves toward the elevated and the structured — a sense of inevitability rather than impulse. Within the architecture of variations lies a force that feels ordered, almost transcendent. It stands as the central axis of the program.

    Michael Kugel – Prelude to Ysaÿe

    Kugel’s Prelude is both homage and continuation. Referencing the solo violin sonatas of Eugène Ysaÿe, it reclaims that tradition for the viola. The work bridges Romantic expressiveness and modern virtuosity, reinforcing the instrument’s independent voice.

    Bach / Kodály – Chromatic Fantasy

    Kodály’s adaptation of Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy transfers keyboard rhetoric to a single bowed instrument. The result is bold and dramatic, with an improvisatory spirit that contrasts with the strict architecture of the Chaconne. The work expands the instrument’s expressive and harmonic possibilities.

    Paganini / Kugel – “La Molinara”

    Paganini’s variations, reimagined for viola by Michael Kugel, represent the program’s most overtly theatrical element. Here, virtuosity becomes playful, ironic, and slightly subversive. It is brilliant and dazzling — a counterweight to Bach’s elevated gravity.

  • Duration: approx. 65–70 minutes

a fume of sighs.

  • First Half

    Evgeny Zemtsov – Melodie im Alten Stil (approx. 5 min)
    Sergei Prokofiev / arr. Knigge – Romeo and Juliet Suite for Viola and Piano (approx. 20–22 min)

     

    — Intermission —

     

    Second Half

    César Franck – Sonata in A Major for Viola and Piano (approx. 28–30 min)
    Georges Bizet / Franz Waxman – Carmen Fantasy (approx. 20 min)

  • A Fume of Sighs explores love not as abstraction, but as force: tender, impulsive, tragic, and theatrical.

    The program moves from personal intimacy to dramatic extremity. It begins with a work rooted in lived experience and unfolds toward larger narratives of passion, devotion, and fate. Each composition reflects a different emotional register, yet all revolve around the same central impulse: love as transformation.

    Rather than presenting love as a single emotion, the program traces its spectrum — nostalgia, awakening, devotion, conflict, seduction, and intensity.

  • Evgeny Zemtsov – Melodie im Alten Stil

    This work carries a deeply personal significance for Dana. Evgeny Zemtsov, the composer, is her grandfather, and the piece was written at the beginning of his own love story, when he first met the woman who would become his wife. For Dana, performing this work is therefore not only an artistic choice but a connection to her own family history and musical lineage.

    The music reflects early tenderness and sincerity rather than grand drama. Its simplicity is deliberate: a direct melodic voice shaped by affection and quiet anticipation. Placed at the opening of the recital, the piece establishes intimacy before the larger emotional canvases that follow.

    Prokofiev / Knigge – Romeo and Juliet Suite

    Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet remains one of the most powerful musical portrayals of youthful love and tragic destiny. In the arrangement for viola and piano by Knigge, the orchestral textures are distilled into a concentrated dramatic form.

    This version presents selected movements in a cohesive arc, highlighting the clarity of Prokofiev’s thematic material and the sharp contrasts between innocence, irony, violence, and devotion. Without orchestral weight, the emotional narrative becomes more exposed and immediate. The viola assumes both lyric and dramatic roles, moving from lyrical confession to fatal inevitability.

    César Franck – Sonata in A Major

    Franck’s Sonata stands at the center of the recital as its structural and emotional anchor. Though not programmatic in a literal sense, the work is saturated with longing and expansiveness. Cyclical form binds its movements together, creating a sense of inevitability and return.

    The sonata’s lyrical breadth, harmonic richness, and gradual intensification reflect love as enduring commitment rather than impulse. It offers depth, reflection, and sustained intensity.

    Bizet / Waxman – Carmen Fantasy

    The recital concludes with virtuosity and fire. Waxman’s Carmen Fantasy, based on Bizet’s opera, captures love in its most volatile and theatrical form. Desire, defiance, seduction, and fatal attraction collide in brilliant display.

    Here love is no longer inward but explosive. The viola navigates brilliance and drama, ending the program with unapologetic intensity.

  • Duration: approx. 80–85 minutes

  • Dana Zemtsov | Viola

    Anna Fedorova | Piano

Love Triangle.

  • First Half

    Clara Schumann – Three Romances No. 1 (approx. 4 min)
    Robert Schumann – Märchenbilder (approx. 16 min)
    Clara Schumann – Three Romances No. 2 (approx. 4 min)
    Johannes Brahms – Scherzo “Frei aber einsam” (approx. 5 min)

     — Intermission —

    Second Half

    Robert Schumann – Adagio and Allegro (approx. 9 min)
    Clara Schumann – Three Romances No. 3 (approx. 4 min)
    Johannes Brahms – Sonata No. 2 in E flat Major (approx. 30 min)

  • This program explores one of the most compelling artistic constellations of the nineteenth century: Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms.

    Their personal and artistic lives were deeply intertwined. Admiration, loyalty, creative influence, emotional complexity all found expression in music of remarkable intimacy and intensity.

    Love Triangle does not aim to retell biography. Instead, it places the music at the center, allowing the emotional currents between these three composers to emerge through contrast, dialogue, and shared language.

    The viola, with its warm and human timbre, becomes the ideal voice for this repertoire, poised between lyricism and introspection, between tenderness and restraint.

    What is most essential in this program is the musical continuity that emerges through its sequence. Despite the distinct personalities of Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms, a shared emotional intensity connects their works. In this particular order, the pieces reveal a coherent arc, contrasting in character, yet united by an unmistakable inner tension and expressive depth.

  • Clara Schumann – Three Romances

    Clara Schumann’s Romances frame the program in three stages. These works are not miniature salon pieces; they are concise statements of emotional clarity and refinement. The melodic line unfolds with directness, yet beneath the surface lies compositional precision and strength.

    Placed throughout the recital, the three Romances function almost as reflections, returning to a voice that is both central and often historically overshadowed.

    Robert Schumann – Märchenbilder

    Märchenbilder moves between narrative imagination and inner turbulence. The four movements shift character rapidly: lyrical, restless, playful, and intense. The work reflects Robert Schumann’s gift for compressing psychological complexity into concentrated forms.

    Here, dialogue between viola and piano becomes dramatic rather than decorative.

    Johannes Brahms – Scherzo “Frei aber einsam”

    Originally part of the collaborative F A E Sonata, Brahms’ Scherzo carries a youthful intensity. Its motto, Frei aber einsam, free but alone, hints at a personal credo: independence paired with inwardness. The piece brings urgency and rhythmic drive into the program’s first half.

     

    Robert Schumann – Adagio and Allegro

    Adagio and Allegro juxtaposes lyrical expansiveness with decisive forward motion. The work bridges introspection and declaration, a contrast that mirrors the broader emotional architecture of the recital.

    Johannes Brahms – Sonata No. 2 in E flat Major

    Brahms’ Sonata No. 2 belongs to his final creative period. In 1890 he had effectively announced his retirement from composition. The encounter with the clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld reawakened his creative impulse and led to a remarkable late flowering of chamber works, including the Op. 120 sonatas.

    In this sonata, structural authority meets lyrical freshness. The music carries the depth of experience yet speaks with transparency and warmth. Its language is refined and economical, free of excess, yet emotionally generous. The sonata closes the program with a sense of resolution that is grounded, mature, and quietly radiant rather than dramatic or sentimental.

  • Duration: approx. 75–80 minutes

  • Dana Zemtsov | Viola

    Anna Fedorova | Piano