09/14/2025
Daniel Kurganov, violin
Constantine Finehouse, piano
Baal Shem (Three Pictures of Hasidic Life) - Ernest Bloch
II. Nigun (Improvisation)
Violin Sonata in G Major, Op. 78 - Johannes Brahms
I. Vivace ma non troppo
II. Adagio
Capriccio in G Minor, Op. 116 No. 3 - Johannes Brahms
"Liebesleid" - Fritz Kreisler
"It Ain't Necessarily So" from Porgy & Bess - George Gershwin
From the first note, Bloch’s "Nigun" pulls you into another world. The violin doesn’t just play—it cries, whispers, pleads. Bloch captures the ungraspable: that moment in Hasidic prayer when words fall away and only the soul can sing.
From that intensity, we move to Brahms’s luminous G Major Sonata. But this isn’t overtly sunny music—it’s more of memory made sound. Written in the summer of 1878–79, it carries the nickname “Rain” Sonata, being based on a song by the same name. The opening rocks as if a lullaby for grownups who’ve lived too much, while the Adagio sinks deeper still, to the place where words no longer reach, shifting between moments of hope and heartbreak.
Brahms's Capriccio similarly opens with desperation, almost consternation, only to be consoled by the prayerful middle section, written as a chorale. The storm returns, however and brings the
piece to a dramatic conclusion.
After such emotional heft, Kreisler’s "Liebesleid" arrives like a bittersweet sigh. “Love’s Sorrow,” as the title translates, is a Viennese waltz seen as if through an image of fading roses—melancholy, nostalgic, and irresistible in its charm.
We close with Gershwin’s "It Ain’t Necessarily So"—a splash of American wit after so much European soulful intensity. Here the violin and piano get to swing, spar, and smile. It’s a perfect conclusion: a reminder that music can lift as well as break the
heart.
Photographs by Brad Dinerman
