Beethoven, Shostakovich at the Zimmerli

Pianist Rosanne Vita Nahass and violinist Yen Yu return to the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers for “Crosscurrents: Beethoven and Shostakovich” on Sunday, April 14, at 3 p.m.

Tickets are available at the front desk of the museum on the day of the concert, beginning at 12:30 p.m. Prices are $5 for Rutgers faculty, staff, and students (with valid ID); $10 for museum members; and $15 for nonmembers (does not include museum admission). The performance complements the Zimmerli’s extensive collection of Russian and Soviet art, from the 14th century to the present.

Visitors may explore the special exhibition “Leonid Sokov: Ironic Objects,” or the permanent Dodge and Riabov Collections, before and after the concert. More information is available at www.zimmerlimuseum.rutgers.edu or by calling 848.932.7237.

Two Zimmerli favorites, pianist Rosanne Vita Nahass and violinist Yen Yu, team up for a virtuoso concert of German and Soviet music. The duo begins with Beethoven’s “Violin Sonata No. 9,” also known as the “Kreutzer” (which inspired Leo Tolstoy’s 1889 novella “The Kreutzer Sonata”). The piece premiered in 1803 and is known for its demanding violin part and emotional scope. This “conversation” between the two instruments opens with a first movement that is predominantly furious; the second, meditative; and the third, joyous and exuberant. Nahass and Yu also perform the “Sonata for Violin and Piano” Op. 134 by Dmitri Shostakovich. He composed and presented it to violinist David Oistrakh in 1968 as a birthday gift, much to Oistrakh’s delight. The work is representative of Shostakovich's final period, covering roughly the last decade of his life, with a refinement, and a darkening, of his musical language. As Shostakovich's only violin sonata, it is a “big” work – in duration and intensity – and demonstrates his experimentation with traditional techniques. 

Rosanne Vita Nahass helps non-musicians cultivate a better understanding and appreciation for classical music with her innovative style. The Paterson, New Jersey, native earned the Fellowship Diploma from Trinity College London and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Rutgers University. She continued at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and practiced internal medicine for 18 years. After her hiatus from performing, she returned to music to pursue her passion full time. On the surface, music and medicine seem disparate, but the musician fervently believes music is a healing art, essential to our humanity. Nahass has appeared on stage with the New Jersey Symphony, North Jersey Philharmonic, and other local orchestras. In 2011, she also took on the role as independent music producer and released “Bartok and Ives,” her first CD.

A faculty member at the Preparatory Center for the Arts, a division within the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University, Yen Yu grew up in China and began studying the violin with her father at an early age. She entered WuHan Conservatory of Music at age 14, under the tutelage of Professor Zhou Xin Min. Yu then studied at the University of Cincinnati and Juilliard School of Music, and spent many summers at the Aspen Music Festival, Grand Teton Music Festival, and Tanglewood Music Festival. For more than ten years, she was a member of the Richmond Symphony and served on the music faculty at the University of Richmond and the Virginia Commonwealth University. Yu remains an active chamber musician and recitalist and has been praised by critics for her "mellow tone and rich timber."