Quartet Recital
- November 28, 2010 - 2:30pm
- Old Schoolhouse, Qualicum B.C.
- Works by Vivaldi, Glazunow, Bryars, Pierne, Scarlatti, and Piazzolla.
- Admission: $12.00 (Members) $15.00 (Non-members)
- http://www.theoldschoolhouse.org/
Quick Links
Program
1. Quartet in Bb, Op. 109 (1932)
- Alexander Glazounov (1865 - 1936)
Glazounov's music is his own, melodious, and filled with talent. He utilized folk melodies and songs that give his music its Russian character. He was immensely popular in his day and hailed as both a great teacher and exceptional composer. His teachers , Rimsky - Korsakov and Balakirev, encouraged the young Glazounov to compose and when, at just 16 years old, he wrote his first symphony they ensured it was performed. Rimsky-Korsakov declared the work a success: "The public was astounded when the composer came forward in his high school uniform to acknowledge their applause."
I. Partie: Allegro
II. Canzona Variee
III. Finale: Allegro moderato
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2. La Tempesta di Mare Op. 8 No. 5 RV 253
- Antonio Vivaldi (1678 - 1741)
Vivaldi wrote more than 500
concertos, many of them likely
premiered by the young women in
his charge at the Ospedale della
Pietà in Venice where he first
gained employment in 1703.
Baroque Venice established itself
as a seat of artistic excellence in
Europe largely due to its four
conservatories (ospedali) of music. Beginning as
charitable foundations, they developed gradually as
centres of learned musicianship. By the early 1700s,
their excellence was unrivaled. Charles de Brosses,
French Magistrate and President of the Parlement de
Dijon, visited Italy in 1739 and confirmed that "the
Ospedali have the best music here. There are four of
them, all for illegitimate or orphaned girls whose parents
cannot support them. These are brought up at the State's
expense and trained exclusively in music. Indeed they
sing like angels, play the violin, flute, organ, oboe, cello,
bassoon... The performances are entirely their own and
each concert is composed of about forty girls." - Lettres
familières écrites d'Italie (pub. 1799).
I.
Allegro
II. Largo
III. Presto
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Intermission
3. Alaric I or II
-
Gavin Bryars (b.1943)
"The music of Gavin Bryars falls under no category. It is mongrel, full of sensuality and wit and is deeply moving. He is one of the few composers who can put slapstick and primal emotion alongside each other. He allows you to witness new wonders in the sounds around you by approaching them from a completely new angle. With a third ear maybe. . . "- Michael Ondaatje.
4. Three Sonatas
- Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti (1685 - 1757)
The nickname “Cat Fugue”
wasn't introduced until the early
19th century. Legend has it that
Scarlatti had a pet cat called
Pulcinella. The composer
claimed that the cat enjoyed
walking across the keyboard,
always curious about its sounds.
On one occasion, so the story
goes, Scarlatti wrote down a phrase from one of
Pulcinella’s strolls across the keyboard and used it as
the opening motif in the fugue.
I. Sonata in G minor K30 (The Cat Fugue)
II.
Sonata in B minor K87
III. Sonata in F minor K519
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5. La Muerte del Angel
- Astor Piazzolla (1921 - 1992)
In 1953 Piazzolla entered his symphony Buenos Aires in a contest and won a grant from the French government to study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. “When I met her I showed her my kilos of symphonies and sonatas. She started to read them and suddenly came out with a horrible sentence: ‘It's very well written.’ And stopped, with a big period, round like a soccer ball. After a long while, she said: ‘Here you are like Stravinsky, like Bartók, like Ravel, but you know what happens? I can't find Piazzolla in this.’ And she began to investigate my private life... she was like an FBI agent! And I was very ashamed to tell her that I was a tango musician. Finally I said, ‘I play in a night club.’ I didn't want to say cabaret. And she answered, ‘Night club, mais oui, but that is a cabaret, isn't it?’ ‘Yes,’ I answered. It wasn't easy to lie to her. She kept asking: ‘You say that you are not a pianist. What instrument do you play, then?’ And I didn't want to tell her that I was a bandoneon player, because I thought, ‘Then she will throw me from the fourth floor.’ Finally, I confessed and she asked me to play some bars of a tango of my own. She suddenly opened her eyes, took my hand and told me: ‘You idiot, that's Piazzolla!’ And I took all the music I composed, ten years of my life, and sent it to hell in two seconds.” - Ástor Piazzolla, A Memoir.
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6. Introduction et Variations sur une ronde populaire
- Gabriel Pierné (1863 - 1937)
Gabriel Pierné's output as a
composer includes: eight operas,
oratorios, instrumental chamber and
orchestral music, and songs. He
avoided the symphonic form in
favour of orchestral poems and
character pieces. His works are
marked by his perspicuity and
pleasing synthesis of varied
compositional techniques strongly influenced by Franck
and Debussy. His operettas are replete with a charming
sensuosity (e.g. Sophie Arnould, 1927), his large-scale
works (e.g. the 1897 oratorio L'an mil and the opera
Vendée), display a mastery of musical architecture, and the
smaller chamber works (e.g., sonatas for both violin and
cello and a string quintet), are indicative of his exceptional
facility. His most popular works are the oratorio La
Croisade des Enfants (1905), Marche des petits soldats de
plomb and Entrance of the Little Faun for piano, and the
Introduction et variations sur une ronde populaire featured
on tonight’s program.
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