Date: June 13th at 7:00 pm

 

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791)   Oboe Quintet in C Minor K. 406a

Mozart’s music has been, at times, berated as being 'ear candy' of conservatively run, classical radio stations. However one need only listen to his oboe quintet to appreciate the genius of the composer. This is a work of beauty and elegance, and yet explores a wide emotional range. There is soulfulness about this piece that has an uncommon appeal. Mozart's Oboe Quintet in C minor, K 406a is a reworking of a reworking. Originally composed as a wind serenade (K. 388), Mozart arranged the piece for string quintet, an ensemble choice made popular by Michael Haydn, to fill out a set of three such works that included the quintets K. 515-516. In this version, the oboe has taken over the traditional role of the first violin, with some rather vague claim in the original program notes that his decision is justified by the oboe’s tone being closest to that of the human voice. I'm sure this pronouncement has pleased all oboe players at some point in their lives. The C minor quintet is, of course, a convincing and pleasant combination of instruments! Not often do we have the chance to hear this gem.

 

REBECCA CLARKE (1886-1979)   Prelude and Allegro  

Born and raised in England, Clarke spent much of her adulthood in the United States and she claimed both English and American nationality. Her family was artistically inclined and her musical studies were encouraged. Clarke enrolled at the Royal Academy of Music in 1903, where she studied the violin. She was abruptly withdrawn from the institution in 1905, when her harmony teacher, Percy Miles, proposed marriage. In 1907 she began a composition course at the Royal Conservatory of Music, where she was Stanford's first female student. Again, she was unable to finish her studies, as her father suddenly banished her from the family home. To support herself, Clarke embarked on an active performing career as a violist, and in 1912 she became one of the first female musicians in a fully professional ensemble, the Queen's Hall orchestra.

In a note preserved in a scrapbook of the 1942 ISCM conference, Clarke describes the Prelude, Allegro and Pastorale she had written for the festival, and also mentions her modest circumstances of employment as a nanny. She was particularly proud that her work was included, as she was one of only three British composers represented and, as she and others noted, the only woman. In the early 1940s Clarke became reacquainted with James Friskin, a member of the piano department at the Juilliard School, whom she had first known as a student at the Royal Conservatory of Music; the couple married in 1944.

The Prelude, Allegro and Pastorale for clarinet and viola (1941) explores a neo-classical idiom. With its driving momentum, the Allegro can be compared to Stravinsky.

 

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791)   Flute Quartet in A Major

If the A Major Flute Quartet provides any indication of Mozart’s relationship with the family that inspired him to write the work (a close-knit bunch in Vienna that he taught, ate, drank with and visited often) then it must have been a joyous and uplifting friendship. Mozart's writing is playful and light-filled throughout, unruffled by either a slow movement or any serious or deep emotions. The first movement is an evenly balanced set of variations based on a theme attributed to the contemporary Viennese composer Franz Anton Hoffmeister -- the flute introduces the subject and takes the first variation, after which the violin, viola and cello, in turn, provide their own embroidery around the theme. The trio section of the short middle movement gives a nod to an old French song titled "Il a des bottes, des bottes, Bastien." Mozart, who loved to play jokes and tease his friends, wrote on the closing Rondo, "Not too fast, but also not too slow -- so-so -- with much elegance and expression," and then went on to compose one of his most beguiling works based on a Paisiello operatic theme.

 

FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)   Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor Op. 49

His friend Robert Schumann called Felix Mendelssohn "the Mozart of the 19th century," not least because of the astounding number of works he produced during his short lifetime: volumes of works for piano and for organ; five symphonies; monumental choral pieces; overtures and incidental music; songs and part-songs; and no fewer than two dozen chamber works. Throughout Europe, Mendelssohn was in demand as an organist, pianist, conductor, and composer, spending his last decade as conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig. There he championed neglected works of the previous century, premiered his own compositions and those of his contemporaries, and tried to raise the standards of both orchestral performance and public taste.

Never an innovator, Mendelssohn strove to reconcile the classical heritage of the 18th century with the romantic tenor of his own. He spent a good deal of 1839 working on his First Piano Trio, beginning as early as February and still revising it well into September. In fact, even after its publication the next year, he continued to tinker with it, so much so that a second version had to be brought out.

The cello’s melancholy first theme opens the Molto allegro e agitato and is expanded upon by the violin, highlighted by lovely countermelodies. The second theme, also introduced by the cello, lacks the contrast usually found in second themes. The boundary between exposition and development is obscured by the early return of the first theme, and the recap is notable for the extensive thematic reworking that amounts to a second development before the coda.

Although the slow movement is in ABA form and in the lyrical spirit of Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words, there is again less contrast between the sections than one might expect. The minor-mode mid-section with its triplet accompaniment gives way to a newly ornamented return of the opening theme. Staccato piano introduces the Scherzo: Leggiero e vivace (“light and lively”), transporting listeners to the elfin and evanescent world for which Mendelssohn is renowned.  A gypsy-like dance dominates the rondo-form finale, where the piano presents nearly all the new ideas save for the violin and cello cantabile melody in the middle. (written by: Jay Weitz)