Composed in 1906, Charles Ives’ Hallowe’en evokes childhood memories of a growing bonfire and playful mischief. Ives wrote, It is a take-off of a Halloween party and bonfire – the elfishness of the little boys throwing wood on the fire, etc, etc… it is a joke even Herbert Hoover could get. Scored for “string quartet, piano and optional drum,” the work begins as a whisper, with only two voices, the second violin and …
German composer Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) had a deep fascination for the colors and technical capabilities of musical instruments. Principally a violinist and violist, Hindemith was proficient on numerous other instruments, including the piano, bassoon, clarinet, and cello. He composed more than forty sonatas which encompassed nearly every standard orchestral instrument. His orchestral music unfolds with a sonorous majesty. The composer considered many of the sonatas to be technical exercises, written concurrently with …
Beethoven composed ten sonatas for violin and piano. The giant of the set, in terms of technical demands and dramatic weight, is Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47, the “Kreutzer” Sonata. The work was dedicated to the French violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer who called it “outrageously unintelligible” and never performed it. Beethoven and the Afro-European violinist George Bridgetower (1778-1860) premiered this convention-shattering music at Vienna’s Augarten Theatre. Beethoven was so late …
Completed in 1891, Ernest Chausson’s Concert for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet, Op. 21 is a glorious hybrid. With the violin and piano functioning as solo protagonists set against the larger ensemble of the quartet, its musical dialogue resembles the Baroque concerto grosso. Brimming with bold virtuosity, it takes us on a dramatic journey that is virtually unique in the chamber music repertoire. The unusual title, suggesting a “harmonious ensemble,” recalls the …
The critic Claude Rostand famously observed, “In Poulenc there is something of the monk and something of the rascal.” We hear this in Francis Poulenc’s Sextet for Piano and Winds, composed between 1931 and 1932, and revised in 1939. Scored for piano, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and French horn, it is music filled with impish humor. At times, its comic voices, with their distinct personas, take on a satirical tone. As the …
Composed in 1797, the Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 11 is spirited, fun-loving music of the 26 year old Beethoven. It is scored for clarinet, cello, and piano. At the time, the still-emerging clarinet was a novelty. Beethoven was impressed with the sound of Viennese clarinetist Franz Josef Bähr (1770-1819). The Trio was written for Bähr, and dedicated to Countess Wilhelmine von Thun, a prominent patron of both Beethoven and Mozart. With …
Camille Saint-Saëns’ Fantaisie for Violin and Harp, Op. 124 is filled with charm, virtuosity, and dreamy exoticism. The 72-year-old Saint-Saëns was vacationing in the city of Bridger in the Italian Riviera when, in 1907, he composed this sparkling miniature. He dedicated the work to a musical duo made up of two sisters, harpist Clara Eissler and violinist Marianne Eissler. Set in a single brief movement and bathed in Italian sunshine, the music …