Chamber Music

Philip Glass’s String Quartet No. 2, “Company”: Brooklyn Rider

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In Samuel Beckett’s 1979 novella, Company, a man lies on his back in the dark and listens to a Voice. According to Thomas J. Taylor, The central narrative revolves around the complex relationship between the voice, the listener, and the elusive “another,” highlighting the ambiguity of identity and presence. As the anecdotes unfold, they reveal a deeper commentary on the nature of existence and the inevitability of loneliness, suggesting that while memories and …

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Bartók’s Violin Sonata No. 1: Ancient Folk Influences and Strange New Sounds

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Describing Béla Bartók’s Violin Sonata No. 1, Sz. 75, violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja notes The power in the first movement, the loneliness of the violin melody and the states of panic in the second; the almost grotesquely joyful and folk-like character of the third — it’s a special joy if you can play it with pleasure and without stress, without worrying about all its terrifying difficulties. It’s technically extremely difficult, with all the …

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Martinů’s Three Madrigals for Violin and Viola: Bohemian Renaissance

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Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959) was born in the tower of St. Jakub Church in the small Bohemian town of Polička. He was a notoriously bad student at the Prague Conservatory, where he studied violin but was more interested in composing. Briefly, he was a member of the second violin section of the Czech Philharmonic. In 1923, he moved to Paris, where he studied with Albert Roussel and began to compose extensively. Following the …

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Mozart’s Quintet for Piano and Winds: A Drama of Conversing Voices

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In Mozart’s later piano concertos (Nos. 14-27), written for Vienna, the woodwinds step out from the shadows. Previously relegated to accompanying lines which often doubled the strings, the clarinet, flute, oboe, and bassoon now engaged in direct conversation with the solo piano. As with operatic characters, the persona of each voice came into focus. The same magic can be heard in Mozart’s Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat Major, K. 452. …

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Ives’ “Hallowe’en”: Mischief Around a Polytonal Bonfire

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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 …

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Hindemith’s Harp Sonata: Songs and Images

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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 …

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Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” Sonata: Zino Francescatti and Robert Casadesus

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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 …

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