Chamber Music

Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes: Klezmer Conversations

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When the February Revolution of 1917 broke out in Petrograd, Sergei Prokofiev resettled in the United States, stating that his native Russia “had no use for music at the moment.” Soon after arriving in New York, the 28-year-old Prokofiev received a commission from Zimro, a touring Soviet ensemble made up of Russian Jewish immigrants. The new sextet was to be based on themes from a notebook of Jewish folksongs. In his autobiography, …

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Ingram Marshall’s “Wanderer’s Night Song”: Hymnodic Twilight Meditations

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“The all too familiar hymns of my childhood have come back to haunt me,” wrote American composer Ingram Marshall (1942-2022) above the program note for his 1992 work for string quartet, Evensongs. Marshall went on to describe the six sections of Evensongs as “hymnodic meditations” concerning twilight. The concluding section, Fast falls the eventide: Wanderer’s Night Song is haunting and atmospheric. Frequently, Marshall blended elements of minimalism and electronic music (listen to the 1982 Fog …

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Poulenc’s Violin Sonata: A Wartime Elegy

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Francis Poulenc’s Violin Sonata is music born out of war and tragedy. It is one of a series of defiant, politically charged works Poulenc composed between 1942 and 1943 while remaining in occupied France.* The Sonata was dedicated to the Spanish poet, Federico García Lorca, who was arrested, imprisoned without trial, and executed by Falangist forces during the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. Poulenc, who wrote numerous chamber pieces …

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Schubert’s Octet: A Journey to the Magic Land of Song

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Although they lived in Vienna as contemporaries, it is unclear if Schubert and Beethoven ever met. The two composers shared a mutual respect, but in many ways they were polar opposites. While Beethoven dazzled audiences as a revolutionary giant of the symphony, during his lifetime, Schubert was known almost exclusively for his songs. Publishers failed to take interest in Schubert’s instrumental works, and many, such as the “Great” C Major Symphony No. …

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Fauré’s Piano Quartet No. 2 in G Minor: Exploring Dreams and Passions

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Gabriel Fauré’s motivation for writing the Piano Quartet No. 2, in G minor, Op. 45 remains something of a mystery. There was no commission. The work appears to represent the composer’s personal exploration of the magical possibilities regarding an unusual combination of instruments: piano, violin, viola, and cello. Only Mozart, and a handful of other composers, had ventured into this territory. Arriving seven years after Fauré’s First Piano Quartet, the G minor …

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Janáček’s “Mládi” (Suite for Wind Sextet): A Memory of Youth

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Czech composer Leoš Janáček had just turned 70 when, in July of 1924, he composed the wind sextet, Mládi, JW 7/10 (“Youth”). In a letter to Kamila Stösslová, Janáček described the work as “a kind of memory of youth.” The four movement suite formed a musical reminiscence of his student days at the Augustinian monastery of St Thomas in the old Moravian city of Brno. For Janáček, these formative years were marked …

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Mozart’s Flute Quartet No. 1 in D Major, K. 285: Music for a Mannheim Merchant

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During the winter of 1777, Mozart spent three months in Mannheim, the German city which was renowned for having one of Europe’s most elite and cutting edge orchestras. Months earlier, the 21-year-old composer had resigned from a position which he found stifling in his hometown of Salzburg. Accompanied by his mother, he set out on a job hunt that would take him to Paris. Ultimately, the trip ended in disappointment. But while …

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