The Society for
Chamber Music in Rochester is known for putting together captivating programs.
For next weekend’s concert, which takes place on Sunday, December 16 at the
Performance Hall at Hochstein, SCMR does it again, with a program called “Mozart
in France.”
Devised by Artistic Directors
Juliana Athayde and Erik Behr, who are also the Rochester
Philharmonic Orchestra’s Concertmaster and Principal Oboe, respectively, it
brings together what they describe as “four vastly different works.” But as
Behr explains, these four works hang together very engagingly.
“We like to start with a specific
piece that captures our interest,” Behr says, “and then try to find other works
that feature combinations based on the instrumentation of the capstone work
and, hopefully, that also have some programming link to that work.”
The Mozart work on this program is
his Triofor Piano, Clarinet
and Viola, K. 498, nicknamed “Kegelstatt.” Its link
with France is tenuous. Mozart did indeed spend most of 1778 in Paris, but
unlike most Parisian visitors, he had a miserable time. He wrote this work in
Vienna much later, but the manuscript is housed in France, in the collection of
the Bibilothèque National. Whatever its provenance,
this is a delightful, mellow trio for three of Mozart’s favorite instruments. “Kegelstatt” more or less means “bowling alley” – referring to a favorite pastime of Mozart’s
when he wasn’t writing masterpieces.
The rest of the
program is firmly, but unconventionally, French. Athayde
and Behr have chosen works by three French composers from the 19th century,
early-20th century, and 21st century: Camille Saint-Saëns, Lili Boulanger, and
Guillaume Connesson. Only the first of the trio could
be considered a household name.
The long-lived Saint-Saëns was born
in 1835, when Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Berlioz were up-and-coming composers. The
Frenchman died in the age of Stravinsky, Debussy, and Schoenberg – and Saint-Saëns
hated them all. By the time he wrote his Oboe Sonata in 1920, this prodigiously
gifted and imaginative composer was almost as much of a fossil as the ones he
depicted in his “Carnival of the Animals.” Be that as it may, Erik Behr, who
will perform the sonata on this concert, finds Saint-Saëns “a fascinating
character.”
“His peculiar interests come through
in his music in intriguing ways,” Behr says. “Listen for the Renaissance
harmonies he injects into the oboe sonata. It was rare for a composer of his
time to have studied and incorporated music from this period.”
Lili Boulanger, who died in 1918
aged only 24, was for many years known mainly as the sister of the renowned
musical pedagogue Nadia Boulanger, teacher of such American composers as Aaron
Copland, Roy Harris, David Diamond, and Philip Glass. But Lili wrote strikingly
dramatic music, particularly large-scale choral works.
Among her earliest pieces are “Nocturne” and
“Cortège,” paired as a single work for violin and
piano. More salon-like than her larger works, it is nonetheless the work of an
important talent. Boulanger’s appearance on this program underlines SCMR’s
mission to represent female
composers, “but in a thoughtful way that makes their works feel organic and not
forced,” Behr explains. “This concert seemed to be a great place for one of
Lili Boulanger’s works.”
Guillaume Connesson, born in 1970 and considered one of France’s leading contemporary
composers, is represented by a Sextet for
Oboe, Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Double Bass and Piano, written in 1998.
Listeners who either think that French music stopped with Ravel or avoid contemporary
music on principle will have a pleasant surprise in store.
Connesson’s
15-minute work offers catchy tunes, crisp and colorful instrumental writing,
and infectious rhythmic verve – musical qualities that many consider “French.”
One of Connesson’s illustrious French predecessors,
Francis Poulenc, wrote a popular sextet for winds and piano in the 1930’s, and Connesson’s sextet does suggest a felicitous, hypothetical
collaboration between Poulenc and American Minimalist Steve Reich.
Behr recalls that he
and Athayde were introduced to Connesson’s
music by RPO guest conductor Fabien Gabel. “The sextet is a work Juliana and I loved at first hearing and we
desperately wanted to program it, so we based the rest of this concert around
it,” Behr says. “Connesson marries together so many
enjoyable current trends in music with unique instrumentation. We think the
audience will be just as thrilled with this piece as we are.”
Co-Artistic Directors Juliana Athayde and Erik
Behr of Society for Chamber Music in Rochester continue their compelling
programming with “Mozart in France” on Sunday, December 16.
PHOTO
PROVIDED
This article appears in Dec 5-11, 2018.
