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Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Tuesday, January 6, 2009
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Sense and Sensuality – a chamber concert of youthful proportions |
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Friday, 28 March 2008 |
Chamber Music Unbound presents firth winter concert March 29
 Wen-Ting Huang, pianoSUBMITTED/FILE PHOTOS
In the program Sense and Sensuality, gracefulness and impetuousness are exquisitely intertwined to express the keenly sensual personality of young Gabriel Fauré in his violin sonata, whereas the youthful Dmitri Shostakovich displays in his cello sonata a mind full of exploratory zest, wavering between exuberance and Weltschmerz. Ernest Chausson’s supremely beautiful but rarely heard piano trio combines an exceptional sense of architecture with lyricism of dreamy gentleness.
Gabriel Fauré – Sonata for Violin and Piano, opus 13
Fauré's Violin Sonata of the years 1875-76 is generally regarded as one of his early masterworks and is dedicated to the violinist Paul Viardot, son of a legendary singer Pauline Viardot. At the time of the composition of the Sonata, Fauré was deeply in love with Paul’s sister, Marianne. In July 1877 the two were engaged, but just four months later, the girl realized that she felt “only affection mixed with fear” for her fiancé, and broke off the engagement. That same year, Paul Viardot premiered the work, with the composer playing the piano.
The opus 13 Sonata belongs to Fauré’s first period, during which he assimilated the language and aesthetics of Romanticism, but also succeeded to develop his individuality within the Romantic style. His confident handling of harmony is free from academic restrictions (in the use of altered chords, chord-foreign notes and alterations of the mediant) without ever losing a strong sense of overall tonality, the boundaries of which he clearly acknowledges. Remarkable, too, are his rhythmic fluidity and the ability to fill the traditional sonata form with new emotional content. From the very opening, a throbbing lyricism is apparent, as gorgeous melodies unfold, one after another.
Dmitri Shostakovich – Sonata for Cello and Piano, opus 40
Dmitry Shostakovich composed his Cello Sonata in 1934, around the time that Stalin began to realize that propaganda through music was at least as important as literary propaganda. Stalin’s Union of Soviet Composers released a statement that was to guide composers through the perilous task of writing “approved” works:
The main attention of the Soviet composer must be directed toward the victorious progressive principles of reality, towards all that is heroic, bright and beautiful. This distinguishes the spiritual world of Soviet man and must be embodied in musical images full of beauty and strength.
The Sonata’s popularity was almost immediate, and cellists around the world adopted it to the standard repertoire. And the work escaped any harsh criticism from the Soviet government, which allowed continued performance in Shostakovich’s homeland. Exactly why the sonata was spared condemnation is a metaphor for Shostakovich’s own tightrope walk between the Soviet Party Brass and his desire for liberated expression.
Ernest Chausson – Piano Trio in G Minor, opus 3
Scandal, real or constructed, is not just a recent publicity stunt to promote interest in artistic endeavors. Paris in the 19th century seems to have been just as susceptible to it as 20th century Hollywood, and artists like Claude Debussy certainly did their part, willingly or not, to feed the curiosity of the boulevard press. Chausson’s life, however, was so utterly devoid of any kind of scandal, that this in itself almost became scandalous when he died at the age of 44 in a bicycle accident. A happily married man, father of five, he was heir to a small family fortune that allowed him the leisure to pursue music as a career — albeit only after satisfying his father’s wish for attaining a "decent" professional background as a lawyer.
The Piano Trio opus 3 is one of Chausson’s earliest works, composed in a moment and mood of revolt against his composition teacher, the French opera ‘czar’ Jules Massenet, at the Conservatoire de Paris. A description of Chausson’s style is found in a quote by Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji:
“The prevailing mood of Chausson’s music is an entrancing melancholy, tender and twilit, a melancholy free from whine or maudlin sentiment;…it is …expressed in terms of the utmost sensitive refinement, subtle beauty and aristocratic distinction of manner.”
Tickets are available online at www.ChamberMusicUnbound.org, at Access Art & Business Center, the Inyo Council for the Arts or at the door on concert nights after 6:45. Prices are $15/adult, $10/senior and $5/student. Both concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. -MT/CMU
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 03 April 2008 )
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