PROGRAMMING

ENLIGHTENMENT

Wednesday, October 14, 7:30 p.m. - St-James Episcopal Church, New London, CT
Friday,October 16, 7:30 p.m. - Trinity Episcopal Church, Hartford, CT
Saturday, October 17, 7:30 p.m. - Von der Mehden Recital Hall, Storrs, CT


W. A. Mozart: Piano Trio in E major, K. 542
Igor Stravinsky: Duo Concertante for violin and piano
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Trio in Bb major ('Archduke'), Op. 97

With its focus on combating superstition and inherited prejudices, improving education, and working towards human betterment in general, the Enlightenment became defined by its rationality, clarity, simplicity, gracefulness and positivism. This concert explores music that embodies the essence of this 18th century philosophy. The E major Piano Trio of Mozart (who was a freemason at the height of the Enlightenment) exemplifies one side of Mozart’s output with its innocently beautiful melodies, lucid textures and clear forms. Fast forward to 1932 and we meet Stravinsky, the leading figure of 20th century Neo-classicism. His Duo Concertante is a wonderful example of this movement which aimed to revive the balanced forms of the past and recapture wit and lightness after the increasingly exaggerated gestures, formlessness and overblown emotions of late Romanticism. The concert ends with Beethoven’s heavenly Archduke trio. Written in 1810-11, it is a rare instance by the then already mature composer of a work whose serenity and refinement look back to the Age of Reason.

STURM UND DRANG (Storm and Stress)

Wednesday, January 13, 7:30 p.m. - St-James Episcopal Church, New London, CT
Friday, January 15, 7:30 p.m. - Trinity Episcopal Church, Hartford, CT
Saturday, January 16, 7:30 p.m. - Von der Mehden Recital Hall, Storrs, CT

W. A. Mozart: Quartet in G minor, K. 478 for strings and harpsichord
C. P. E. Bach: Keyboard Sonata in E minor, H. 529
Alfred Schnittke: Sonata No.1 (1978) for cello and piano
Johannes Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34

In the midst of the Enlightenment period, from as early as 1750 and well into the 1780s, an important counter-current flourished under the banner Sturm und Drang. Most easily defined by its artistic aim to overcome with emotion and awe, the movement promoted an anti-rational and subjective approach to the arts, and reveled in the supernatural, darkness, the power of nature and terror of the unknown. Many a composer was drawn to the expressive power of Sturm und Drang, even among those consciously devoted to the ideals of the Enlightenment.
Mozart was one such composer whose exposure to the movement in the late 1770s led him to experiment briefly in this style. Our program opens with his quartet for keyboard and strings in G minor, a work written at the end of the Sturm und Drang period and which bears evidence of its dark influence. Next on the program is the highly dramatic harpsichord sonata in E minor by C.P.E. Bach, a composer whose music is considered by many to be the archetypal musical outgrowth of the early part of the Sturm and Drang movement.
Over the next two hundred years composers returned often to intense emotionalism. In the 20th century, composers such as Schoenberg and Berg wrote numerous works focusing on the subconscious and suffering using a dissonant and highly emotive style that came to be known as Expressionism. Later, Schnittke used elements of Expressionistic style for some of his most stirring music including the work on this program. His Sonata for cello and piano is at once deeply introspective and intensely evocative of struggle and defeat.
The program ends with Johannes Brahms’s Piano Quintet in F minor. Many commentators have referred to the mid-1850’s as Brahm’s personal Sturm und Drang period. Although composed a few years later (1862-4) this tumultuous work is one of his greatest expressions of Sturm und Drang. However, it also shows how a master composer such as Brahms is able to nest emotional sensitivity and intensity within a beautifully crafted structure – a coming to terms between fire and ice. That tension and balance is part of what makes this work such an epic and emotionally satisfying voyage.

LOCATIONS

Trinity Episcopal Church
120 Sigourney Street, Hartford, CT

St-James Episcopal Church
76 Federal Street, New London, CT

Von der Mehden Recital Hall
875 Coventry Rd, Storrs, CT

TICKET PRICES

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*Student & **Child's subscription: $17


INDIVIDUAL TICKETS:
Regular tickets: $20

*Student & **Child ticket: $10

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**Children 18 and under

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Photo: Susan Wilson