 |
     |
The First
Annual Kenneth L. Coe and Jack Barrow Concert
Dorian
Wind Quintet
Gretchen Pusch, flute
Gerard Reuter, oboe
Jerry Kirkbride, clarinet
John Hunt, bassoon
Karl Kramer-Johansen, horn
With Special Guests:
Caroline Hong, piano
Katherine Borst Jones, flute
Since its
founding in the summer of 1961 at Tanglewood, the Dorian Wind Quintet has
set the standards by which all other wind ensembles are judged.
When the Dorian commissioned George Perle for a wind quintet that
garnered a Pulitzer Prize in 1986, a new pinnacle for chamber music for
winds had been achieved. The
Quintet has served as the resident ensemble for several institutions
including the Mannes College of Music, Brooklyn College, and for a decade
held the position of University-Wide Artists-In-Residence for the State
University of New York System.
The group was in residence at Dartington Hall (1984) and Newberry (1990)
(both in England), the Tanglewood Music Festival (2001), and for over ten
years, at the Festival Institute at Round Top, Texas.
The Dorian currently serves as Ensemble-in-Residence at Hunter
College in New York City. The
ensemble’s recordings can be found on the Vox, CRI, Serenus, New World, and
Summit Records labels. The
Dorian has previously appeared under the auspices of Chamber Music Columbus
in March 1999, May 1986, and January 1982.
Dr.
Caroline Hong is an Associate Professor of Piano at The Ohio State
University, where she has served on the faculty since 1997.
She has garnered top prizes in numerous competitions including the
Frinna Awerbuch International Piano Competition (New York), the Chicago
Civic Orchestra Soloist Competition, and the Society of American Musicians
(Chicago), and is a laureate of the Beethoven Foundation.
Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award-winning composer John Corigliano has
called Caroline Hong “one of the greatest pianists I have ever heard.”
A
Columbus favorite as both soloist and chamber musician, Katherine Borst
Jones is a Professor of Music at The Ohio State University.
She has served as Chair of Woodwinds, Brass, and Percussion since
1999. She was awarded the
Distinguished Teacher award in the OSU School of Music in 1995.
She is a founding member and co-principal flutist of the ProMusica
Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, a member of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra,
principal flute of the New Sousa Band, and principal flute and soloist with
the Columbus Bach Ensemble. Ms.
Jones has served the National Flute Association as President,
Vice-President, convention program chair, and in many other capacities.
She previously was principal flute with the American Chamber Winds
and performed with the American Wind Symphony.
The
Dorian Wind Quintet appears through arrangement with Parsons Artists
Management, Inc., 1134 Wade Street, Highland Park, Illinois 60035.
*Special
support for this concert has been provided by a generous grant from the
Kenneth L. Coe and Jack Barrow Fund for Chamber Music Performance of the
Columbus Foundation.
Yuko Uebayashi (born 1975)
Au-delà
du temps (Transcending Time) (composed 2002)
For two flutes and piano
La
lumière lointaine de nuit (Night, distant light)
La lumière dansante (Dancing light)
La lumière blanche (White light)
La lumière tournante dans le rêve (In a dream, revolving light)
Born in
Kyoto, Japan, in 1975, Yuko Uebayashi earned her degree in composition from
Kyōto Shiritsu Geijutsu Daigaku, the City University of Arts.
Since 1998, Uebayashi has resided in Paris.
While Uebayashi lived in Kyoto, her works were regularly performed in
the Kyoto Young Composers’ Presentation Series of the Kyoto International
Music Festival. Although she has
obvious ties to the musical traditions of her native Japan, she also draws
considerable inspiration from performers elsewhere.
One such
inspiration has been the French flutist, conductor, and teacher Jean
Ferrandis. Uebayashi recalls
hearing Ferrandis perform a flute and piano arrangement of Schubert’s
Arpeggione Sonata, D. 821, with
Emile Naoumoff. “I was
immediately entranced by their subtle musicality,” she writes, and began
composing Au-delà du temps
(Transcending Time).
Uebayashi took the title from a letter she received from another friend
describing how days spent in Paris feel.
Uebayashi
has described each of the four movements briefly:
·
La
lumière lointaine de nuit (Night, distant light):
“The banks of the lake, twinkling light from boats, distant city
lights. Souls interplaying in
exquisite silence.”
·
La
lumière dansante (Dancing light):
“I go up the stairs and enter a room filled with dazzling light:
I see a blackboard in front of me and I write ‘the light’s dancing’.”
·
La
lumière blanche (White light):
“The path to the rising sun:
It’s a realm of white light.
I notice a beautiful monument in the distance being revealed by the
half-light: It’s the start of a
peaceful day.”
·
La
lumière tournante dans le rêve (In a dream, revolving light):
“Just before strating to compose the 4th movement, I found
out about a boy that had lost his sight.
I realized he would no longer have access to our world of light.
It seemed impossible to me, the idea of continuing to compose ‘the
world of light.’ I nevertheless
took up the composition again hoping that he could run with me, hand in
hand, through his memories of light.
Laughing and jumping, we run forever in the revolving rainbow-colored
light.”
Au-delà
du temps,
for two flutes and piano, received its premiere performance by flutists Jean
Ferrandis and Kazunori Seo and pianist Emile Naoumoff in Paris, during June
2002.
Ludwig
van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Quintet
in E-flat major, op. 16 (composed 1796)
for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon
Grave; Allegro ma non troppo
Andante cantabile
Rondo:
Allegro, ma non troppo
Attending an early performance of Beethoven’s
Quintet op. 16 was the composer’s
friend, the violinist Franz Anton Ries (1755-1846).
That evening, Beethoven both played the piano and frayed the nerves
of the accompanying wind quartet.
At a pause just before a return to the main theme in the finale, Ries
recounts, “Beethoven suddenly began to improvise, took the rondo as a theme
and entertained himself and the others; but not his associates.
They were displeased and [Friedrich] Ramm [the oboist] enraged.
It really was comical to see these gentlemen waiting expectantly
every moment to go on, continually lifting their instruments to their lips,
then quietly putting them down again.
At last Beethoven was satisfied and dropped again into the rondo.
The entire audience was delighted.”
It is no surprise that this quintet inspires such reactions, lighthearted as
it is in the Haydn tradition.
Yet it is Mozart’s Quintet K. 452,
in the same key, that was the inspiration for the structure of Beethoven’s
work: a slow introduction to a
sonata-form first movement, a slow second movement, and a rondo finale.
That, however, is about as far as the similarities go.
Where Mozart treated the five voices as equals, Beethoven has written
more of a mini-concerto for piano with wind accompaniment.
Where Mozart uses duple meter, Beethoven uses triple, and vice versa.
It cannot be forgotten that at the time of the
Quintet op. 16, Beethoven was a
young composer firmly in the derivative first stage of his career, whereas
the Mozart of the Quintet K. 452
was already a mature artist.
The Grave introduction leads to
the waltz-flavored Allegro ma non
troppo, where the piano sounds both of the main themes.
In each case, the clarinet leads the other winds in imitating the
piano. The first subject’s
repeated notes serve as the basis for the development.
The brief recap is balanced by a lengthy coda.
In the Andante cantabile, a gentle
blend of rondo and variation forms, the three appearances of the piano’s
refrains grow increasingly ornate.
The two intervening episodes feature first the oboe and piano, and
then the horn and piano.
The sonata-rondo finale is both humorous and respectful of tradition.
The main theme is in the piano with a contrasting one in the winds.
In the development, bits of the piano theme are tossed around by the
different voices and in varying keys until, following the recap, the piano
refrain recurs intact one final time.
Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Quintet
in E-flat major, K. 452 (composed 1784)
for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon
Largo;
Allegro moderato
Larghetto
Rondo: Allegretto
Spring of 1784 found Mozart happy and busy, concertizing, composing, and
teaching in Vienna. About this
time, he began to keep a list of his works, their dates, and their incipits
(the identifying first measures of a work).
This Quintet, K. 452 and
six contemporary piano concertos (K. 449, 450, 451, 453, 456, and 459)
number among its earliest entries.
As skilled a composer as Mozart was, his record keeping left a lot to
be desired, especially regarding dates.
Not in doubt is the date of the first performance of this quintet, April 1,
1784. Soon thereafter, Mozart
wrote in a letter to his father about how much the audience loved the piece,
which he considered "the best work I have ever composed."
With our perspective on his entire output, we can judge for
ourselves, but a good case can be made in support of his claim.
With a skill rivaled by few others in musical history, Mozart composed in a
way that respected both the capability and the character of each individual
instrument in the quintet. Even
at the lips of the most skilled player, each of the winds has inherent
limitations that restrict the length of a phrase and the extent to which its
unique tonal qualities can mingle with those of others.
Mozart takes advantage of this.
Short passages are strung together to make a melody, often passing
from voice to voice, rebuilding and resolving tension in quick succession.
Meanwhile, the piano serves as accompaniment, as opponent, and as
partner, sometimes contributing not one but two layers (left and right
hands) to the polyphony, making the piece almost a sextet in texture.
Some dozen years after Mozart's
Quintet, K. 452, Beethoven would be inspired to write for the same
ensemble in his Quintet, op. 16.
Beethoven, though, wrote a mini-concerto dominated by the piano,
whereas Mozart created five equal voices that combine and contrast in
various ways, concertante style.
--
Program notes by Jay Weitz, Senior Consulting Database Specialist for music,
OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Dublin, Ohio.
He is a contributing performing arts critic for the weekly
alternative newspaper Columbus Alive
(http://www.columbusalive.com).