DATES

Aug 12 | 7:30pm | Historic Saranac Lake Laboratory

Aug 13 | 7:30pm | Loon Lake Jewish Center

Aug 14 | 5pm | RSVP Church of the Ascension

PROGRAM

Suite by Lou Harrison

Chorale

Pastorale

Interlude

Aria

Chorale

Quartet K309 by W.A. Mozart arr. F.A. Hoffmeister

Allegro con spirito

Andante un poco adagio

Rondo - Allegro grazioso

Quintet by Jean Cras

Assez animé

Animé

Assez lent, sans traîner

Très animé

MUSICIANS

James Hall, flute

Lynette Wardle, harp

John Hilton, violin

Catherine Beeson, viola

Jordan Gunn, cello

(Shown above in alphabetical order)

Learn more about the musicians here.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Suite by Lou Harrison

Lou Harrison (1917 – 2003) was an American composer, music critic, music theorist, painter, and inventor of unique musical instruments. Like many young composers of his time, Harrison initially wrote in an ultramodernist style. Later as he grew into his own unique voice, Harrison moved toward incorporating elements of world music into his work, creating entirely new musical ensembles and instruments. One example of this is his Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra. 10/10 recommend watching a performance of this! In fact, here's one featuring the US Air Force Band. 😎

Suite is a beautiful short work for cello and harp in a 5 movement structure based on a pattern typically followed in the Baroque era of the 1600s. The outer movements (1 and 5) are both titled 'Chorale' and are exactly the same music. This gives listeners a feeling of grounding and return, similar to their daily lives starting and ending at home. The middle movements are Pastorale, Interlude, and Aria. These take us on a sonic journey from dreamy gentle swaying (could it be languid movement of water or tall grasses?) to surprise and adventure sounds, and finally to a song (literally "aria") expressed in long tones from the higher register of the cello over an undulating accompaniment from the harp.

A typical performance of Suite lasts about 13 minutes.

Quartet K309 by W.A. Mozart arr. F.A. Hoffmeister

W. A. Mozart (1756 – 1791) was a composer and keyboardist of the Classical era. He completed over 800 works in his short life and is nearly universally considered to be one of the most influential composers of western European "classical" music primarily due to his inventive use of harmony and dissonance to create new textures and structures in music. His refusal to be told what and how to compose music led to his poverty and ultimately early death but not before he created his best, most enduring, and highly creative work while away from the demands placed upon him to conform to lesser standards. He developed strong relationships with other composers, musicians, and publishers who correctly saw in him a relatively unparalleled genius of his time. One of those was F. A. Hoffmeister (1754 – 1812) who made and published several chamber ensemble arrangements of Mozart's works so that they could be performed at home by amateur musicians and have a broader concert presence by professional musicians.

Quartet K309 is a piece of music originally for solo piano. You can hear this original piano sonata version here. Hoffmeister arranged the piano score for flute, violin, viola, and cello by carefully assigning to each of those 4 instruments the notes that would be spread throughout a pianist's 10 fingers! The three movement structure of quick, slow, quick/jaunty is preserved as Mozart composed it but for reasons nobody can know for certain the slow middle movement has been transposed from its original key of F into the key of G.

A typical performance of the quartet lasts about 18 minutes.

Quintet by Jean Cras

Jean Cras (1879 – 1932) was a 20th-century French composer and career naval officer. His musical compositions were inspired by his native Brittany, his travels to Africa, and most of all, by his sea voyages. As a naval commander he served with distinction in the Adriatic Campaign during World War I. Although the majority of his compositional output happened in the years following the conclusion of his service, he amazingly managed to compose music DURING the time he was actively serving in the navy! Quintet for harp, flute, and string trio is one of these. About this life, he wrote: “I can establish a precise comparison between the links by which I am attached to art and those by which I am attached to the sea. As composer, I am the slave; as a marine, I am the master. Composing, for me, is obeying a higher order, which dictates its desires to me, and which I serve with the intoxication of the humble disciple, whose only goal is to execute as well as possible his master’s orders.”

Cras finished Quintet in 1928, “à bord de la Provence–Toulon” - aboard the ship called La Provence, near the southern French city of Toulon. He incorporated both musical and atmospheric impressions of his travels into the Quintet, for which he provided a loose program: the first movement evokes the ocean air at the start of a voyage; the second and third movements represent impressions of time spent in an unspecified North African city; and the finale is the triumphal voyage home.

A typical performance lasts about 25 minutes.