Positive Thinking
Sunday October 25, 3:00pm
Historic Mankin Mansion, Richmond
Streaming in November
With
Brandon Patrick George, flute
John Marcel Williams, guitar
James Wilson, cello
Program:
Divertimento on Austrian Themes Bernhard Romberg (1767-1841)
Toccata-Nocturne Guillaume Connesson (b. 1970)
Histoire du Tango Ástor Piazzolla (1921-1992)
Bordello, 1900
Café, 1930
Night Club, 1960
Modern-Day Concert
– Notes by James Wilson
Chamber music has the reputation for being for difficult. We have all seen the depictions in movies – lengthy, sometimes incomprehensible music played in hushed rooms by a string quartet of grim-faced people. The three different pieces that form the content of today’s concert offer an antidote to this. From the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, they each prove that chamber music can be fun no matter where or when it was written.
Bernhard Romberg was one of the most famous cellists of the mid-19th century. He worked in the court orchestras at Münster and Bonn. While in Bonn he met Ludwig van Beethoven, and the two men became mutual admirers of each other’s talents. Like Beethoven with the piano, Romberg’s lifespan saw advances in how his instrument was constructed and how these changes enabled more sound production and ease of playing. In fact, Romberg himself was responsible for lengthening the fingerboard, a change that resulted in greater ease playing notes in higher registers.
Romberg was a prolific composer of concertos, sonatas and chamber music pieces featuring the cello as a solo voice. His Divertimento on Austrian Themes is an example of the rich 19th century tradition of “fantasies,” musical genre that would reach its peak in the piano fantasies of Franz Liszt. These are pieces that strung pre-existing melodies or material, often with a nationalistic theme, into entertaining and characterful musical concoctions. Romberg’s divertimento opens with a melodious introductory section highlighting the singing quality of the cello. This is followed by three sections based on Austrian folk melodies – a set of variations, an expressive interlude, and a lively closer. Unlike many comparable showpieces, the divertimento eschews virtuoso fireworks and instead centers on character and charm. Like the Austrian themes that form its inspiration, the piece exudes grace and sweetness from beginning to end.
Although the combination of cello and guitar seems unusual to our modern ears, the guitar was a frequent collaborative instrument in 19th century chamber music. Franz Schubert owned at least two guitars and wrote some compositions for the instrument. Beethoven commented that the instrument was “a miniature orchestra in itself” after hearing a performance by the most renown guitarist of his day, Mauro Giuliani.
Just as infrequent a combination of instruments is that of flute and cello, a polar-opposite pairing that has little music written for it. However, for 20th and contemporary composers such as Hector Villa-Lobos and Gabriela Lena Frank, the wide range and extended technics inherent in these two instruments are advantages that can produce thrilling results.
Within the catalogue of prolific composer and conductor Guillaume Connesson, a list of chamber music pieces for unusual combinations includes one for flute and cello. His brief but break-neck Toccata-Nocturne was written in 2010. In the pieces title, we can find clues to some things to listen for. Historically, a “toccata” is a virtuoso fast piece written for keyboard. And while “nocturne” is a term sometime used to denote misty pieces laden with nostalgic feeling, its roots come from music used to serenade or entertain at nighttime. So, in this Toccata-Nocturne, we indeed have a virtuoso and tricky piece composed of irregular and jazzy rhythmic patterns, but one that remains hushed and whispering for much of its three-minute length.
While Austria has the waltz, Poland the polonaise, and the USA the Jitterbug, perhaps no other dance is as inextricably linked with its country of origin than the Tango is with Argentina. Tango is a dance that originated in the 1880’s along the border between Argentina and Uruguay. Like American jazz, it developed from a confluence of influences from African, Native American and European culture. These include dance music from the candombe ceremonies of former enslaved peoples from Africa, the Spanish-Cuban Habanera, and the Argentinean Milonga.
Originally performed in bordellos as a form of entertainment, the tango as a dance and as a musical form found its way to the seaports of Argentina. Originally considered taboo because of its sexually explicit nature, the dance was at first deemed unsuitable for public performance. However, as a music genre the tango quickly rose in popularity in the Buenos Aires café scene. From there it spread into nightclubs around the world, and eventually to concert halls in the form of Nuevo Tango, a hybrid of tango, classical music and jazz.
This journey is depicted in L’Histoire du Tango (the History of the Tango) by the genre’s undisputed king, Astor Piazzolla. An Argentinian of Italian ancestry who lived in Buenos Aires, New York, and Paris, Piazzolla was a prodigy on the bandoneon, the Argentinian accordion whose shrill and expressive sound forms the sonic soul of tango music. As a performer and composer, Piazzolla was instrumental in spreading the art form of tango world-wide.
The composer himself provided the following notes for his amazing piece from 1986 for flute and guitar:
Bordello, 1900: The tango originated in Buenos Aires in 1882. It was first played on the guitar and flute. Arrangements then came to include the piano, and later, the concertina. This music is full of grace and liveliness. It paints a picture of the good-natured chatter of the French, Italian, and Spanish women who peopled those bordellos as they teased the policemen, thieves, sailors, and riffraff who came to see them. This is a high-spirited tango.
Cafe, 1930: This is another age of the tango. People stopped dancing it as they did in 1900, preferring instead simply to listen to it. It became more musical, and more romantic. This tango has undergone total transformation: the movements are slower, with new and often melancholy harmonies. Tango orchestras come to consist of two violins, two concertinas, a piano, and a bass. The tango is sometimes sung as well.
Night Club, 1960: This is a time of rapidly expanding international exchange, and the tango evolves again as Brazil and Argentina come together in Buenos Aires. The bossa nova and the new tango are moving to the same beat. Audiences rush to the night clubs to listen earnestly to the new tango. This marks a revolution and a profound alteration in some of the original tango forms.
Modern-Day Concert: Certain concepts in tango music become intertwined with modern music. Bartok, Stravinsky, and other composers reminisce to the tune of tango music. This [is] today’s tango, and the tango of the future as well.