Arts at Tenri presents
Friday, June 12, 2009, 7:30 pm
Members of the Tenri
Chamber Ensemble
Joseph d'Auguste, clarinet
Albert Lotto, piano
A program of duos for clarinet and piano
Three Romances for Clarinet and Piano
Composed in 1941-1942. Schumann wrote these in 1849, in a burst of creative
energy that followed several non-productive years marred by health problems.
Along with the Romances, he wrote almost 20 other works including a number
of instrumental compositions featuring horn, clarinet, cello, and of coursethe
oboe for which this work was intended. Schumann’s chamber music
is widely regarded as the best of his compositions and these Romances,
being essentially songs without words, combine his wonderful gift for
melody with the lavishly detailed care of his chamber music writing for
piano. Originally composed with oboe in mind, the Romances were published
in their first edition simultaneously for Oboe, Clarinet and Violin. As
such theyconstitute an original clarinet work, not a transcription.
Clarinet Sonata in F Minor, Op. 120, No. 1
Both of Brahms’s Op. 120 sonatas were written in 1894. They were
premiered in Vienna on January 7, 1895, with Richard Mühlfeld, clarinet,
and the composer at the keyboard. The Sonata in F Minor received its Carnegie
Hall premiere in Carnegie Chamber Music Hall (now Weill Recital Hall)
on January 23, 1941, with Louis Bailly, viola, and Genia Robinor, piano;
the Sonata in E-flat Major received its Carnegie Hall premiere in Carnegie
Recital Hall (now Weill Recital Hall) on April 24, 1955, with George Grossman,
viola, and Harriet Shirvan, piano.
Sonata for Clarinet and Piano
Leonard Bernstein
Premiered on April 21, 1942 in Boston, by clarinetist David Glazer and
the composer.
Leonard Bernstein had already accumulated a formidable curriculum vitae
by the time he wrote his Clarinet Sonata at the age of 23. Born in 1918
to a Russian Jewish family who had settled in Massachusetts, he attended
the prestigious Boston Latin School as a youth and took piano lessons
from Helen Coates (whose influence on his life he recognized by dedicating
to her his 1954 book, The Joy of Music) and Heinrich Gebhard (a pupil
of Leschetizky).
Sonata for Cello and Piano in D minor, Op. 40
(transcribed for Clarinet and Piano by Joseph d’Auguste and Albert
Lotto)
Dmitri Shostakovich was born in St. Petersburg in 1906 and died in Moscow
in 1975. He composed the D minor Sonata for Cello and Piano in 1934.
The Place
Tenri Cultural Institute
43A West 13th Street, New York, NY
(212) 645-2800
Tickets
25 general, 20 students/seniors