Russell Peterson (1969–)

Trio for Alto Sax, Violin and Piano

III Allegro moto perpetuo

The first work of this year's Festival brings to us the bright new sound of the saxophone, an instrument usually associated with jazz, although its inventor Adolphe Sax (1814–1894) always intended it to be a classical instrument 'marrying the woodwinds' facility with the brass family's projection.'

The American saxophonist, bassoonist, composer and chamber musician Russell Peterson is active in the classical and the jazz scene. An Associate Professor of saxophone and bassoon at Concordia College, Minnesota, he is the winner of numerous prizes, including the prestigious International Geneva Saxophone Concours . His Trio for Alto Sax, Violin and Piano was commissioned by the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony and had its premiere in 2007.

Peterson makes extended use of the saxophone’s altissimo register — notes that begin and go way above where the normal fingering charts of a saxophone end — in this jazz-infused piece. Altissimo notes are a trademark of Peterson’s style.

Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967)
Duo for Violin and Cello Op. 7

I Allegro serioso, non troppo
II Adagio – Andante – Tempo I
III Maestoso e largamente ma non troppo lento – Presto

Kodály was the son of a rural Hungarian station-master, who played the violin, and a pianist mother. He read Hungarian, German and linguistics at Budapest University, and studied composition and pedagogy at the Liszt Academy of music. In 1905, while studying for a doctorate in philosophy and linguistics, he began touring the Hungarian countryside collecting folk music with fellow student Béla Bartók who became a lifelong friend. Both composers would incorporate folk music into their own unique styles.

A travel grant enabled Kodály to travel to Berlin and then to Paris where he was deeply influenced by the music of Debussy and French impressionism. On his return home he took a teaching position at the Hungarian Academy. Now, against acid criticism from conservative colleagues who were adherents to German late-Romantic style, he had the confidence to write — and to have widely performed — distinctly Hungarian music which was rooted in authentic folk materials, while allied to formal classical structures. Kodály's conviction was that ‘The works of art that exert the most powerful influence ... are those that express most fully the national characteristics of the artist.’

His collecting activity stimulated his work on music education and he is still today recognised as a world leader in this field. Kodály believed that music belongs to everyone and to achieve a higher level of musical understanding, musical training must be developed within school systems.

The Duo was written in 1914, as World War I was looming. These were harrowing times emotionally. The anxiety and tension comes through in all three movements, most particularly in the Adagio with its mood of despair. However the rhythmic finale brings a more optimistic tone with lively Magyar-style dances. Imre Waldbauer and Jenö Kerpely gave the first performance in Budapest on May 7, 1918, 6 months before the war ended.

Barry Cockcroft (1972–)
Beat me

A bright star in the galaxy of contemporary saxophonists, Barry Cockcroft is a virtuoso performer teacher, adjudicator, podcast host and composer. He studied originally in Melbourne, then in Bordeaux, France. Cockcroft is an enthusiastic traveller and his quirky and technically exciting compositions — including Beat me — have been played in many countries.

He says `I take my inspiration primarily from real life events often which have been humorous. As my Australian saxophone teacher Peter Clinch once told me, `If you can't play fast — play funny!' He has performed as a concerto soloist with notable groups including the US Navy Band, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and major Australian orchestras.

Beat me is a sequel to an earlier composition Black and blue. A wide range of techniques, including slap-tonguing and multiphonics, is used to simulate instruments used in rock music.

Ernest Chausson (1855–1899)
Concert for Violin, Piano and String Quartet Op. 21

I  Décidé – Animé
II  Sicilienne: pas vite
III  Grave
IV  Très animé

Born in Paris to a wealthy family, Chausson was obliged to study law, but three years after being sworn in he abandoned that profession and entered the Paris Conservatoire where he studied composition with Jules Massenet and César Franck, the latter being his most influential teacher. His musical style and skills flourished; by 1886 he was immersed in the Parisian music community and had become the secretary of the Société Nationale de Musique.

Chausson died young — at 44 — of injuries sustained when he lost control of his bicycle and collided with a brick wall. A 50-acre park in the 17th arrondissement of Paris is named after him.

Chausson is best known for his songs and chamber music. This Concert is showy, in a way that chamber music rarely is, with the piano and violin being concertino (solo) instruments, the string quartet the ripieno (orchestral) ones, as in concerto grosso style.

Written between 1889 and 1891, Chausson dedicated the Concert to Eugène Ysaÿe, the famous Belgian violinist, who played the solo violin part for the premiere in Brussels in 1892.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
Goldberg Variations for string trio (arr. Sitkovetsky)

The title page of this work, published in 1741 by Bach's friend Balthasar Schmid of Nuremberg, says, `Keyboard exercise, consisting of an ARIA with diverse variations for harpsichord with two manuals. Composed for connoisseurs, for the refreshment of their spirits ...' .

It is named after Johann Gottlieb Goldberg (1727–1756), an exceptionally talented harpsichordist who was probably the original performer. Goldberg studied with Bach and became a musician in the service of Count Hermann Karl von Keyserling, the Russian ambassador to the Saxon Court in Dresden. According to Bach's first biographer, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Goldberg was paid to play the variations to ease the insomnia of his employer. However, while this is a good story — and maybe the music did refresh the Count's spirits — later writers deny its truth.

Dmitri Sitkovetsky (1954–), violinist, conductor, arranger, chamber musician and festival director, was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, to distinguished professional musician parents. After his father's death the family moved to Moscow where he entered the Moscow Conservatory. In 1977 he left the Soviet Union for the United States and began studies at the Juillard School. He now lives in London.

Sitkovesky's arrangement for string trio of the Goldberg Variations was made originally in 1985 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Bach's birth and dedicated to the memory of Glenn Gould, the Canadian pianist whose 1955 recording of the variations became a best-seller.

Amy Beach (1867–1944)
Piano Quintet in F sharp minor Op. 67

I Adagio — Allegro moderato
II Adagio espressivo
III Allegro agitato

The career of America's first recognised female composer was greatly impacted by the expectations of women of the time: marriage and motherhood.

Beach was a child prodigy with absolute pitch, technical facility and an outstanding ear. Largely self-taught, she studied and memorised whole scores of symphonies to understand how they had been written. She made her debut as a pianist aged 16 in 1883, the year of her first published compositions.

Two years later she married a medical doctor. Her husband encouraged her to continue composing rather than performing. She gave one public concert per year, the proceeds going to charity.

Beach was the first female composer to have a symphony — her `Gaelic' symphony — performed by a major orchestra, the Boston Symphony, in 1896. Another notable achievement was her performance as soloist in her own Piano Concerto, played with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1900.

As with Clara Schumann, Amy Beach's husband died when she was still reasonably young, in 1910. Liberated, she travelled to Europe, living there until the outbreak of World War I. She returned to the United States in 1914 and relaunched her career as a professional performer and composer.

Always drawn to nature for inspiration, Beach loved to compose outdoors. She was a synaesthetic, as were Franz Liszt, Jan Sibelius, Itzhak Perlman, Richard Wagner and Messiaen. From early childhoood she heard certain keys as different colours. According to her list of colour-key associations F sharp minor equals black, however the Quintet is not gloomy and it has become one of the most frequently played of her many chamber works.

Grażyna Bacewicz (1909–1969)
Quartet for Four Violins

I Allegretto — Allegro giocoso
II Andante tranquillo
III Molto allegro

Born in Łódź to a musical family, Grażyna Bacewicz was a prolific composer, pianist and violin virtuoso. Following studies at the music conservatory in Łódź she moved to Warsaw in 1924, then to Paris where she studied composition with Nadia Boulanger and violin with Carl Flesch.

In 1936 she was appointed leader of the Polish Radio Orchestra and toured Europe with them, sometimes as soloist. During World War II she moved to Warsaw where she continued to compose and to perform in secretive underground concerts.

This Quartet was written in 1949, when Bacewicz was a professor at the State Conservatoire of Music in Łódź. Poland was at that time firmly under the control of the Soviet Union. However, despite the ideological control of the arts and the difficulty of having her works performed, Bacewicz continued to compose, often using Polish and Lithuanian folk themes.

This feisty quartet, a pedagogical work for her students, is full of character and tonal contrast, even though it involves four string voices which share the same range.

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57

I Prelude: Lento — Poco piu mosso — Lento
II Fugue: Adagio
III Scherzo: Allegretto
IV Intermezzo: Lento
V Finale: Allegretto

The writing of this Piano Quintet was the result of a request made to Shostakovich by members of the Beethoven Quartet, one of the Soviet Union's top ensembles in 1938. These musicians, graduates of the Moscow Conservatory, were close friends and collaborators of the composer. Shostakovich took on their challenge partly so he could play the piano part and also in the hope that it would enable him to travel outside of Moscow with the quartet.

Life for an artist in Soviet Russia was harrowing. Shostakovich had lived and worked through his denunciation by Stalin, then had regained favour after the success of his fifth symphony. He completed the Piano Quintet in 1940 while he was teaching at the Leningrad Conservatory when the Soviet Union was on the brink of war with Germany.

The work was an immediate success following its premiere in Moscow and became a public favourite: ‘The quintet was discussed in the trams, and people tried to sing in the streets the second defiant theme of the finale.’

In 1941 Shostakovich was awarded the inaugural Stalin Prize for the Quintet — the highest honour for an artist in the Soviet Union. He donated the 100,000 rubles prize to impoverished Muscovites.

The five movements reflect Shostakovich's efforts to blend his own personal style with traditional forms of the 17th and 18th century. They are full of contrast — from the intense tragedy in the long fugue, to the light-hearted, manic joy of the scherzo. Who knows what Shostakovich 's thoughts were as he wrote this enduringly popular work.

Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904)
String Sextet in A major Op. 48

I Allegro — moderato
II Dumka. Poco allegretto
III Furiant. Presto
IV Finale. Tema con variazioni. Allegretto grazioso, quasi andantino

Antonín Dvořák came from a long line of butchers and innkeepers in Central Bohemia. As the eldest of nine children it was assumed that he would inherit his father’s business. However, recognising his precocious and exceptional musical talents, his parents sent him away from home to live with a succession of teachers and musicians who taught him piano, organ and violin and encouraged his move to the capital, Prague, at 16.

There he supplemented music studies at the Prague Organ School by playing viola for operas in The Provisional Theatre, where Bedrich Smetana was a conductor. Composition was done on the side. Brahms was a friend and mentor and he encouraged Dvořák to write Czech music, rather than to write in the German style. Brahms supported Dvořák's application for a stipend from the Czech Government which allowed him to compose full time.

The Sextet was written in 1878, between Dvořák's Slavonic Rhapsodies, Op. 45 and the Slavonic Dances, Op. 46. Its two inner movements are based on folk dances — the dumka and the furiant. Dumka is a Ukrainian word which literally means `thought'. In music it came to mean a pensive or sad tune. The pairing of the melancholic dumka and the joyful furiant is characteristic of folk music of Poland and Bohemia, and Dvořák appreciated this alternating of brightness and dark.

The first performance of the Sextet was held in the Berlin home of the famous violinist Joseph Joachim who led the ensemble. This was followed by a public performance with the same players on 9 November 1879.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
String Quintet No. 5, K.593

I Larghetto — Allegro — Larghetto
II Adagio
III Menuetto: Allegretto — Trio
IV Allegro

One of the last two (of six) two-viola quintets Mozart wrote, K.593 was composed in the winter and early spring of 1790–91 and published by Ataria in 1793. The title page has the inscription, Composto per un Amatore Ongharesa (composed for a Hungarian Amateur). This amateur musician was probably Johann Tost, the violinist and entrepreneur of the Esterházy Orchestra and a friend of its founder Joseph Haydn whose works he published.

Writings by the Abbé Stadler, a Benedictine monk, composer and musician and friend of both Haydn and Mozart, suggest that the two composers may have taken turns at playing the first viola part in early performances of the Quintet.

Tightly constructed, highly expressive and full of musical invention, this is Mozart at the height of his creative powers. However, there is a pervasive melancholy, which reminds us that this work was written exactly a year before Mozart's death at 35.

Louise Webster
Piano Quartet — Festival commission

Louise is working on this new piece at the moment and so we can’t tell you anything about it yet.

Astor Piazzolla (1921–1992)
Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires)

Otoño (Autumn),
Invierño (Winter)
Primavera (Spring)
Veraño (Summer)

Piazzolla led a peripatetic life. Like the tango, the dance and musical style with which he is firmly associated, he was born in Argentina, in the city of Mar del Plata. In 1930 his family, which had Italian roots, moved to the colourful Little Italy neighbourhood of Lower Manhattan, New York, where Piazzolla would have heard a mix of traditional Italian music along with popular American styles of the era.

His father bought him a bandoneón (a type of accordion) and when the family returned to Mar del Plata he began playing in tango orchestras. He moved to Buenos Aires, played piano and made arrangements for leading groups, earning enough money to begin training with the classical composer Alberto Ginastera. During five years of intense study Piazzolla attended rehearsals of the orchestra at the Teatro Colón while studying scores of Stravinsky, Ravel, Bartók — mastering the art of orchestration — and performing in tango clubs at night.

A grant from the French government in 1954 enabled him to move to Paris where he began tuition with Nadia Boulanger, the famous teacher, composer, conductor and friend of Stravinsky. Boulanger convinced him that his greatest gift was his ability to combine tango with western classical music.

In 1960 he returned to Buenos Aires, and set up a band (violin, bass, piano, guitar and bandoneón) which soon became universally popular giving its name to the new style, Nuevo Tango.

Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires), which Piazzolla completed in 1970, is his response to Antonio Vivaldi's Le quattro stagioni(The Four Seasons). Widely popular, Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas has been arranged for many different instrumental combinations. In 1999 the Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov arranged the work for solo violin and string orchestra — Gidon Kremer's Kremerata Baltica — adding numerous quotations from Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Our Festival finishes with a performance where the violin takes the solo part in two movements, and the other two movements feature solo saxophone in a new arrangement by Australian producer, Mary Osborn.

What an exciting way to farewell this year’s artists and to end our ninth year!