Coastal Concerts to open season on Oct. 24th with Walden Chamber Players

 
Walden Chamber Players to perform at Bethel U.M. Church in Lewes. Coastal Concerts begins its 2009-10 Season Saturday, Oct. 24, with a vibrant and eclectic evening of classical compositions both familiar and contemporary by the Walden Chamber Players. Coastal Concerts is a nonprofit organization promoting classical music appreciation in southern Delaware. All concerts begin at 8 p.m. at the Bethel United Methodist Church hall, a handicapped-accessible venue on the corner of West Fourth and Market streets in Lewes. 

Walden opens the concert with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Preludes and Fugues, K. 404a.” Mozart had set himself to mastering the art of fugal writing in the Bach mold, and tried his hand at writing fugues of his own, but soon realized that fugues were inapplicable to his own style and time. Mozart’s “K. 404a” consists of six Bach fugues arranged by Mozart for string trio, each with an adagio prelude added by Mozart.

The first and fourth of the six preludes and fugues are included in this concert. The first pair, in D minor, is based on a fugue in Book I of Bach’s “Well Tempered Clavier.” The fourth pair, in F Major, is based on a fugue in Bach’s encyclopedic “The Art of the Fugue.”

Next on the scheduled program is “Phantasy Quartet for Oboe and Strings, Op. 2,” by Benjamin Britten. Although Britten’s fame today rests largely on his operas – “Peter Grimes,” “Albert Herring,” “Billy Budd,” etc. – he first attracted attention with his instrumental music. At the age of 17, while still a student at London’s Royal College of Music, he won a major prize with a string quartet. The following year, he produced this “Phantasy Quartet for Oboe and Strings,” written for the great oboist Leon Goossens, and initially performed over the BBC with Goossens as soloist.

Britten’s “Phantasy Quartet” is highly dramatic in tone, anticipating the opera composer that Britten was to become. The cello opens the work with a ghostly march rhythm in conflict with the viola’s drumming; at the climax, Britten unexpectedly introduces a slow pastoral episode, then reinstates the sonata form, bringing back the oboe theme and concluding with the cello’s return to the opening march rhythm.

“Sonatine à Trois, Op. 221b,” a piece by French composer Darius Milhaud, was composed in 1940 while Milhaud was en route by train from Chicago to Oakland, Calif. The work was the second of two sonatines he composed, according to his autobiography, “in memory of a trip to the East.”

Walden continues the program with another Mozart piece, “Quartet in F Major for Oboe and Strings, K. 370,” written 1781, the pivotal year of his life, when he cut his ties with his family and hometown of Salzburg and struck out on his own as a freelance musician in Vienna.

As might be expected, the quartet is really a bit of a concerto for the oboe; however, the strings are not mere accompaniment – in many passages they weave counter-melodies to the oboe. Mozart found many subtle ways to integrate the voices and to vary the musical texture. The final movement is a sprightly rondo in 6/8 time.

The evening’s program concludes with Ernst von Dohnányi’s “Serenade in C Major for String Trio, Op. 10.” At the start of the 20th century, three strong personalities emerged to revive Hungarian music – Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály and Ernst von Dohnányi. The three were lifelong friends, but each worked in his own individual way, reflecting his roots and sense of tradition. During his lifetime, Dohnányi was probably the best known of the three.

Written at the age of 25, the serenade is considered Dohnányi’s first mature composition. The work opens, in fact, the way 18th-century serenades often did – with a march whose phrases evoke a sense of a procession. The second movement, romanza, or romance, is tender or even sentimental in mood. After a scherzo that is lightly fugal in texture, and a fourth movement with five variations, the final movement ends the serenade with a return to the march to suggest the musicians’ exit.

Tickets for each concert are $20, with discounted admission available for series purchases. Youth ages 10 to 18 are given free admission at the door for themselves and one accompanying adult.

Series tickets can be purchased online at coastalconcerts.org or by calling 888-212-6458. Individual tickets may be purchased at the door, or in advance at the Lewes Chamber of Commerce, Lewes Gourmet and Puzzles on Front Street in downtown Lewes.

 Article provided by www.capegazette.com