Brightmusic Chamber Ensemble

Carl Maria von Weber, Introduction, Theme and Variations:  “A good case can be made” that Weber (1786-1826) “was the first of the true Romantics....  To the Romantics, Weber was the one who unleashed the storm” [Harold Schonberg].  He was one of the greatest pianists and conductors of his era.  His compositions included piano music, chamber music and songs, all of which were enormously popular in the 19^th Century.  Weber – a first cousin of Mozart’s wife Constanze – had a huge influence on Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Liszt and Wagner.  He was an “aristocratic, intelligent, forceful man: an authentic genius whose greatest tragedy was that he was born about thirty years ahead of his time” [Schonberg].  The date of composition and the authorship of the “Introduction, Theme and Variations” are not certain.  Originally assigned to Weber’s posthumous opus, others have attributed the work to a Weber contemporary, Joseph Küffner.  Regardless, it is a delightful work.  The introductory melody reflects “lovely Mozartean dreaminess” followed by a “chipper” and “innocent” theme.  “The writing for the clarinet is finely imagined, especially in the closing variation, where the music rushes headlong through a gauntlet of technical challenges for the soloist” [Robert Cummings]. 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, String Quintet No. 3 in C Major, K.515:  Mozart (1756-1791) learned to play the keyboard at age 3, started composing at age 5, and learned the violin at age 6 on a tour during which he and his child-prodigy sister performed all over Europe.  He was “history’s first important professional ‘freelance’ musician” [David Dubal].  “There was literally nothing in music he could not do better than anybody else” [Harold Schonberg].  Mozart started this string quintet, in the key of C Major, as well as his fourth string quintet, in the key of C Minor, during the winter of 1786-87 while in Prague for the opening of his opera, “The Marriage of Figaro.”  He finished the C Major quintet in April 1787 and the C Minor quintet one month later.  The two quintets are “masterpieces of the genre” and reflect “confidence, mastery, and grandeur of conception” [Julian Rushton].  The opening movement is “noble” and “massive in scope,” while the Andante movement “flows with a heart-easing tranquility” [Brian Robbins].  This work inspired Franz Schubert’s C Major String Quintet, which Brightmusic performed at its “Transcendental Doxology” concert last month.  While Schubert’s quintet featured two cellos, Mozart’s four string quintets were written for two violas.  (Mozart was a violist.)

Louis Spohr, Fantasia and Variations on a Theme by Danzi in B-flat Major, op. 81:  German composer Louis Spohr (1784-1859) was “the greatest Classical violinist of his time” and “one of the most admired and respected composers of his time” [Schonberg].  Spohr served as a court musician in Germany and Austria, when royal patronage was still the anchor for many musicians’ careers.  He emerged as one of the world’s first “virtuoso conductors,” and during his lifetime, he was best known in that capacity, conducting six tours of England, as well as concerts throughout Germany and Austria.  He invented the violin chinrest; developed the lettering and numbering conventions for printed orchestral music; and was the first conductor to use a baton.  Spohr was a prolific composer of chamber music, including his “Fantasia and Variations,” composed in 1813-14.  The theme derives from an opera by Franz Danzi, a theme that was used by several other composers, including Schubert.  This work is “a virtuosic showpiece for clarinet and strings that holds forth with an energetic drive, an often melodramatic tone, and harmony that takes some interesting turns” [Aaron Rubushka].  Virtuosic?  Yes, the clarinet range required for this work spans almost four octaves.      

Edward Knight, “Raven:”  Edward Knight (b. 1961) is a former Oklahoma Musician of the Year and winner of Oklahoma City University's 2013 Outstanding Faculty Award, the University’s highest teaching honor.  His works range from “Cradle of Dreams,” a choral and orchestral for 100-piece orchestra and 250 voices to two full-length musicals and award-winning song cycles.  “Raven,” his three-movement piece for clarinet and marimba, is inspired by creation tales of the Pacific Northwest.  The composer’s notes about the work are included in an insert to this concert program.  Written in 2004 for Oklahoma City Philharmonic principal clarinetist Chad Burrow and principal percussionist David Steffens, “Raven” will receive its Carnegie Hall premiere at Weill Recital Hall on May 5 by the Florida-based contemporary music ensemble “What Is Noise.”  Dr. Knight -- winner of the Aaron Copland Award and a fellow at the Yaddo, MacDowell, Djerassi and Brush Creek arts colonies -- is a member of the Board of Directors of Brightmusic    

Kevin Puts, “And Legions Will Rise:”  Dr. Kevin Puts (b.1972) received the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his opera “Silent Night.”  He has composed four symphonies; concertos for violin, cello, clarinet, piano, marimba and percussion; and a variety of chamber music.  He received his training in composition and piano from the Eastman School of Music and Yale University.  He is currently a member of the Composition Faculty at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.  “And Legions Will Rise” was commissioned by Kobe Shinbun Newspaper, composed during the summer of 2001, and premiered in October 2001 in Kobe, Japan.  In the words of the composer, “‘And Legions Will Rise’ is about the power in all of us to transcend during times of tragedy and personal crisis.  While I was writing it, I kept imagining one of those war scenes in blockbuster films, with masses of troops made ready before a great battle.  I think we have forces like this inside of us, ready to do battle when we are at our lowest moments.”