Brightmusic Chamber Ensemble

Johann Sebastian Bach, Two Chorale Preludes, arr. Mordechai Rechtman:  J. S. Bach (1685-1750) needs no introduction.  Even in his teens, Bach was recognized as a virtuoso organist and improviser, well before his recognition as a composer.  Israeli bassoonist, conductor and arranger Mordechai Rechtman (b. 1926) has set many of Bach’s organ works for wind ensemble.  “Nun komm, der heiden Heiland” (“Come Now, Savior of the Heathen”) has a distinguished lineage.  Martin Luther (1483-1546) penned its text, based on a Fourth Century Latin hymn.  Its melody was derived from a 12^th Century Gregorian chant.  The ancient hymn and Luther’s text first appeared together in 1524.  Bach was probably familiar with the version that appeared in the Weißenfels hymnal of 1714.  This prelude dates from 1714-17, when Bach was the court organist in Weimar.  During the last decade of his life in Leipzig, he revised it for an anthology of chorale preludes now known as the “Great Eighteen.”  Martin Luther wrote both the text and music of “Ein feste Burg is unser Gott” in 1527-29.  Little is known about Bach’s adaptation of the hymn as the BWV 720 chorale prelude.  Some scholars think he composed it about 1705 as a church organist in Arnstadt.  Some believe he composed it in 1709 for the rededication of an organ in Mühlhausen.  And some think it was actually composed by Bach’s first father-in-law, Johann Michael Bach, and has been misattributed to Johann Sebastian.  Take your pick.  It’s a wonderful, inspiring piece in any event.

Paul Hindemith, Kleine Kammermusik, op. 24, no. 2:  Hindemith (1895-1963) was a major presence in German music in the 20^th Century.  He was a true “musicians’ musician” – a professional violinist and violist, a composer and a teacher, who could play virtually every instrument in the orchestra.  He performed with the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra before World War I and taught composition at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik thereafter.  His marriage to a woman who was half-Jewish and offense that Hitler took to one of his operas resulted in his fall from favor in Nazi Germany.  Hindemith exiled himself to Switzerland and then the United States, where he taught composition at Yale University and gained American citizenship in 1946.  Hindemith’s music combined a devotion to classical forms and a love for Baroque counterpoint with what Schonberg called “a most unusual harmonic and melodic language.”  Kleine Kammermusik, written in 1922, is a light, witty and technically demanding work in five short movements.  It is “Hindemith at his most deadpan” [Mark Satola].

Sigfrid Karg-Elert, Jugend (“Youth”), op. 139a:  Karg-Elert (1877-1933) was a German pianist, organist and composer, little-known today but prodigious in his output of compositions for organ (more than 250), harmonium (more than 100) and chamber ensemble.  During World War I, he served as a regimental musician, where he learned to play the flute, oboe and clarinet.  After the war, he composed many works for winds, including Jugend in 1919, the same year he was appointed to teach theory and composition at the Leipzig Conservatory.  Frank Stover called Jugend, a one-movement work in several interlocking sections, “a gorgeous piece of music.”  It reflects “a mixture of post-Brahmsian romanticism with contemporary French developments,” making it a “wonderfully evocative” work with “a great dreamy quality” [The Chamber Music Journal].

Alexander von Zemlinsky, Humoresque:  Austria’s conductor-composer Zemlinsky (1871-1942) is remembered today more for having taught Schoenberg (who became his brother-in-law), Berg, Webern and Korngold than for his own music.  An early piano trio caught the attention of Johannes Brahms, who recommended it to his own publisher.  Zemlinsky’s career took him from Vienna to Prague to Berlin, then back to Vienna, from which (like many of his colleagues of even part-Jewish ancestry) he fled the threat of Nazi persecution for the United States.  He wrote “Humoresque” shortly after moving to America, where he worked for the Boosey & Hawkes music publishing firm until his death three years later.  The work was not published until the 1970s, when Zemlinsky’s music began to undergo a renaissance.  This work is a “rondo based on a perky theme whose returns are separated by two contrasting episodes” [Richard Rodda].

Ludwig van Beethoven, Quintet for Piano and Winds, op. 16:  Beethoven (1770-1827) composed this work in 1796, inspired by Mozart’s wind quintet K.452, which Brightmusic performed last January at our “Shanties, Songs and Serenades” concert.  The 26-year-old Beethoven was only in his fourth year of pursuing his career in Vienna, basking in his reputation as a virtuoso pianist and improviser, and striving to achieve recognition as a composer.  In composing this quintet, Beethoven drew upon the same key, the same structure and the same instrumental ensemble as Mozart.  And “there are echoes of Haydn in the more light-hearted aspects of the work” [Stephen Strugnell]. But the quintet bears the individualistic stamp of Beethoven.  As Harold Schonberg said, “Mozart holds himself in Classic restraint, while Beethoven bares his soul for all to see.”  Beethoven’s penchant for improvisation created breath-taking moments for the wind players in one early performance of this work.  As reported by his friend Franz Anton Ries, “in the finale Beethoven suddenly began to improvise ... and entertained himself and the others; but not his associates.  They were displeased and [the oboist] enraged.  It really was comical to see [them] continually lifting their instruments to their lips, then quietly putting them down again.  At last Beethoven was satisfied ... and the entire audience was delighted.”  Brightmusic does not intend to duplicate such extemporaneousness at this evening’s performance.