Crossing Boundaries
Nino Rota (1911-1979) Duets for Flute and Oboe
Best known for his film scores to Hollywood blockbusters like The Godfather, Giovanni Rota Rinaldi, was a prolific composer, pianist and conductor. Under the name of Nino Rota, he collaborated with directors Federico Fellini, Franco Zeffirelli, and Francis Ford Coppola, for whom his work on The Godfather trilogy earned him an Academy Award. Over nearly five decades he wrote more than 150 film scores. Rota also crossed over into classical with ten operas, five ballets and works for the theatre in addition to orchestral, chamber and choral music. The Milan native was a child prodigy who grew up in a musical family. He studied at the Conservatory of Milan and later at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. In 1972-73 Rota composed a set of three short duets for flute and oboe: Vecchio Carillon (old music box), Vecchia Romanza (old romance) and Il Mulino (the mill). The pieces are full of light charm as the two instruments enter into an engaging dialogue. The lively back-and-forth of the Allegro uguale is followed by a wistful Andante scorrevole, concluding with the jaunty Allegro, delightful minor works by a major 20th-century Italian composer.
Eugène Bozza (1905-1991) Three Pieces for Flute and Oboe
Contemporary French composer and violinist Eugène Bozza studied at the Paris Conservatory where he won the Premier Prix an astonishing three times, one each for violin, composition and conducting. In 1934 he won the coveted Grand Prix de Rome for composition. Though himself a violinist, he wrote prolifically for winds in addition to symphonies, operas, ballets, large choral works, and compositions for wind band. His style is eclectic and immediately approachable. Norman Heim, professor of clarinet at the University of Maryland, sums up his work: “Bozza is a performer's composer, in that the music is well written for the instrument, is challenging to play and enjoyable to rehearse. He is the listener's composer since the music is always interesting and has a familiarity of melody and tonality that even the untrained ear can enjoy.” His Three Pieces for Flute and Oboe are fine examples of Bozza’s composition and emotional range, demonstrating his mastery of composition for winds.
British music critic Paul Griffiths wrote, “[Bozza’s] works reveal melodic fluency, elegance of structure, and a consistently sensitive concern of instrumental capabilities.”
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) Quintet in F-sharp minor for clarinet and strings, Op. 10
English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, sometimes called the “African Mahler,” was the son of an English woman from a musical family and a doctor and prominent administrator in West Africa who had studied medicine in London. The boy was named after the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He was brought up by his mother and his maternal grandfather, who played the violin and arranged lessons for the child. He entered the Royal College of Music at the age of 15 and began to study composition. He become a professor at the Crystal Palace School of Music and conducted the orchestra at Croydon Conservatoire. Coleridge-Taylor succumbed to pneumonia at the age of 37, but left an impressive legacy: both his children had careers in music, and his daughter, Avril Coleridge-Taylor, was a pianist, conductor and composer.
His expansive catalog of works includes this quintet for clarinet and strings, inspired by Brahms' own 1891 clarinet quintet. Completed in 1895, the four-movement work so impressed the 20-year-old’s teacher that he showed the work to Joseph Joachim, friend and collaborator of Johannes Brahms, who is said to have spoken enthusiastically about the work. James M. Keller, the long-time program annotator for the New York Philharmonic, described the quintet as “Dvorakian” with its “folkish bent,” particularly in the first, second and fourth movements.
-Program Notes by Sara Grossman
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