Brightmusic Chamber Ensemble

Paul Schoenfield, “Carolina Reveille:”  Every Oklahoman knows what a “shivaree” is.  The final scene in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1943 musical “Oklahoma!” features the people of Claremore giving Curly and Laurey an old-fashioned shivaree – a raucous serenade to a newly married couple, meant to challenge the bliss of their wedding night.  The custom originated in France and probably came to the United States via New Orleans, where an 1805 shivaree was described as follows:  “The house is mobbed by the people of the town, vociferating and shouting with loud acclaim.  All have some kind of discordant and noisy music, such as old kettles, shovels and tongs.  All civil authority and rule seems laid aside.”  Well, “Carolina Reveille,” penned in 2001 by American pianist and composer Paul Schoenfield (b. 1947), portrays a shivaree in a series of variations on the 1922 Broadway hit, “Carolina Morning.”  Unlike many variations, where the theme is stated and then followed by the variations, Schoenfield’s variations precede the theme and present the theme at the end of the work.  “Echoes of Mozart, Brahms, Bartok and Shostakovich ... impart an infectious zest, and distinctive flavor, to [his] music....  Like the music of Gershwin, to which it has been compared, Schoenfield’s sparkles with wit and energy and draws deeply on the composer’s Jewish roots” [Dennis J. Dooley]. 

Robert Schumann, Piano Quartet in E-Flat Major, op. 47: What a complex man Schumann (1810-1856) was: a man of literature as well as music, a music critic (the “discoverer” of Brahms) as well as a composer and conductor.  No match at the keyboard for his virtuoso wife Clara, he commanded her love and devotion in a relationship that reflects as much storybook romanticism as it does tragedy.  Today, Schumann would probably be diagnosed as manic-depressive.  A final breakdown and suicide attempt in 1854 sent him to an asylum near Bonn where he died two years later, at age 46.  In 1842, the second year of his marriage, Schumann took the advice of Franz Liszt and turned his composing talents to chamber music.  Schumann’s “chamber music year” produced three string quartets, a piano trio, a piano quintet and the opus 47 piano quartet which Brightmusic will perform this evening.  In less than one month, he produced “one of the greatest works of its kind ever written [Laurie Shulman], one that occupies “hallowed ground in concert halls everywhere” [James Keller]. Although piano trios were common, piano quartets were rare in 1842 (Mozart had composed two and Beethoven one).  Adding a viola to the ensemble created a complexity and density that demanded considerable compositional technique.  The structure of this Quartet – which reverses the usual order of the slow movement and the scherzo – may have been inspired by Beethoven.  Movement III of the Quartet is particularly noteworthy.  James Keller says that it contains “one of Schumann’s most sublime melodies, perfect in its balance, soulfulness, and apparent simplicity,” and reflects “one of the magical Schumann moments in which the entire universe seems to hold its breath.” 

Antonin Dvořák, Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, op. 81:  Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904) was a 19^th Century Romantic and Czech nationalist composer.  Although he is best known for his symphonies and his cello concerto, he displayed considerable skill in writing for chamber ensemble.  He grew up in a poor Bohemian family and did not begin his formal musical training until at age 16.  After two years’ study at the Prague Conservatory, he worked as an orchestral violist and church organist and choirmaster, all the while composing.  The big break in his career came when Johannes Brahms read some of his works and began to champion him as a composer.  Dvořák’s reputation spread, leading to tours of England, Germany, Russia and, from 1892-95, the United States, where he was struck by the lack of public support for the arts: “The great American republic alone, in its national government as well as in the various governments of the states, suffers art and music to go without encouragement.  Music must go unaided, and be content if she can get the support of a few private individuals.”  Some things never change.  His 1887 Piano Quintet is “a central masterwork of Romantic-era chamber music” [Blair Johnston].  “The best of Dvořák’s most endearing characteristics are encapsulated here: arresting melodies, rhythmic vitality, elegant scoring, and a broad emotional palate” [James Keller].  The Quintet holds in perfect balance “the three legs of the Dvořák stylistic triad – Brahmsian depth and warmth, Eastern European folk flavor, and sheer melodicism” [Johnston].