Brightmusic Chamber Ensemble

François Devienne (1759-1803)
Trio No. 5 in B-flat Major. Op. 61, No. 5  (for flute, clarinet & bassoon)   

The fourteenth child of a French saddlemaker, Devienne came by his musical training as many boys did in his day, as a choirboy.   He became a celebrated flautist and bassoonist, performing in various ensembles, including the Paris Opera, and his compositions earned him the sobriquet “the Paris Mozart.” In 1795, he penned this lighthearted two-movement trio that opens with a laughing bassoon, setting the tone for the good-humored piece.  In the light-and-lively second movement, Devienne displays his mastery of the wind ensemble.

Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857)
Trio Pathétique in D Minor (for clarinet, bassoon & piano)

Although Glinka studied violin and piano as a child, his father, a wealthy Russian nobleman, discouraged a career in music.  Glinka was obliged to enter the civil service in St. Petersburg, an occupation more befitting his social status.  In 1828 he left the service and began traveling throughout Europe, spending three years in Milan studying piano and composition. When he returned to Russia, however, his music took on a more nationalistic flavor.  His Trio Pathétique was written and premiered in Milan with the composer at the keyboard.  The richly-timbered work opens with a graceful Allegro Moderato that segues into a playful Scherzo which, in turn, transitions into the heart of the piece—a lyrical Largo.  After the first full stop of the trio, the Allegro con spirito bursts forth and is over in less than two and a half minutes.

Florent Schmitt (1870-1958)
Á Tour d’Anches (“Reeds in Turn”) (for oboe, clarinet, bassoon & piano)

“Florent Schmitt is the most important French composer you’ve never heard of.  His music moves beyond impressionism into a lush and tangled world of dark poetry and sumptuous story-telling . . . rhapsodic, brooding and startlingly beautiful,” observed JoAnn Falletta, Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.  Although he came of age in the milieu of the Impressionist movement, Schmitt’s music is stylistically more similar to that of his teacher and mentor, Gabriel Fauré, than to that of Debussy or Ravel, the giants of Impressionism.  His music has been described as technically challenging for performers, with its bitonality, complex rhythms, and percussive chords.  Completed in 1943, the four-movement Á Tour d’Anches is a showcase for reeds that explores the sumptuous diversity of woodwinds in an engaging discourse.     

Clémence de Grandval (1828-1907)
Trio de Salon, Op. 8 (for oboe, bassoon & piano)

French composer Marie Félice Clémence de Reiset was born into a well-to-do musical family and studied piano and composition from an early age.  Her marriage to the Vicomte de Grandval in 1851 allowed her the freedom to pursue a career as a composer, but due to her social position, several of her works were published under pseudonyms.  She studied composition with Saint-Saëns and, briefly, piano with Chopin. Grandval is chiefly known for her chamber works, especially those for the oboe.  Her Trio de Salon, Op. 8, dating from 1847, was one of her earliest published works, composed when she was 19.  Its first movement, the languid andantino sostenuto, reminiscent of “a young bird trying its wings,” Henri Blanchard wrote in 1851, is a delicately-interwoven dialogue between the double reeds which leads directly into the lively allegro, the second—and final—movement of this charming piece.   

Lukáš Hurnik (b. 1967)
Fusion Music for Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon & Piano

Lukáš Hurnik is a Czech composer, conductor, choir director and popularizer of classical music.  His music frequently blends rock and jazz with baroque and modern polyphony. His music is characterized by strong rhythmic and melodic elements and polyphonic texture.  As with much of his music, Fusion Music incorporates driving jazz rhythms and motifs.  This brief-but-breathless three-movement work (none of the movements has a name) is one of Hurnik’s most popular.

Camille Saint-Saëns (1825-1921)
Caprice on Danish and Russian Airs  (for flute, oboe, clarinet & piano)

A child prodigy who dazzled audiences at the age of ten, Camille Saint-Saëns would go on to write in virtually every genre, including symphonies, concertos, opera, oratorio, chamber music, ballet and even film scores.  He is credited with writing the first score for a silent movie in 1908. He entered the Paris Conservatory at the age of 13 and later served as church organist at La Madeleine, the official church of the French Empire, a post he held for 20 years.  He subsequently pursued a career as a composer and pianist. The Caprice on Danish and Russian Airs was composed for a series of concerts organized by the Russian Red Cross in St. Petersburg in 1887.  This four-movement piece “exploits the wonderful hues and nuances of the woodwind palette: both the expressive and the mournful interspersed with sparkling passages for the piano” (Ratner, S., 2005).

-Program notes by Sara Grossman