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Sculptures, Stories, and Sunsets

PROGRAM:

Leoš Janáček (1854-1928): Pohádka (Fairy Tale)

Ethel Smyth (1858-1944): Sonata for Cello and Piano in A minor, op. 5
i. Allegro moderato
ii. Adagio non troppo
iii. Allegro vivace e grazioso

Julia MacLaine: black steel wire, plaster of paris, paper clay (2024)

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): Sonata for Piano and Cello no. 1 in E minor, op. 38
i. Allegro non troppo
ii. Allegretto quasi menuetto
iii. Allegro

In this program, Julia and I are going to oscillate between the very familiar (Brahms’s first cello sonata) the totally unfamiliar (Julia’s own brand new piece, written this summer), and two pieces that sit somewhere in between.  In recent years, classical musicians have been making efforts to see through some of the darker clouds in (musical) history that have hidden powerful and legitimate composers from the light of day.  One such composer is Ethel Smyth, who wrote music that was as good as many of her contemporaries, but never taken as seriously because she was a woman.  In the 1880s, she spent time in Germany, and became a friend and student of Johannes Brahms.  She wrote the cello sonata that you will hear on this program in 1887.  We thought pairing her music with Brahms’s would work well.  You can hear how she took on aspects of his sound world, but also let her own humorous and unpredictable voice shine in the last movement.  Both Janácek and Julia use music to tell love stories: Janácek’s Pohádka (Fairy Tale) opens with a musical depiction of a shimmering lake, the setting for a tortured love story between a mythical prince and princess.  Julia’s black steel wire, plaster of paris, paper clay was inspired by Wakefield-based artist Chris Hamilton’s sculpture Parenthood.  The sculpture encapsulates all of the contradictory but beautiful emotions of a parent-child relationship.  To finish the Program, we’ll play Brahms’s first cello sonata, which features one of the 19th century’s great ‘musical sunsets’ at the end of the first movement.  To find out what happens after that, you’ll just have to come to the concert…