Impressions of France

Chamber Music’s biggest stars – André Watts, Ida Kavafian, Paul Neubauer, Tara Helen O’Connor, Emerson String Quartet, and more – perform colorful works by great French composers Saint-Saëns, Debussy, Poulenc, and Ravel.

This concert is sponsored by David Rabin in honor of Ingrid Holm Story.

Premieres July 9 @ 7 pm PT
Available through July 10 @ 11:59 pm PT

Program

Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.

SAINT-SAËNS Fantaisie for Violin and Harp in A Major, Op. 124

Ida Kavafian, violin
Nancy Allen, harp

Originally performed on Thursday, June 26th, 2014｜Kaul Auditorium @ 8pm

See our Program Book for program notes.

CLAUDE DEBUSSY Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp

Tara Helen O’Connor, flute
Paul Neubauer, viola
Nancy Allen, harp

Originally performed on Monday, June 23rd, 2014｜Kaul Auditorium @ 8pm

See our Program Book for program notes.

FRANCIS POULENC Clarinet Sonata (1962)

David Shifrin, clarinet
André Watts, piano

Originally performed on Thursday, July 17th, 2014｜Kaul Auditorium @ 8pm

MAURICE RAVEL String Quartet in F Major

MAURICE RAVEL String Quartet in F Major (1875-1937)

I. Allegro moderato – Très doux
II. Assez vif – Très rythmé
III. Très lent
IV. Vif et agité

This remarkable, polished string quartet seems all the more impressive when one considers that Ravel was only twenty-eight when he wrote it. Even this student work clearly embodies the principles for which the composer would be best remembered: his careful craftsmanship and ability to infuse a broad palette of colors into perfectly assembled forms.

Unlike Debussy, whose own string quartet may well have inspired many elements of this work, Ravel frequently looked to the models of Mozart and Haydn as inspiration for his own inventive handling of form and counterpoint. The composer himself valued the “classical” virtues of this work, once boasting that “Stravinsky is often considered the leader of neoclassicism, but don’t forget that my String Quartet was already conceived in terms of four-part counterpoint, whereas Debussy’s Quartet is purely harmonic in conception.”

The first movement, like Debussy’s, often uses a modal rather than a tonal harmonic language, yet still adheres very clearly to the traditional sonata-allegro form. The ascending scale in the cello that opens the work clearly outlines F major, yet the theme in the upper strings seem stuck in the aeolian mode. The composer’s ability to create synthesis between disparate harmonic poles is astounding.

The second movement, justifiably popular, is a scherzo pizzicato, in which the plucked strings perhaps evoke the strumming guitars of Ravel’s Basque heritage, while the interplay between simple and compound meters create a polyrhythmic texture akin to Balinese gamelan which Ravel, like Debussy, had encountered in Paris around the turn of the century.

In the third movement, a nocturne of sorts, Ravel is most free with his form: the instruments seem to improvise on themes, as though meditating on elements, yet frequently and mercurially shift in character. Listen closely and you will hear traces of the opening theme from the first movement, cast in new guises.

In his exciting finale, Ravel goes farther with the concept musical memory, as recollections of previous themes in the earlier movement enter the scene, taking their stage bows as the quartet comes to an energetic close.

—© Patrick Jankowski

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