Conservatorium of Music
Thursday Concert Class
Thursday Concert Class
| Clarinet Sonata Op.120 No.1 | Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897) |
| I. Allegro appassionato | |
| Thomas D'Ath, Clarinet | |
| Jacob Abela, piano | |
| Composed very late in Brahms' life, Op.120 No. 1 is one of four major clarinet works composed for Richard Mühlfield. In fact, it was Mühlfield's clarinet playing that revived Brahms' interest in composition after talking about retiring in 1890. The first movement (being played today) is in sonata form, and unlike many clarinet works before it, heavily relies on the interplay between the clarinet and piano. All of the movement's themes are found on both instruments. | |
| Characteristic Study No. 6 | Jean-Baptiste Arban (1825 - 1889) |
| Eric Beale, Trumpet | |
| Joseph Jean-Baptiste Laurent Arban was a cornetist, conductor, composer, pedagogue and the first famed virtuoso of the cornet à piston or valved cornet. He was influenced by Niccolò Paganini's virtuosic technique on the violin and successfully proved that the cornet was a true solo instrument by developing virtuoso technique on the instrument. He was born in Lyon, France, one of the ten children of Simon Arban, artificier. An older brother was the balloonist Francisque Arban. He studied trumpet with Francois Dauverné at the Paris Conservatoire from 1841 to 1845. He became professor of cornet at the Paris Conservatoire in 1869. | |
| Piano Concerto No. 20 | Wolfgang Amedaus Mozart (1756 - 1791) |
| Second Movement | |
| Nicole Ng, Piano | |
| Jacob Abela, piano | |
| The second movement is written in the key of B flat major, and it is called the Romanze. It’s structure is in Rondo with a coda included. At the beginning of the piece, it begins with a lovely solo without accompaniment in B flat major. During the piece it sets a lyrical, romantic melody, then suddenly a stormy section in the B section in G minor. The piece ends with the reprising melody, and gradually fades into silence of a B flat arpeggio. | |
| Intrada | Otto Ketting (1935 - 2012) |
| Andrew McAdam, Trumpet | |
| Dutch composer Otto Ketting (b. 1935) studied trumpet at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and composition with his father. He played trumpet in the Hague Residentie-Orkest for seven years, before quitting for further composition study with Karl Hartmann in Munich. Intrada was composed in 1958 and unfolds with two related but purposefully different atonal-like melodies which begin, mark the midpoint, and end the piece. These melodies are deconstructed, developed, and extended throughout the piece using extensive and brilliant fanfare passages and also declamatory statements with lament-like broadness. | |
| Four Mörike Lieder | Hugo Wolf (1860 - 1903) |
| I - Elfenlied II - Gebet III - Der Knabe und das Immlein IV - Verborgenheit | |
| Emilia Bertolini, Voice | |
| Jacob Abela, piano | |
| Hugo Wolf set numerous poems of Eduard Mörike to music. Mörike was renound for his musicality and lyricism as well as his ability to capture human emotion. I have chosen four songs from Wolf's collection of Mörike Lieder. The first, 'Elfenlied' is the playful tale of an elf causing trouble in the village. 'Gebet' is a song of prayer, thanking God for all human expierience whether it be love or pain. 'Der Knabe und das Immlein' is the charming recout of a young boy and his conversation with a bee. 'Verborgenheit' is another religious piece in which the speaker grieves a love lost and now only desires solitude. | |
| Prelude and Fugue in E major BWV 878 | J.S. Bach (1685 - 1750) |
| Timothy Kan, piano | |
| The prelude is consistently in three parts where the piece is not constructed around one single motive but rather multiple motives in various sequences. These sequences contain call and answers amongst the different voices, mostly between the soprano and alto voices. The 4 voice fugue has a simple 6 note subject that contains a beautiful curve of melodic symmetry. | |