Waikanae Music Society

PROGRAMME

THE IRONS ARMSTRONG GREEN TRIO

SUNDAY 8 May AT 2.30PM,
WAIKANAE MEMORIAL HALL

Aram ll'yich Khachaturian (1903-1978)

Trio in G minor for Clarinet, Violin and Piano
Andante con dolore, molto espressione
Allegro
Moderato
Armenian by birth, Khachaturian, like his contemporaries Prokofiev and Shostakovich, spent much of his working life meeting the artistic aims of "Socialist Realism", the official artistic policy of the Soviet regime that required compositions to be derived from folk sources and generally melodious and uplifting. As this work demonstrates, his talents were well matched to the task. All three movements are inspired by folk song and skilful use of instrumental colour and dance-like rhytms, often evoking a gypsy feel.

Alexander Rosenblatt (1956- )
Fantasie on themes from the opera Carmen

This piece is a modernised version of the operatic fantasy form popular in the 19th Century. Alexander Rosenblatt is an accomplished and quite prolific Russian composer whose works cover a wide variety of genres and include the "Beatles Symphony" and the ballet "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". He is a jazz enthusiast and his "Fantasie on themes from the opera Carmen" revives the operatic fantasy in a modern jazz idiom.

George Gershwin(1898-1937)
Rhapsody in Blue
(Transcribed by the composer for solo piano)

Gershwin, who greatly admired the early 20th Century French composers, approached Ravel for composition lessons, only to be told: "Why should you be a second-rate Ravel when you can be a first-rate Gershwin?" He also approached Stravinsky, but when Stravinsky heard what could be earned from Broadway musicians, he suggested that he should get the lessons instead. Many composers have incorporated jazz into classical compositions, but none so successfully as Gershwin. Rhapsody in Blue was commissioned in 1924 for Paul Whiteman's jazz band. The orchestral and solo piano version followed in the same year. When Rhapsody in Blue was premiered in February 1924 in New York, its success was instantaneous and unprecedented.

INTERVAL

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Sonata for Violin and Piano in C Minor
(Opus 30 No 2)
Allegro con brio
Adgio cantabile
Scherzo
Finale: Allegro-Presto
This C minor sonata, the second of a set of three written in 1801-2, is one of the most important and dramatic of Beethoven's violin sonatas and is immensely in advance of anything previously written for this combination. It was composed at a time when Beethoven was struggling with the reality of his impending deafness and it echoes the tragic mood of several other C minor works from the same period. The emotional climate for the entire piece is definitively set in the fateful opening movement. The mood is stern, stormy and defiant. Even in the beautiful sustained adagio there are some turbulent outbursts. The third movement is a poignant Scherzio with a central Trio in which the feeling of a German country dance dominates. The Finale returns to the anguished, tempestuous mood of the first movement, building to an agitated and fiery coda.

Bela Bartók (1881-1945)
Contrasts for Violin, Clarinet and Piano (1938)
(Opus 30 No 2)
Verbunkos
Piheno
Sebes

Although most frequently recognised as the "King of Swing", Benny Goodman was also the inspiration for some of the 20th Century's best art music for clarinet, including concerti by Copeland, Milhaud and Hindemith, and this very popular chamber work. It was written and dedicated to Goodman and also violinist Joseph Szigeti. The Pianist in the first performance was Bartók himself. The work is as the title suggests, a study in contrasts. Mood, tempi, genres and tone colours vary widely throughout the three movements: Verbunkos (a Hungarian dance associated with duping recuits into the military), Piheno (a noctume) and Sebes (a lively dance). In the final movement the score requires the violinist to play a second instrument tuned not in fifths but in tritones, an interval sometimes thematically associated with evil, but in this case stemming from its common recurrence in the modal folk music from which this piece is inspired.

Aram ll'yich Khachaturian (1903-1978) Trio in G minor for Clarinet, Violin and Piano Andante con dolore, molto espressione Allegro Moderato	Armenian by birth, Khachaturian, like his contemporaries Prokofiev and Shostakovich, spent much of his working life meeting the artistic aims of "Socialist Realism", the official artistic policy of the Soviet regime that required compositions to be derived from folk sources and generally melodious and uplifting. As this work demonstrates, his talents were well matched to the task. All three movements are inspired by folk song and skilful use of instrumental colour and dance-like rhytms, often evoking a gypsy feel.
Alexander Rosenblatt (1956- ) Fantasie on themes from the opera Carmen	This piece is a modernised version of the operatic fantasy form popular in the 19th Century. Alexander Rosenblatt is an accomplished and quite prolific Russian composer whose works cover a wide variety of genres and include the "Beatles Symphony" and the ballet "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". He is a jazz enthusiast and his "Fantasie on themes from the opera Carmen" revives the operatic fantasy in a modern jazz idiom.
George Gershwin(1898-1937) Rhapsody in Blue (Transcribed by the composer for solo piano)	Gershwin, who greatly admired the early 20th Century French composers, approached Ravel for composition lessons, only to be told: "Why should you be a second-rate Ravel when you can be a first-rate Gershwin?" He also approached Stravinsky, but when Stravinsky heard what could be earned from Broadway musicians, he suggested that he should get the lessons instead. Many composers have incorporated jazz into classical compositions, but none so successfully as Gershwin. Rhapsody in Blue was commissioned in 1924 for Paul Whiteman's jazz band. The orchestral and solo piano version followed in the same year. When Rhapsody in Blue was premiered in February 1924 in New York, its success was instantaneous and unprecedented.
	INTERVAL
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Sonata for Violin and Piano in C Minor (Opus 30 No 2) Allegro con brio Adgio cantabile Scherzo Finale: Allegro-Presto	This C minor sonata, the second of a set of three written in 1801-2, is one of the most important and dramatic of Beethoven's violin sonatas and is immensely in advance of anything previously written for this combination. It was composed at a time when Beethoven was struggling with the reality of his impending deafness and it echoes the tragic mood of several other C minor works from the same period. The emotional climate for the entire piece is definitively set in the fateful opening movement. The mood is stern, stormy and defiant. Even in the beautiful sustained adagio there are some turbulent outbursts. The third movement is a poignant Scherzio with a central Trio in which the feeling of a German country dance dominates. The Finale returns to the anguished, tempestuous mood of the first movement, building to an agitated and fiery coda.
Bela Bartók (1881-1945) Contrasts for Violin, Clarinet and Piano (1938) (Opus 30 No 2) Verbunkos Piheno Sebes	Although most frequently recognised as the "King of Swing", Benny Goodman was also the inspiration for some of the 20th Century's best art music for clarinet, including concerti by Copeland, Milhaud and Hindemith, and this very popular chamber work. It was written and dedicated to Goodman and also violinist Joseph Szigeti. The Pianist in the first performance was Bartók himself. The work is as the title suggests, a study in contrasts. Mood, tempi, genres and tone colours vary widely throughout the three movements: Verbunkos (a Hungarian dance associated with duping recuits into the military), Piheno (a noctume) and Sebes (a lively dance). In the final movement the score requires the violinist to play a second instrument tuned not in fifths but in tritones, an interval sometimes thematically associated with evil, but in this case stemming from its common recurrence in the modal folk music from which this piece is inspired.