Viva Verdi!

When we think of “Aida,” perhaps what springs immediately to mind is a stage full of elephants, but when a Naples performance of Verdi’s grandest grand opera was delayed, the composer found diversion on a much smaller scale. Verdi tossed off his first piece of chamber music at the age of 60. The String Quartet in E minor was given an informal performance at the Hotel delle Crocelle on April 1, 1873. Said Verdi of his latest creation, “I don’t know whether the Quartet is beautiful or ugly, but I do know that it’s a Quartet!” We’ll get to hear it on this week’s “Music from Marlboro,” in a 1969 performance featuring violinists Pina Carmirelli and Endre Granat, violist Martha Strongin Katz, and cellist Ronald Leonard.

The hour will open with another quartet by a figure who would go on to become one of the most productive of opera composers, Gioachino Rossini. Even as a boy, there was evidence of his remarkable fecundity. He wrote his six string sonatas, scored for two violins, cello, and double bass in 1804, over a period of three days. Rossini was twelve years-old. The sonatas are rhythmically vital and full of the kinds of melodies that would soon endear him to audiences the world over. We’ll hear the third of these, the String Sonata in C major, in a 1989 performance, with violinists Lara St. John and Ivan Chan, cellist Paul Tortelier, and double bassist Timothy Cobb.

In between, we’ll find further enjoyment in the music of Brazilian composer Franciso Mignone. Born in São Paolo to an Italian immigrant flutist, Mignone studied at the Milan Conservatory before returning to accept a teaching position in Rio de Janeiro. Over the course of his career, he accumulated a diverse output written across many styles, from native “choros” to highly-schooled serialism. He is best known for his music composed in a folk-inflected, nationalistic idiom. Brazilian influences color many of his works, including his “Five Songs for Voice and Bassoon,” written around 1931 and revised in 1976. We’ll hear it performed at the 2016 Marlboro Music Festival by soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon and bassoonist Catherine Chen.

I hope you’ll join me for music by two Italian masters and one of Italian descent, on “Music from Marlboro,” this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page