George… GEORGE! Do you want your face to stay that way?
If George Enescu is itching for a fight, it’s nowhere in evidence in his delightful “Dixtuor.” The work – scored for ten wind instruments, as its title suggests – can be heard on this evening’s “Music from Marlboro” broadcast.
We’ll enjoy a 1978 performance by a “who’s who” of fabulous Marlboro wind players, including flutists Carol Wincenc and Julia Bogorad, oboist Rudolph Vrbsky, English hornist Gerard Reuter, clarinetists David Krakauer and Yehuda Hanani, bassoonists Kim Walker and Alexander Heller, and French hornists David Jolley and Meir Rimon, all under the direction of Marlboro co-founder Marcel Moyse.
Perhaps Enescu is miffed that Marlboro musicians have elected to play Béla Bartók’s String Quartet No. 4 as the centerpiece of their upcoming tour. The first of this year’s Marlboro tours will take place from November 11 to November 18, with stops within our listening area – in New York City, at Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, on November 12, and in Philadelphia, at the American Philosophical Society, on November 14, presented by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. The tour will also feature two works by Antonín Dvořák: his Piano Trio in F minor, Op. 65, and the Miniatures, Op. 75a. Learn more and find a complete schedule at marlboromusic.org.
Tonight’s broadcast will open with a 2016 performance of Bartók’s quartet, played by violinists Robyn Bollinger and Soovin Kim, violist Hwayoon Lee, and cellist Tony Rymer.
It’s understandable that Enescu might be a little jealous. The quartet, composed in Budapest in 1928, when Bartók was in his mid-40s and at the height of his mastery, displays a striking, five movement, “arched” structure, and is full of unusual sonorities – rhythmic sforzandi (notes played with strong, sudden emphasis), passages performed on muted strings, passages performed without vibrato (the rapid oscillation on a sustained tone used for added warmth and expressivity), glissandi (sliding from note to note), and snap pizzicati (plucked strings slapping back against the instruments’ fingerboards).
By contrast, Enescu’s “Dixtuor,” written in 1906, when the composer was in his mid-20s, is a much more relaxed-sounding work. However, its seemingly laid-back, almost rhapsodic disposition and seductive veneer disguise a carefully thought-out classical structure that makes it a kind of spiritual descendant of the 18th century divertimento. I think you’ll find it the perfect balm for the end of a long work day.
Who needs anger management, when you’ve got access to great music-making from the legendary Marlboro Music School and Festival? Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast, this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page
