Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Voces Intimae

Sibelius & Schubert Marlboro Chamber Music

Save me, Sibelius! I can’t take it any longer.

We’ll attempt to beat the heat with the one and only chamber work from the great Finnish master’s maturity – the String Quartet in D minor. It’s subtitle, “Voces Intimae,” suggests a looking inward. That’s fine with me. There’s no sun inside.

The piece was composed in 1909, between the Third and Fourth Symphonies. Sibelius wrote to his wife, Aino, “It turned out as something wonderful. The kind of thing that brings a smile to your lips at the hour of death. I will say no more.” Ah, sweet nothings.

We’ll hear it performed at the 2005 Marlboro Music Festival, by Dan Zhu and Sarah Kapustin, violins; Samuel Rhodes, viola; and Amir Eldan, cello.

Then we’ll enjoy another presentiment of death – Franz Schubert’s Introduction and Variations on his lied, “Trock’ne Blumen” (“Withered Flowers”), from the song cycle “Die schöne Müllerin.” Paula Robison will be the flutist and Marlboro co-founder Rudolf Serkin the pianist, in a recording from 1968.

Nothing refreshes on a hot day like cold wind from the grave, on this week’s “Music from Marlboro” – chamber music performances from the legendary Marlboro Music Festival – this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page

September 5, 2018
Nielsen & Sibelius at Marlboro

We head north for this week’s “Music from Marlboro” for selections by the most famous composers from Denmark and Finland, respectively.

Like “The Ugly Duckling” of his compatriot, Hans Christian Andersen, Carl Nielsen emerged from humble beginnings to blossom into Denmark’s national composer. Internationally, Nielsen has flitted in and out of the seemingly inescapable shadow of Finnish master Jean Sibelius. Both men were born in 1865. In fact, Nielsen was six months older. But it is an unfair comparison, not so much apples and oranges; more like kipper and pickled herring.

The very fact that Nielsen is not referred to reductively as “The Sibelius of Denmark” is attributable to an unusually strong individual voice. His music is modern, yet traditional; Scandinavian, yet Germanic. Most important, it is full of personality, freshness and vitality.

Nielsen’s Wind Quintet of 1922 reflects the composer’s optimism and good humor. Each part was tailored to the personality of the individual performer for which it was written (members of the Copenhagen Wind Quintet). There is also something of the outdoors about the piece. Nielsen was always fascinated by nature, and there are ample suggestions of bird song woven into the texture of the work’s pastoral neoclassicism.

We’ll enjoy a recording made at Marlboro in 1971, with Paula Robison, flute; Joseph Turner, oboe; Larry Combs, clarinet; William Winstead, bassoon; and Robin Graham, horn.

Sibelius, too, was influenced by nature. However, the very subtitle of his String Quartet in D minor, “Voces Intimae,” suggests a looking inward. The piece was composed in 1909, between the Third and Fourth Symphonies. It is the only chamber work of Sibelius’ maturity. The composer wrote to his wife, “It turned out as something wonderful. The kind of thing that brings a smile to your lips at the hour of death. I will say no more.” Ah, sweet nothings.

We’ll hear it performed at the 2005 Marlboro Music Festival, by Dan Zhu and Sarah Kapustin, violins; Samuel Rhodes, viola; and Amir Eldan, cello.

The prevailing winds will be from the north (strings, too, for that matter), 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

HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW: Carl Nielsen (left) and Jean Sibelius

December 6, 2017

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