Dueling Strings

Frédéric Chopin (1810 – 1849)
Introduction and Polonaise Brillante for cello and piano (1835)

Program note by Lisa Bergman

Have you ever been stumped on how to word a well-crafted thank you note to your homestay host when a bottle of champagne and bouquet of roses seemed inadequate? Here’s a tip. Do as Chopin did: sit down and compose a Polonaise Brillante for cello and piano! He then presented it to his host Prince Radziwill’s and topped it off by teaching it to the Prince’s teenage cellist daughter, Princess Wanda, so that she and Chopin could perform it together for everyone’s delight. Chopin added the Introduction later, giving this work added sparkle as though using a silver metallic pen on his manuscript paper. As Chopin later confessed, “…it is nothing but glitter, for the drawing room, for the ladies…”

Maurice Ravel (1875 – 1937)
Pièce en forme de Habanera (1907)
Arranged for harp and double bass

Program note by Lisa Bergman

Imagine the challenge of a commission (by a major singing teacher) to compose a work for the development of a singer’s breath control and range. Add to this the condition that the piece be a vocalise for low female voice and piano – a song without words – with no snapping consonants or gooey vowels. Ravel truly delivered. His creation was inspired by a seductive dance with Cuban roots that had already caused a dance craze in Europe in the mid 1800’s: the habanera. Even Carmen sings one in Bizet’s opera – and Jelly Roll Morton brought one back across the Atlantic, calling it “the Spanish tinge.” Later it popped up in Doritos ads and with the antics of the Swedish Chef on The Muppets. This work is magically adaptable to any number of instruments – from winds to strings, harmonica, heckelphone, kazoo, and even drums! What an unexpected treat to hear it in this arrangement with the magic of the harp partnered with the rich, low double bass.

Astor Piazzolla (1921 – 1992) (arr. K. Dvorak)
Suite from María de Buenos Aires for harp and double bass (1968)

Program note by Lisa Bergman

Astor Piazzolla was born in Argentina and moved to New York City as a child with his parents. He began his musical career on the bandoneón (button accordion) his father bought in a pawn shop. As a composer and musician, he became famous for a musical style called nuevo tango, a mashup of tango, jazz, and classical musical forms. Among his many evocative works is an operetta (operita): María de Buenos Aires. It is a story about María, born in a poverty-stricken part of Argentina, who is seduced by the allure of the tango music she discovers in Buenos Aires. She leads a life filled with bad luck, sex, gambling, horse-racing, and violence. She is eventually murdered, but her shadow returns to haunt the streets she once inhabited. Then, with the help of “drunken marionettes,” a new María is miraculously born. Many instrumental suites have been born of this hallucinogenic opera, but rarely is heard the version for double bass and harp.

York Bowen (1884 – 1961)
Phantasy for viola and piano, Op. 54 (1918)

Program note by Lisa Bergman

The heart-on-his-sleeve York Bowen earned the title “the English Rachmaninoff,” hands down. He was a pillar of the Romantic era, and Saint-Saëns described him as “the most remarkable of the young British composers.” But he resisted any notion of straying into the 20th century revolution of style.

He was equally accomplished as pianist and composer and performed his own works with violinist powerhouses of the day such as Fritz Kreisler and Joseph Szigeti, later forming a duo with the great violist and “father of the modern viola” Lionel Tertis. Bowen’s Phantasy was entered in the 1918 Cobbett competition focusing on phantasies (single-movement works of multiple sections with distinct personalities). He won! Spoiler alert: the opening of the piece is stunning and features the viola alone – with hushed tones, then partnering with the piano for more simmering and bubbling with changing moods and colors, finishing with a gleeful summertime romp down Prune Alley.

Frank Bridge (1879 – 1941)
Lament for two violas (1912)

Program note by Lisa Bergman

How lamentable it is that the humble viola is the victim of so many jokes. For example: “What do a viola and a lawsuit have in common? Everyone is happy when the case is closed.” Now, now.

For those in the know, the viola is loving, soothing, nimble, humble, mysterious, and chocolatey. Its misbegotten reputation was rescued in part by violist Lionel Tertis. He begged his composer friends to expand the viola’s limited repertoire in ways that would reveal its endearing qualities. Frank Bridge answered the call with his Lament for not one, but TWO violas, premiered by the violist-composer and Lionel Tertis in 1912. It is a gorgeous and wistful showpiece for an instrument also favored by Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Brahms. Case closed.

Antonín Dvorák (1841 – 1904)
String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 96 (B. 179), “American” (1893)

Program note by Lisa Bergman

Is there a cure for a homesick, transplanted Czechoslovakian composer living in the Big Apple? Yes! Dvorák found his healing therapy by spending a summer in Spillville, Iowa, an enclave of Czech immigrants with all the traditions and flavors of home. He came away invigorated, inspired, and in good spirits surrounded by fresh air, sunrise walks, family, and lively expats. His creativity was ALSO kindled by his New World experiences such as his introduction to African American and Native American melodies. That Iowa summer of 1893 birthed both Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” and his String Quartet in F Major, Op. 96, lovingly called “American.” He later bragged that he was in such fine form, he was able to sketch out the entire string quartet in less than three days, completing it in two weeks. Surely this is proof that he had discovered the magic of rural “American Bohemia.”