The recent passing of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho ended a brilliant career in the highest echelons of the music world. Aure, a work for violin and viola, demonstrates her mastery and originality. Danny Elfman, prolific film composer (Spider-Man, Good Will Hunting), singer, and percussionist, turns his protean talents to the Piano Quartet, with amazing results. The ravishing renegade Rebecca Clarke explores both modern concepts and ancient styles with her duo-concertante Dumka. Lastly, the autobiographical String Quartet No. 1 (“From My Life”) of Bedřich Smetana, father of Czech nationalist music, closes our season with one of the most beloved works in the chamber repertoire. 

Banquet

St Peter's Episcopal Church

St Gabriel's Church

One of America’s most eminent black composers of the early twentieth century, H. T. Burleigh wrote hundreds of art songs and introduced Antonin Dvořák to the spiritual. Southland Sketches, his suite for violin and piano, illustrates the American style that Burleigh did much to promulgate. By contrast, Dohnányi’s C minor Piano Quintet radiates high drama from first note to last. Britten’s second String Quartet, commissioned in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Henry Purcell’s death, was coincidentally composed following Britten’s recital tour of the newly-liberated concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. Britten’s admiration for Purcell’s “clarity, brilliance, tenderness, and strangeness” as well as his horror of war’s depravity find voice in this deeply emotional work.

Trifecta

The addition of a second viola lifts the string quartet into a symphonic stratosphere, as we shall hear with Mendelssohn’s impassioned Second Quintet, Op. 87, and Dvorak’s sublime Third Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 97. Between these two blockbusters, the piano offers an amuse-bouche with selections from Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano by the arch-iconoclast John Cage. Bid midwinter doldrums adieu with this infusion of daring and delight.

Viva Viola

South Coast Chamber Music opens its season with a pair of virtuoso duos: Paul Wiancko’s American Haiku, a riveting fusion of Appalachian and Japanese folk idioms, and Grazyna Bacewicz’s timeless Suite on Folk Tunes. Beethoven makes an All Hallow’s Eve appearance with the remarkable “Ghost” Trio. Our program closes with an American gem that deserves serious reappraisal. Arthur Foote, born in Salem, a distinguished member of the “Boston Six”, was noted for many fine chamber works. His Piano Quintet, a feast of romantic Americana, rounds out a rich autumn cornucopia.

EmmaLee Holmes-Hicks

Events

27 - 28 Apr, 2024

Banquet · New Bedford Symphony Orchestra

9 - 10 Mar, 2024

Trifecta · New Bedford Symphony Orchestra

3 - 4 Feb, 2024

Viva Viola · New Bedford Symphony Orchestra

28 - 29 Oct, 2023

Cornucopia · New Bedford Symphony Orchestra

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