Mendelssohn & More

Emotion, brilliance, and depth of feeling are the themes of today’s program. We begin with a youthful work by the ridiculously talented Felix Mendelssohn (born February 3, 1809, Hamburg, Germany; died November 3, 1847). Growing up, Felix and his older sister Fanny were inseparable. Children of privilege with loving parents, they were raised in an environment of sophistication and support. The Mendelssohn household was always full of luminaries, intellectuals, and musicians, and the youngsters were afforded a tutored education that allowed them to stretch their minds and their talents. While Fanny was a formidable pianist and composer in her own right, Felix not only played piano, organ, violin, and viola, but also painted beautifully (you can find his watercolors online), and was a talented gymnast to boot. His piano teacher was good friends with Goethe, and In 1821, the 11-year old Mendelssohn met the esteemed writer and thinker. After hearing him play music of Beethoven, Mozart, and improvising a complicated contrapuntal fantasia on a then popular tune, Goethe was gobsmacked. Having known Mozart in his youth, he commented, “what your pupil already accomplishes, bears the same relation to the Mozart of that time that the cultivated talk of a grown-up person bears to the prattle of a child.“

 

It was just three years later that Mendelssohn put pen to paper to write his Piano Quartet No. 3 in B minor, a tour de force for the musicians, beginning with a turbulent and brooding Allegro molto, followed by a singing and, at times, tender and passionate Andante. A hallmark sparkling, elfin scherzo follows, before coming to a close with a high-spirited finale solidifying the young composer’s amazing talent that still makes one shake their head and mutter, “He was 15? Are you kidding me?” The kid didn’t kid. 

 

Salina Fisher (born October 6, 1993, New Zealand) is among New Zealand’s most internationally programmed and performed composers. Of mixed Japanese heritage, she studied both violin and koto (a traditional Japanese zither) before turning to composition. Her works often draw inspiration from New Zealand’s landscape and native people. Mata-Au for Violin, Viola, and Cello, is among those works. Fisher provided the following note: 

 

“Mata-Au, the Māori name of the Clutha River, means ‘surface current’. In Japanese, the homophonous phrase ‘また逢う’ (mata-au) means ‘to meet again’. The water dances and swirls as it connects places and people. It flows and gushes with forward momentum and anticipation. In writing this piece I was also inspired by ‘spring’, both as the season of its premiere, and as a bubbling source of water.”

 

William Grant Still (born May 11, 1895, Woodville, MS; died December 3, 1978, Los Angeles, CA) was the first American composer to have an opera performed at the New York City Opera, and the first black American to conduct a major orchestra. He is most well known for his first symphony, the “Afro-American Symphony” of 1930, which was performed all over the world. Still wrote upwards of 200 works, including the beautiful Summerland for Flute and Piano, originated as the second movement of a piano work called Three Visions, which Still described as follows:

 

“Three segments of the suite, Dark Horsemen, Summerland and Radiant Pinnacle, tell the story of the human soul after death: the body expires, and the soul goes on to an apocalyptic judgement. If it is seen that the past life has been a good one, the soul may enter ‘heaven’ or ‘Summerland’. After a period of time, the soul may reincarnate to learn additional earthly lessons on the human plane. Some souls reincarnate many times in a constant circular progress toward Godly perfection.” 

 

Summerland has taken on a life of its own and Still arranged it for multiple instrumentations, including violin and piano, orchestra, wind ensemble, and, as heard today, for flute and piano. The flute provides an airy, some might say, heavenly quality that suits the uplifting nature of the work beautifully. 

 

The program closes back on terra firma, in Paul Schoenfield’s (born January 24, 1947, Detroit, MI; died April 29, 2024, Jerusalem, Israel) lively and decidedly earth-bound Café Music for Piano Trio. Schoenfield, like Mendelssohn, was a fantastic and versatile pianist, and his piano writing is not for the faint of heart (luckily, we have another terrific composer/pianist to perform with us today – thanks Michael Stephen Brown). Known for his seamless and persuasive blending of classical styles with jazz, klezmer,  Broadway, and folk music, here’s how he described his inspiration for the piece:

 

“The idea to compose Café Music first came to me in 1985 after sitting in one night for the pianist at Murray’s Restaurant in Minneapolis. Murray’s employs a house trio which plays entertaining dinner music in a wide variety of styles. My intention was to write a kind of high-class dinner music — music which could be played at a restaurant, but might also (just barely) find its way into a concert hall. The work draws on many of the types of music played by the trio at Murray’s. For example, early 20th century American, Viennese, light classical, gypsy, and Broadway styles are all represented. A paraphrase of a beautiful Chassidic melody is incorporated in the second movement.”

 

The piece is a fun ride, though don’t think for a second this is just some breezy evening in a cafe. As Schoenfield once described it, his music “is not the kind of music for relaxation, but the kind that makes people sweat; not only the performer, but the audience.” Hold on to your seats! –ML