Winter Potpourri

Sunday January 19, 2025 @ 3:30PM
Piano Trio in F sharp minor, Hob.XV:26
by Franz Joseph Haydn

Notturno in E flat major, Op.148
Franz Schubert

Onekha’shòn:a, Ya’k òn:kwe (The Waters, The Women) for Violin and Piano
by Dawn lerihò:kwats Avery

Dumky Piano Trio No.4 in E minor, Op.90
by Antonin Dvorak

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Piano Trio in F sharp minor, Hob. XV:26

by Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

  • Allegro
  • Adagio cantabile
  • Finale: Tempo di menuetto

Franz Joseph Haydn’s ten last piano trios were written during his second celebrated trip to London; they are known as the “London Trios.” The Piano Trio in F sharp minor, the last of the ten, was composed in 1795. He dedicated it to pianist Rebecca Schroeter, who was his friend, student, admirer and love interest. Composed in three movements, this trio displays Haydn’s characteristic charm, playfulness and energy. Though written in the unusual key of F sharp minor, it makes many forays into F sharp major, and Haydn plays with the resulting contrast of dark and light. Interestingly, the second movement in F sharp major is an alternative version of the second movement of his Symphony No.102 in F major, written around the same time. It is not known which came first.

Notturno in E flat major, Op.148

by Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Schubert wrote the Notturno in E flat major for piano trio in 1827, and it’s thought he may have considered it as the slow movement for his Piano Trio No.1. However, he put the piece aside and it wasn’t published for decades. It was given the title Notturno by the publisher and does indeed capture the romantic spirit of a nocturne. The piece features a melody, which is both beautiful and richly harmonized; it’s often embedded in varying florid piano accompaniments. Its sublimity is dramatically juxtaposed with contrasting and assertive sections. This mini-masterpiece’s angelic quality offers peace and serenity.

Onekha’shòn:a, Ya’k òn:kwe (The Waters, The Women) for violin and piano

by Dawn lerihò:kwats Avery (b. 1961)

  • Adagio
  • Poco Adagio
  • Col legno battuto ricochet

Dawn Avery is an award-winning American composer and cellist of Mohawk descent and writes in multiple genres: classical/ folk/ rock/ world and meditation music. She holds a PHD in Ethnomusicology. Her piece The Waters, The Women was written in 2020 for the Canadian Duo Concertante (Nancy Dahn, violin and Timothy Steeves, piano) to honour the lives and families of the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG). The piece explores the symbiotic relationship of women as water-keepers with life-giving water. The contemporary, innovative soundscape of the three short movements uses various instrumental effects to evoke the native rattle and drum, uses the Mohawk language itself and even quotes Bach’s Sonata No.3 for violin and keyboard. The first movement represents the natural flow of water/women, the second, its disruption and breakdown in the wake of colonization, and the third, the hope of healing for both cultures.

Dumky Piano Trio No.4 in E minor, Op.90

by Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)

  • Lento maestoso – Allegro vivace
  • Poco adagio – Vivace non troppo
  • Andante – Vivace non troppo
  • Andante moderato – Allegretto scherzando
  • Allegro – Meno mosso
  • Lento maestoso - Vivace

Antonín Dvořák wrote the Dumky Trio in E minor in 1891 at the age of fifty, just before he made his legendary trip to America. It was the last of his four piano trios, written when he was at the height of his compositional powers. Here he fully embraces his own national Bohemian folk traditions. Dumky is plural for Dumka, originally a Slavic/ Ukrainian poetic ballad or heroic saga with a lament. It became a type of instrumental music alternating slow, sombre music with fast and wild. Dvořák’s Dumky Trio is a suite of six dumky that flow in an unbroken chain of musical narrative oscillating between slow, soulful and passionate sections of great emotional poignancy with fast, exuberant sections of dancelike exhilaration. It seems to evoke two sides of grief: tears and laughter. This vivid piece gives us intense lyricism, colour and rhythmic vitality, and is deservedly not only his most celebrated chamber work, but one of the most favoured chamber works of all time.

A melody is a beautiful thing. It can touch the soul in ways that words cannot.
- Antonín Dvořák

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