Featuring the Girsky String Quartet and images by Pablo Picasso

The Arts, capital ‘A.’ In our line of work, we refer to this broad category early and often. If a STEM curriculum is good, a STEAM one is better (this is a fact!). But chamber music itself occupies a rather specific corner of the Arts. We favor small rooms, small combinations of instruments, and perhaps go so far to consider our music ‘absolute,’ i.e., having no specific meaning other than sound itself. The listener can make of it what they will. Performers, too.

But what happens when chamber music emerges from its corner into the Arts more broadly. The 4th String Quartet of American composer Ned Rorem presents a fascinating opportunity to explore whether or not a piece of chamber music is necessarily absolute. Initially, Rorem based each of the 10 movements of this quartet on a different work by Picasso, and gave each movement the title of the painting or drawing that inspired it. Within a few years of the premiere, however, Rorem became dissatisfied with the idea of his music being perceived as representational, and he removed the titles from the movements. The third movement, originally titled Acrobat on a Ball, became ‘III: Very fast’— English for ‘III: Allegro molto,’ a tempo indication common to canonical classical works, at once specific and vague, therefore versatile, and ultimately “meaningless.”

What to do. Honor the original intention, and include the Picasso titles? Or honor the later revision and suppress them? Because you deserve a full festival experience we’ll do both. And we’ll even show the Picasso drawings and paintings at the center of all the fuss. We’ll have you guessing “was that the Minotaur or the Basket of Flowers? The Head of a Boy or the Death of a Harlequin?” Or was it simply, Very fast? The answer to all of these questions is unequivocally, ‘Yes!’ Helping us engage all your senses is The Walls Winery, whose selection of wines will make sure your senses of taste and smell don’t feel left out.

Ned Rorem (1923-2022)

String Quartet No. 4 (1994)

I. Minotaur

II. Child Holding a Dove

III. Acrobat on a Ball

IV. Still Life

V. Seated Harlequin

VI. Head of a Boy

VII. Basket of Flowers

VIII. Self Portrait

IX. Three Nudes

X. Death of a Harlequin

Artists: Girsky String Quartet — Natasha Bazhanov, violin; Timothy Christie, viola & moderator; Artur Girsky, violin; Rowena Hammill, cello

This event has been made possible by the generosity of Cecile & Rick Ervin.

There is such a thing as the perfect chamber ensemble. It is balanced, unified in expression and awash in a vast array of musical colors. The string quartet? No siree! I am talking about the saxophone quartet. Only once before has the saxophone quartet made an appearance on the WWCMF stage. This is by design, an effort to mitigate jealousy among the practitioners of all the other instruments. But we must from time to time open the Pulp Fiction briefcase and gaze at the beauty within.

masso, the Chicago-based saxophone quartet, make their WWCMF debut as the 2nd annual Emerging Artist Quartet Fellows. During their residency in Walla Walla, masso has been hard at work presenting community outreach performances in English and Spanish around the Walla Walla Valley.

Their work in the community during the festival has been made possible by a generous grant from the Wildhorse Foundation.

Artists: masso: Sam Alvarez, tenor saxophone; Isaac Boone, baritone saxophone; Kurt Cox, soprano saxophone; Ila Gupta, alto saxophone

This event is made possible by the generosity of Iain & Stephanida Christie.

The greats don’t ask permission. Sure, a string quartet has and will always have two violins, a viola and a cello— it’s the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of chamber groups, perfectly balanced. But when the musical idea is clearly formed, the great artist breaks rules with abandon. Hence, Anton Arensky, protégé of Tchaikovsky, decided to turn the string quartet upside down using the formation of one violin, one viola and two cellos. Yup, dark chocolate. (To spend a moment longer with this analogy, viola is therefore the peanut butter, which feels right.)

The Quartet in A minor is a tribute to Tchaikovsky, composed in memoriam. Russian Orthodox plainchant informs the sound world, the richness of two cellos providing gravitas. However, there are fireworks galore, and ultimately this work is more an uplifting celebration of life rather than a lamentation of life lost.

Anton Arensky (1861-1906)

String Quartet No. 2 in A minor (1894)

I. Moderato

II. Variations sur un thême de P. Tschaikowsky. Moderato

III. Finale. Andante sostenuto

Artists: Timothy Christie, viola; Rowena Hammill, cello; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Stephen Miahky, violin

This event is made possible by the generosity of Jim & Jo Ann Clapp.

When Brahms composed his Piano Trio No. 1 in B (Op. 8) in 1854, he was a clean-shaven, dashing young Romantic of 21. He completed his Piano Trio No. 2 in C (Op. 87) in 1882 sporting a 10” beard and a certain gravitas, aged 49. The two trios are a half-step and a world apart. B major’s key signature has 5 sharps. C major’s has 0 sharps (or flats). B major uses all of the black keys on a piano, C major only the white ones. One can infer, therefore, an inverse relationship between beard length and number of black piano keys used. What a difference a half-step makes. Like a good story, only some of this is true. Join the Volta Piano Trio and WWCMF Founder & Artistic Director Timothy Christie to separate fact from fiction, good information from bad, and discover the treasures within this extraordinary work by Brahms.

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Piano Trio No. 2 in C, Op. 87

I. Allegro

II. Andante con moto

III. Scherzo. Presto — Poco meno presto

IV. Finale. Allegro giocoso

Artists: Volta Piano Trio: Jennifer Caine Provine, violin; Oksana Ejokina, piano; Sally Singer Tuttle, cello; Timothy Christie, moderator