Tonight we feature music of Robert Schumann, György Kurtág, Josh Burel and Andrew Norman.

Our second Festival Series performance invites the clarinet to the fore with works old and new. Robert Schumann, ever given to flights of fantasy, composed his Märchenerzählungen, Op.132 near the end of his compositional life. Loosely translated as “Fairy Tales,” this work for piano, viola, and clarinet does not tell any specific fairy tale but rather evokes certain tropes such as sparkling elven mischief, regal pomp and the lyricism of loneliness. György Kurtag provides modernist counterpoint to Schumann’s foray into the magical with his Hommage à Robert Schumann for the same instrumentation.

Also on the program are works by 21st-century composers Josh Burel and Andrew Norman. Burel, in his Andooni for clarinet quintet, mourns the Armenian genocide of 1915-1923 and Norman, in his Gran Turismo for eight violins imagines an Italian baroque ensemble revving its engines at the speed of an F1 race car. Though each piece inhabits its own unique sphere, each work shares an essential component of storytelling that looks both to the past and the future.

Composed in 2004 for the violin studio of famed pedagogue Robert Lipsett at the University of Southern California, Gran Turismo is a virtuosic masterpiece for the rarely heard combination of eight violins. In fact, when eight violinists get together, a competition usually breaks out. The music world is a network wherein one or two degrees of separation are common among professional performers. Rather than insular, such closeness is a testament to the common paths and experiences shared by so many who “make it.” Here, the musicians of WWCMF pay homage to the original context of the work featuring an ensemble of teachers and their students past and present, all navigating the music world at different stages of career and education. As Founder and Artistic Director, I am always keenly aware of my lineage and make it a point to pay respect to the teachers who made me into the musician I am today.

Gran Turismo represents the intersection between composer Andrew Norman’s study of Italian Futurist Giacomo Balla and his brush with the popular car racing video game, Gran Turismo. Start your engines!

John David Earnest (b. 1940)

COMMEDIA GALLERY (2011) FOR FLUTE, HARP AND VIOLA

Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival Commission

I. Arlecchino

II. Pierrot

III. Scaramouche

Andrew Norman (b. 1979)

LIGHT SCREENS (2002) FOR FLUTE, VIOLIN, VIOLA AND CELLO

INTERMISSION

Arnold Bax (1883-1953)

HARP QUINTET (1919)

I. Tempo moderato —

II. Tranquillo —

III. Tempo primo

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)

SONATA IN D, OP. 94 FOR FLUTE AND PIANO

I. Moderato

II. Scherzo

III. Andante

IV. Allegro con brio

Artists: Sarah Brady, flute; Winston Choi, piano; Timothy Christie, viola; Katri Ervamaa, cello; Andrew Jennings, violin; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Amy Ley, harp; Christina McGann, violin; Stephen Miahky, violin; and MingHuan Xu, violin.