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.

Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time plus music by Debussy and Prokofiev

Festival Series II knits together music of Russia and France, spans two World Wars, and brings the complex dynamics of the first half of the 20th century to life more vividly than any written history. Debussy’s Sonata for flute, harp and viola is suffused with light and transparency, Prokofiev’s with steely melodic angles. In his epic Quartet for the End of Time, Olivier Messiaen transcends both with a completely new musical language. The work, born out of the most difficult circumstances imaginable, provides one of the most legendary stories in music history. Captured and interned in a German prisoner of war camp, Messiaen discovered musical colleagues among his fellow prisoners: a violinist, a clarinetist and a cellist. Himself a pianist, Messiaen created his quartet for this diverse combination, and it was given its world premiere on January 15, 1941, at Stalag VIIIA prisoner-of-war camp, in Görlitz, Germany, for an audience of inmates and guards alike. Despite the circumstances of its infancy, the Quartet for the End of Time stands as a work of exceeding beauty and deep humanity.

Artists: Sarah Brady, Winston Choi, Timothy Christie, Amy Ley, Christina McGann, Stephen Miahky, David Requiro, Kevin Schempf and MingHuan Xu