Monday October 12, 2009

Strings in the Mountains Music Festival
Frédéric Chopin: Introduction and Polonaise Brillante, Op.3
Alisa Weilerstein, cello; José Feghali, piano (7/1/06) 13:15
Georges Enesco: Rumanian Rhapsody No. 1
Todd Phillips, Catherine Cho, violins; Yizhak Schotten, viola; Alisa Weilerstein, cello; DaXun Zhang, double bass; José Feghali, piano (7/1/06) 9:50
Ludwig van Beethoven: “Tempo ordinario d’un menuetto” (2nd movement) & “Allegro molto” (3rd movement) from Serenade in D major, Op.25
Christina Jennings, flute; Jasmine Lin, violin; Yizhak Schotten, viola (7/22/06) 7:05
Johannes Brahms: “Andante, ma moderato” (2nd movement) from String Sextet No. 1 in B flat major, Op.18
Todd Phillips, Catherine Cho, violins; Yizhak Schotten, Martin Sher, violas; Robert deMaine, Thomas Heinrich, cellos (7/4/06) 9:55
Also, Charley anticipates the Intermezzo Chamber Players's appearance on the next Denver Eclectic Concert Thursday.
Intermezzo Chamber Players (Stacy Lesartre, violin; Kelly Shanafelt, viola; Dianne Betkowski, cello)
Franz Schubert: String Trio in B flat major, D.471
KVOD Performance Studio 061609 MS



Georges Enesco (1881-1955): Rumanian Rhapsody No. 1 in A major, Opus 11

Enesco once described himself as ``a savage, whom nothing could fully discipline, a staunch adept of independence, who accepted no constraint and did not recognize any school.'' He studied first at the Vienna Conservatory, and later at the Paris Conservatory. His teachers included Massenet and Fauré, and his own pupils included Dinu Lipatti and Yehudi Menuhin. Menuhin called him ``the one man to whom I owe everything.''
Despite his internationalism, he maintained ties with his native Rumania, serving as court violinist to the Queen of Rumania, conductor of the Bucharest Philharmonic and founder of the Enesco Prize for composition. He said Rumanian folk music ``is influenced not by the neighboring Slavs, but by the Indian and Egyptian folk songs introduced by the members of these remote races, now classed as gypsies, brought to Rumania as servants of the Roman conquerors. The deeply Oriental character of our own folk music derives from these sources and possesses a flavor as singular as it is beautiful.''
The two Rumanian Rhapsodies appeared in 1901. Both were introduced at a Pablo Casals concert in Paris on Feb 7, 1908 with Enesco conducting. A drinking song (I Have a Coin and I Want a Drink) and four other national melodies appear in No. 1, which S.W. Bennett describes as ``all jollity, from its opening `call' by clarinets and oboe through its chain of rousing dance motifs, and without ever losing its earthly folk quality, it achieves near the end a Dionysiac rapture.''