ZHURBIN – Lullaby & Memory for wind quintet
HARBISON – Nine Rasas for clarinet, viola, and piano WORLD PREMIERE
SCHUBERT – Piano quintet in A major, D. 667, Trout
The May 7 season finale features the world premiere of a new work by John Harbison: Nine Rasas for clarinet, viola and piano, commissioned by Radius clarinetist Eran Egozy and his wife, the pianist Yukiko Ueno Egozy. Violist Noriko Futagami will join them. John Harbison is a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, MacArthur “genius,” and Institute Professor of composition at MIT. Citing his most important influences as the Bach Cantatas, Stravinsky (whom he met in Santa Fe in 1963) and jazz, John Harbison’s music is distinguished by its exceptional invention and deeply expressive range. He has written for every conceivable type of concert genre, ranging from the grand opera to the most intimate; pieces that embrace jazz along with the classical forms. His prolific, personal and greatly admired music written for the voice encompasses a catalogue of over 70 works including opera, choral, voice with orchestra and chamber/solo works.
Harbison was inspired by the court of the Indian king Ibrahim Adil Shah II (1556-1627). He writes, “Ibrahim was a poet, lute player-singer, scholar, chess master, and patron of the arts. He invited many artists and craftsmen to join his court, where he led them in a quest to develop a theory of aesthetics which would reconcile ancient Greek theories of the humors of the body with the Sanskrit concept of the Nine Rasas… I approach such a piece with no intention of a touristic borrowing from the musical speech of that culture, but rather with the pleasure of seizing a musical opportunity.” The nine rasas are attraction/desire, play/mirth, fury/obsession, regret/remorse, terror/forboding, disgust/self-pity, courage/confidence, wonder/amazement, and tranquility/repose, which together comprise the nine movements of the work.
ALSO ON THE PROGRAM
As the story goes, Schubert spent a summer in the village of Steyr were he was introduced to the amateur musician Sylvester Paumgartner, who hosted regular musical gatherings at his home, and also happened to be very wealthy. Additionally, he was a fan of Schubert’s music—particularly his song, Die Forelle (“The Trout”). Paumgartner then commissioned from Schubert a new chamber piece with two specific requirements: it should replicate the instrumentation of Johann Hummel’s quintet (piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass), and use the Die Forelle melody. The product of this commission, the “Trout Quintet,” is now one of the most beloved works in the entire chamber music genre. Also featured on this program, Lev “Ljova” Zhurbin’s Lullaby & Memory for wind quintet, a piece of haunting beauty inspired by the recollections of our predecessors that create our collective histories, and the whispers of his wife’s mother as she murmured to her late husband in her sleep.
