Frankly Music (violinist Frank Almond, cellist Joseph Johnson andpianist Michael Mizrahi) performs the single work by which Giuseppe Tartini(1692-1770) is known to us today: the Violin Sonata in G Minor, better known asthe Devil’s Trill sonata. Though Tartini wrote copiously, he neversought fame as a composer, but rather maintained a widespread reputation as thegreatest violinist of his day and founder of an important school of violinplaying. The Devil’s Trill sonata gets its name from the difficultviolin cadenza that appears near the end of the last movement (legend has itthat the theme for this trille du diable came to Tartini in a dream).
The Piano Trio No. 1in D Minor, Op. 49 of Felix Mendelssohn (1809-47) is recognized as one of hismost popular and best chamber works. A lively and melodic piece, it was the DMinor Trio that prompted fellow composer Robert Schumann, in a review, toassert that “Mendelssohn is the Mozart of the 19th century, the mostilluminating of musicians.”
Equally famous amongchamber works is the Piano Trio No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 90 by Antonín Dvorák(1841-1904). The entire work is based upon Ukrainian folk music, from which itgets its name, Dumky (a word that derives from Ukrainian for a ballad orlament). The E Minor Trio’s six movements alternate slow, melancholy sectionswith up-tempo Slavic dances, giving it more the feeling of a song cycle thanthat of a formal piano trio.
It is song, indeed,that flavors nearly every work of composer Ned Rorem (b. 1923). America’sforemost proponent of art song, Rorem’s works are lyrical, clear and largelytonal. Even the movements of works such as his Day Music and NightMusic for violin and piano have titles that are songlike (Pearls, Extreme Leisure, Saying Goodbye,Driving Off). “I conceive all music vocally,” Rorem explains.“Whatever my music is written for…it is always the singer within me crying toget out.”
“The Mendelssohn andDvorák trios are really staples of the repertory that everyone will enjoy,”Almond predicts, “and the Rorem pieces are beautiful… The Tartini is alsointeresting to hear live, considering its intimate connection with the violinI’m playing.” The instrument Almond mentions is his Stradivarius violin from1715, thus making it contemporaneous with Giuseppe Tartini.
Frankly Musicperforms all four of the above-mentioned works on May 10 in the Dawes StudioTheater of the Sharon Lynne WilsonCenter for the Arts in Brookfield.
