Mini-Chamber 2
with Adam Żukiewicz, piano
Saturday, November 23, 2024
7:30 – 9:00 PM
Boulder Adventist Church
Adam Żukiewicz
piano
in collaboration with members of the
Boulder Chamber Orchestra
Program
Théodore Dubois (1837–1924)
Piano Quintet in F Major (1905)
I. Allegro
II. Canzonetta. Tranquillo
III. Adagio non troppo
IV. Allegro con fuoco
Johannes Brahms (1879–1941)
Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34 (1908)
I. Allegro non troppo
II. Andante, un poco Adagio
III. Scherzo. Allegro - Trio
IV. Finale. Poco sostenuto — Allegro non troppo
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Adam Żukiewicz
Piano
Adam Piotr Żukiewicz is an award-winning, internationally acclaimed concert pianist. He concertized across Europe, United States, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Hong Kong, and Macau, and his performances were broadcast in the USA, Canada, Italy, Slovenia, Germany, and Poland. Mr. Żukiewicz consistently receives critical acclaim, while his innovative programming - focused on exploring connections between the popular and the lesser known gems of the traditional and contemporary repertoire - continues to engage and inspire audiences around the world. […]
PROGRAM NOTES
Théodore Dubois (1837–1924)
Piano Quintet in F Major (1905)
Théodore Dubois (1837-1924) was born in the French town of Rosnay. After an impressive career at the Paris Conservatory, where he studied with Ambroise Thomas, he won the coveted Prix de Rome. Among the many important positions he held during a long career was that of director of the Madeleine, where he succeeded Saint-Saëns, and later of the Paris Conservatory. Among his many students were Paul Dukas and Florent Schmitt.
Dubois wrote a considerable amount of music in nearly every genre. Like Saint Saëns, he eschewed impressionism, and continued on in the French Romantic tradition which the former had helped to pioneer. It is characterized by, logic, clarity, fine melody, drama and a refined sense of taste. His music is finely crafted and clearly shows that he was a gifted melodist. It is truly a pity his chamber music is unknown because it is absolutely first rate.
Although Dubois composed the Quintet with the oboe in mind because of its special timber, he nevertheless--without any prompting from his publisher--wrote in the score that the music could also be played with either a clarinet or second violin in lieu of the oboe, and he provided the parts which appeared at the time the work was released. It begins with a joyful Allegro which radiates optimistic energy. The second movement, Canzonetta, provides a wonderful dialogue between the five instruments and is particularly clever in its use of timber. A highly expressive Adagio non troppo, full of sentiment, follows. The lively finale, Allegro con fuoco, reintroduces many of the themes which have appeared in the previous movements, while at the same time giving them a different treatment.
This Quintet is a highly original work not only because of its instrumentation, but also because of the way Dubois combines the timber of the oboe with the strings, using the former's lower registers and assigning it the role given to the second violin in a string quartet. It is a first rate work by any standard and another marvelous example of late French romanticism.
Program Notes by Edition Silvertrust.
Johannes Brahms (1879–1941)
Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34 (1908)
The development of Brahms’ Piano Quintet is not unlike the metamorphic journey of the butterfly from larva to cocoon to its final emergence as a miraculous winged creature. Granted, the story of the Piano Quintet is not so dramatic. Originally conceived as a string quintet with two cellos, it soon metamorphosed into a sonata for two pianos before its final transformation into this Piano Quintet.
After having rehearsed the string quintet version for several months, Brahms’ colleague, the violinist Joseph Joachim, wrote to him on April 15, 1863, “I am unwilling to let the quintet pass out of my hands without having played it to you… I do not wish to dogmatize on the details of a work which in every line shows some proof of overpowering strength. But what is lacking is, in a word, charm. After a time, on hearing the work quietly, I think you will feel the same as I do about it.”
Upon receipt of this criticism, Brahms set to work correcting passages to which Joachim had specifically referred. After a private hearing, Brahms still was not pleased. The problem lay in the string writing. Brahms’ demands upon the instruments exceeded his understanding of their capabilities. Having recognized this, he sought to rescore the music. The first metamorphosis was about to begin.
By February of 1864, Brahms had transformed the string quintet into a sonata for two pianos. Once again he was disappointed after he performed it from the manuscript with pianist Carl Tausig. However, Clara Schumann, who had studied the original string quintet version, and to whom Brahms also sent the new version for two pianos, had a different take. She wrote to Brahms on July 22, 1864, “The work is splendid, but it cannot be called a sonata. Rather it is a work so full of ideas that it requires an orchestra for its interpretation. These ideas are for the most part lost on the piano… The first time I tried the work I had a feeling that it was an arrangement… So please remodel it once more!”
The second transformation came about on the advice of Hermann Levi to form a piano quintet out of the ashes of the sonata. Brahms complied by sending the newest manifestation of the score to Levi, who responded on November 5, 1865, “The Quintet is beautiful beyond words. Anyone who did not know it in its earlier forms of string quintet and two-piano sonata would never believe that it was not originally thought out and designed for the present combination of instruments… You have turned a monotonous work for two pianos into a thing of great beauty, a masterpiece of chamber music…”
Brahms was able to create a hybrid work out of the original string-quintet and two-piano versions, almost as a compromise between himself and his artistic confidants. With the contrasting timbre of the piano against the strings, we can readily distinguish individual melodic lines and juxtapositions of thematic fragments in this very rich weave of contrapuntal threads.
Program Notes by Steve Lacoste