Program

Bruch: Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Viola and Piano, Op.83 
No. 2 Allegro con moto
No. 6 Andante con moto
No. 7 Allegro vivace, ma non troppo

Ellen Taafe Zwillich: Fantasy for solo viola
​
Mozart: String Quartet No.14 in G major  K.387
I. Allegro vivace assai
II. Menuetto. Allegro
III. Andante cantabile  
IV. Molto Allegro

Date: April 16, 2024.
​Time: 7:30pm
Location: Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church
Address: 1919 S 7th St, St. Louis, MO 63104
Admission: Free

Concert Artists

Tzuying Huang / Clarinet

Jessie Chen / Violin

Asako Kuboki / Violin

Jun Seo / Cello

Linda Numagami / Viola

Xi Zhang / Viola

Young-Whun Kim / Piano

Bruch: Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Viola and Piano, Op.83
Max Bruch was a German composer of the Romantic era. He lived from 1838 until 1920. Bruchvtook an interest in music from an early age and started studying music theory seriously by 1849. At the age of 14 he composed his first string quartet and was consequently awarded a scholarship to study in Cologne. Bruch composed more than two hundred works during the course of his career including operas, symphonies, symphonic choral works, and concertos. His first violin concerto and The Scottish Fantasy are among his most loved and famous works. The violin was Bruch’s favorite instrument. He considered a melody to be the soul of music and supposedly said that the violin could sing a melody better than any other instrument! 

Bruch conducted the Liverpool Philharmonic Society from 1880 until 1883. During these years he also married Clara Tuczek and had two children. In 1890, Bruch moved to Berlin where he taught composition at Berlin Hochschule für Musik until he retired in 1910. Among his most famous students were Respighi and Vaughan Williams. Also in 1910, Bruch composed the Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano. He composed them for his son, Max Felix, who was twenty-five at the time and starting his career as a
professional clarinetist. The Eight Pieces, which can be performed either individually or together in any combination are arguably Bruch’s most famous chamber work.


Ellen Taafe Zwillich: Fantasy for solo viola
Ellen Taafe Zwillich was born in Miami, Florida in 1939. Zwillich began her musical career as a violinist. She graduated from Florida State University in 1960 and then secured a position as a a violinist in New York’s American Symphony Orchestra. In 1975, she enrolled at the Juilliard School to further pursue her interest in composition. Zwillich became the first woman to graduate from Juilliard with a Doctor of Musical Arts in composition. Unsurprisingly, she has had a long and successful career. She was the first female to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1983 for her Symphony No. 1. She has received six honorary doctorates. In 2023, a recording made in 2012 of her Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra was selected by the Library of Congress to be  preserved in the United States National Recording Registry. Zwillich was married to violinist Joseph Zwillich, who played in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. After his death in 1979, her compositional style changed and became more emotionally accessible to listeners. Zwillich adapted the Fantasy for Solo Viola from her Fantasy for Solo Violin, which she composed as a required work for the 2014 Indianapolis Violin Competition.


Mozart: String Quartet No.14 in G major K.387
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg in January of 1756. Although he lived a short life of only 35 years he composed a huge library of over 800 works! Mozart was a well known prodigy during his lifetime and is still recognized as such today. In 1781, Mozart traveled to Vienna and maintained a home there until his death in 1791. In the early 1780’s Mozart studied the works of Bach, Handel, and Haydn. He was especially influenced by Haydn’s Opus 33 string quartets which had been published in 1781. Mozart met Haydn in 1784. The two became friends and at times played chamber music together. Mozart was so inspired by Haydn that he spent two of his early years in Vienna working on a set of six string quartets. He dedicated all six quartets to Haydn. The fist of the six quartets is String Quartet No. 14 in G major, composed in 1782, and nicknamed the Spring Quartet because of it’s lively nature.