Tzuying Huang and Friends 

This Concert is sponsored by Ariel Premium Supply, Inc.

June 1
​7:30 PM

Free Admission 

Webster University Community Music School Concert Hall
(East of the Loretto-Hilton Center)
535 Garden Ave, St. Louis, MO 63119 ​

Free parking at the Garden Park Plaza Garage    
(568 Garden Ave, Webster Groves, MO 63119)
PROGRAM

Bernhard Henrik Crusell: Quartet No. 1 in E-flat Major for Clarinet, Violin, Viola, and Cello 
Guillaume Connesson: Disco-Toccata for Clarinet & Cello
Franz Schubert: String Quintet in C Major Op.163, D.956 Allegro ma non troppo (1st movement)


FEATURED ARTISTS

Tzuying Huang, Clarinet
Ann Fink, Violin
Caroline Chin, Violin
Andrew Francois, Viola
​Benjamin Hughes, Cello
Pei-An Chao, Cello



Program notes by Ann Fink
Bernhard Henrik Crusell: Quartet No. 1 in E-flat Major for Clarinet, Violin, Viola, and Cello
Bernhard Crusell (1775-1838) was born in Finland to a family of poor bookbinders. According to Crusell’s biography, he discovered his love of music at the age of four after hearing a local shopkeeper play his flute after hours. When Crusell was eight, he learned to play a friend’s clarinet. Then in 1788, at the age of 13, Crusell’s life changed forever. A family friend took Crusell to see Major Wallenstjerna at the Swedish sea fortress, Sveaborg. Crusell was recruited into the military band and moved into the home of Major Wallenstjerna. He would later move to Stockholm with the Major, and it was there that his career as a clarinet player took off. He would only return to Finland once more during his life to play a concert in Helsinki. Crusell was one of
the first clarinetists to play clarinet using the modern practice of turning the reed face down. This allowed him to play more lyrically, and he became known for his tone quality in any range on the instrument.

Crusell composed his Quartet No. 1 in E-flat Major around 1807, and it was published a few years later. Crusell composed extensively for the clarinet, which is present in almost all of his works. However, he also composed a number of vocal works and an opera. Crusell was greatly inspired by the works of Mozart, and this is very apparent in his Quartet No. 1.

Guillaume Connesson: Disco-Toccata for Clarinet & Cello
​Guillaume Connesson was born in 1970, in Boulanger-Billancourt, France. He studied piano, composition, choir conducting, music theory, and music history at the Conservatoire National de Région. He has been the composer in residence at Orchestre National desk Pays de la Loire, the Orchestre de Pau, Pays de Béarn, and currently is in residence at Royal Scottish National Orchestra. His works are performed by major symphony orchestras all over the world including Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Connesson teaches at the Conservatoire National d'Aubervilliers-la Courneuve. Disco-Taccata was composed in 1970. It combines the characteristics of a Baroque toccata with the heart pumping rhythms and pop melodies heard in disco music.

Franz Schubert: String Quintet in C Major Op.163, D.956 Allegro ma non troppo (1st movement)

Franz Schubert was born in Vienna, Austria in 1797. Sadly, he died at the very young age of 31. His official death certificate states that he died of typhoid fever, but there is some speculation that he died of syphilis. Even though his life was short, he composed an immense library of works with the estimated total number of compositions to be in the 1000’s. He wrote seven symphonies, operas, song cycles, solo piano works and a record number of chamber music pieces. His music was well respected but had only a small following of supporters during his lifetime. After his death, his music grew in reputation thanks to composers such as
Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, and Brahms who promoted performances of Schubert’s music. Schubert composed his String Quintet in C major in 1828, two months before he died.

Although Schubert sent the work to his publisher upon completion, no one was interested in publishing the piece at the time. In 1850, the quintet finally had its first public performance, but it wasn't until 1853, twenty-five years after Schubert’s death, that it was finally published. Schubert’s use of adding a second cello to the standard string quartet instrumentation was nearly unprecedented. Boccherini is the only other composer known to have used two cellos in a string quintet, prior to Schubert. However, Boccherini’s use of the second cello was to replace a second viola, therefore giving it a different role than what Schubert intended for his second cello.

Since the 1850’s, Schubert’s quintet has continually grown in popularity and is now considered to be one of the most important works in the history of chamber music. Parts of the piece have been used in film and television, and the entire quintet has been orchestrated by Japanese composer Hidemaro Konoye.