Program

Milhaud: Suite for Violin, Clarinet and Piano,  Op. 157b 
I. Ouverture
II. Divertissement
III. Jeu
IV. Introduction et final

Tartini: Violin Sonata in G minor "Devil's Trill"
I. Larghetto ma non troppo
II. Allegro moderato
III. Andante
IV. Allegro assai — Andante — Allegro assai

Brahms: String Quintet No.2 in G major Op.111
I. Allegro non troppo, ma con brio 
II. Adagio 
III. Un poco Allegretto 
IV. Vivace ma non troppo presto

Date: June 3, 2024.
​Time: 7:30pm
Location: Concert Hall of the Community Music School of Webster University
(East of the Loretto-Hilton Center)
Address: 535 Garden Ave, St. Louis, MO 63119 
Admission: Free

Concert Artists

Ann Fink / Violin

Brian Woods / Piano

Chris Tantillo ​/ Viola

Andrew Francois / Viola

Hannah Ji ​/ Violin

Jessica Cheng Hellwege ​/ Violin

Nathan Lowry / Violin 

Tzuying Huang / Clarinet

Alvin McCall ​/ Cello

Milhaud: Suite for Violin, Clarinet and Piano, Op. 157b
Darius Milhaud was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He studied composition at the Paris Conservatory in the early 20th century. Milhaud was greatly influenced by Brazilian music, American jazz, and other European composers of his time such as Schoenberg, Honneger, and Tailleferre. During the Nazi invasion of France, Milhaud and his family fled to the United States. He began a career as a professor of composition at Mills College in Oakland, California. The Juilliard, Paganini, and Budapest Quartets performed his works in Oakland as well as the Aspen Music Festival. He continued to teach at Mills, Aspen, and the Paris Conservatory (which he later returned to) until late in life. He died in 1974, at the age of 81.

Milhaud was a member of Les Six, a group of contemporary composers whose music was considered a reaction against the musical style of Impressionists such as Debussy and Ravel and also the late romanticism of Richard Wagner. During the mid-1930’s Milhaud often composed incidental music for the theater. In 1936, Milhaud wrote the score for the play Le Voyageur sans bagage or The Traveller Without Luggage, by Jean Anouilh. The Suite for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano was inspired by the music from the final scene of the play in which the character Gaston, a World War 1 veteran, suffers from amnesia. The “missing luggage” from the
title of the play is a metaphor for the missing memory of the war veteran.

The suite encompasses the full drama of a play with many changing moods and characters. For a bit of humor, the final movement of the suite contains elements of “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow”.

Tartini: Violin Sonata in G minor "Devil's Trill"
Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770) was born in Pirano, which was once in the Republic of Venice and is now a town in Slovenia. Tartini was born into a Catholic family. His parents wanted him to become a Franciscan Friar, so as part of his religious studies he was given musical training from a young age. He also took violin lessons as a child, but it wasn’t until adulthood that Tartini focused all of his energy on becoming a virtuoso.
Tartini was the first known violinist to own a violin made by Stradivari. The violin eventually ended up belonging to Polish composer and violinist, Karol Lipiński, so the violin is now known as the Lipiński Stradivarius. Although Tartini composed a large library of works, they were primarily written for violin. His compositions included 135 violin concerti and many violin sonatas. For unknown reasons Tartini didn’t date his manuscripts, so it has been a challenge for scholars to catalogue his works. Tartini’s most famous work is his Devil’s Trill Sonata. The story behind the origin of the piece is the stuff of legends. One night, Tartini had a dream that he made a pact with the devil. He gave the devil his violin to see if he could play, and the devil played with astonishing virtuosity. Upon waking, Tartini tried to write down the music from his dream. Although he considered the result to be his best composition, he felt it still paled in comparison to what the devil had played. However, to this day the sonata is known for its demands of virtuosity and is a staple of the violin sonata repertoire.

Brahms: String Quintet No.2 in G major Op.111
Johannes Brahms who lived from 1833 until 1897 is one of the most famous composers to come out of the Romantic period. Encouraged by his father who was a musician himself, Brahms started lessons on piano, violin, and cello all before the age of ten. Surprisingly, his father wasn’t as supportive when it came to young Brahms’ efforts as a composer and encouraged his son to seek a career as a performer instead! Perhaps his father’s influence kept Brahms from taking credit for his early compositions. While Brahms was composing and publishing works as a teenager he wrote under the pseudonym G.W. Marks.
Brahms was introduced to Robert Schumann in 1853. Schumann recognized Brahms’ musical talent and was integral in the development of Brahms’ career as a composer. It was due to Schumann’s high praise that Brahms finally published his earliest works, including piano sonatas and vocal songs, using his real name. It was much later in his life when Brahms published the String Quintet No. 2 in G major. Brahms was 57 years old and had plans to retire after finishing the quintet. When submitting the score to
his publisher Brahms attached a note that read “With this letter you can bid farewell to my music, because it is certainly time to leave off . . ."

However, it wasn’t the end of his composition career. Brahms went on to write several other chamber works, most notably his clarinet trio, quintet, and sonatas. It is worth noting that the quintet originated from sketches Brahms had made for a fifth
symphony. This is most apparent in the first movement, which is practically a complete work unto itself and encompasses a full orchestral sound. The Hungarian folk melodies that influenced so much of Brahms’ writing are also an important part of the work and are most notable in the Hungarian dance that occurs in the final movement.