Program

Hugo Wolf: Italian Serenade for String Quartet 

William Grant Still: Suite for Violin and Piano 
I. African dancer
II. Mother and Child
III. Gamin

Mahler: Piano Quartet in A minor 
I. Nicht zu schnell
II. Scherzo (fragment only)

Piazzolla: The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires for Piano Trio
I. Primavera Porteña
II. Verano Porteño
III. Otoño Porteño
IV. Invierno Porteño

Date: September 22, 2023.
​Time: 7:30pm
Location: Washington University 560 Music Center  
Address: 560 Trinity Ave, St Louis, MO 63130
Admission: Free

Concert Artists

Hugo Wolf: Italian Serenade for String Quartet
Hugo Wolf (1860-1887) was born in what is now Slovene Gradec, Slovenia. Wolf showed great musical aptitude from a young age. He took violin and piano lessons from his father and piano and composition lessons at his primary school. However, when his lessons were in subjects other than music Wolf would often act up and cause trouble in his classes! Because of his antics he was unable to finish his early schooling.

Wolf eventually moved to Vienna to attend the conservatory and to pursue his love of music, but his rebellious nature interrupted his studies once again. He was dismissed for bad behavior. Undeterred in his pursuit of a musical career, Wolf continued composing and began to teach music. He also tried conducting, but was not successful. Wolf’s vocal compositions were recognized as his best work. They were championed by composers such as Franz Liszt as well as famous opera singers of the time. Wolf’s songs put his name on the map and made him famous during his lifetime. Sadly, by 1891 Wolf was suffering from syphilis and depression. Although he continued composing and orchestrating until 1897 his mental health was failing, and in 1899 he admitted himself into an insane asylum. He died in 1903. Italian Serenade was written in 1887. Wolf had just resumed composing after a brief stint as a music critic. The piece is thought to be one of Wolf’s best instrumental works and a true example of his compositional style.

William Grant Still: Suite for Violin and Piano
William Grant Still (1895-1978) was born in Woodville, Mississippi. Sadly, Still’s father died when he was still an infant, and afterwards he moved to Little Rock Arkansas with his mother. His mother remarried in 1904, and it was Still’s stepfather that began to nurture his love of music. By the age of 15, Still was taking violin lessons and teaching himself to play several other instruments!
During his undergraduate years Still majored in science, all the while keeping up his musical studies. However, he didn’t finish the science degree and transferred to Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Still’s early career was interrupted by World War One during which he served in the Navy. Afterwards, he moved to Harlem and played in W.C. Handy’s band and became very involved with the Harlem Renaissance.

Throughout the 1930’s Still arranged music for NBC radio broadcasts, had his first symphony performed by the Rochester Philharmonic, received his first Guggenheim Fellowship, started composing the first of nine operas, and composed Song of the City for the World’s Fair of 1939. In 1949, his opera Troubled Island became the first opera composed by an American to be performed by the New York City Opera. Still was also the first African American to conduct a major orchestra in the south, New Orleans Philharmonic, and the first to conduct a major orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, in a performance of his own works.

The Suite for Violin and Piano was commissioned by Louis Kaufman and completed in 1943. Still composed the suite to musically represent the work of three different artists of the Harlem Renaissance. The first movement was inspired by Richmond Barthe’s sculpture, African Dancer. The second movement was inspired by paintings and sculptures of Sargent Johnson, and the third was inspired by Augusta Savage’s, Gamin, the bust of a young boy.

Mahler: Piano Quartet in A minor
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) was born to Jewish parents in what was then Bohemia of the Austrian Empire. He would later convert to Catholicism to secure a conducting job at the Vienna Court Opera. From a young age Mahler showed immense musical talent and graduated from the Vienna Conservatory in 1878. He had success as a conductor soon after school, and his prestige continued to grow throughout his lifetime culminating in positions with the Metropolitan Opera and New York Philharmonic. Although Mahler is known today to be a significant and important composer, he wasn’t always recognized as such. During his lifetime he was a renowned conductor who composed in his spare time. The majority of Mahler’s works are written for orchestra, symphonic chorus, and vocal soloists with orchestra.

The Piano Quartet in A minor, written in Mahler’s last year at Vienna Conservatory, is Mahler’s only surviving chamber music. His piano quintet and violin sonata are lost. Mahler played piano for the premiere of his quartet in 1876, but there is no record indicating whether the quartet was complete at the time. The surviving manuscript of the second movement contains only fragments. The quartet can be heard as part of the soundtrack for Martin Scorsese’s movie Shutter Island.

Piazzolla: The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires for Piano Trio
Astor Piazzolla, born in 1921, was an Argentinian composer, bandoneon player, and composer. In the 1950’s he transformed the traditional tango and created a new style called nuevo tango. This new style of tango incorporated elements of jazz and classical music. His unconventional tangoes used instruments such as the saxophone and guitar which was quite revolutionary for the time!

In 1954, Piazzolla traveled to Paris to attend the conservatory and study classical composition with Nadia Boulanger. Piazzolla was hesitant to share his tangos with Boulanger, thinking that his future composition career would be based in traditional classical music. However, once Boulanger heard a tango of Piazzolla’s, she knew that her pupil had great talent. It was Boulanger that motivated Piazzolla to pursue a career writing tangos and develop his style of nuevo tango. 

The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires is also known as Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas. The adjective “porteño” refers to those born in Buenos Aires. The seasons were not originally written as one work. Verano Porteño was composed in 1965, as incidental music for the play Melenita de oro. The other three seasons were written in 1969. Piazzolla composed the seasons for his seven piece band with the instrumentation of violin, viola, piano, electric guitar, double bass, and bandoneón, played by Piazzolla himself.

In the late 1990’s the seasons were arranged for violin and string orchestra by Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov. Since then, the work has been arranged for several instrumentations including the version for piano trio being performed on this program!