Concert at 6:30/doors 6pm
Program:
Nino Rota, Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano (1973)
Nicola LeFanu, Nocturne for cello and piano and Lullaby for clarinet and piano (1988)
Max Bruch, Pieces for Clarinet, Cello and Piano, Op. 83
Artists:
Sangwon Lee, clarinet
Joseph Gotoff, cello
Yundu Wang, piano
About the Program:
Tonight's program pairs two masterworks of the clarinet quintet repertoire: Brahms's autumnal Op. 115, composed in 1891 after a long retreat from public composition and inspired by clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Op. 10, written just four years later by a young composer steeped in late-Victorian elegance but possessed of a uniquely warm, folk-inflected lyricism. Where Brahms distills German Romanticism to its reflective essence — hushed yearning themes, tender slow movements, and a quietly resolved finale — Coleridge-Taylor answers with ardent, songlike writing that is formally assured yet emotionally generous, blossoming from poised opening themes to a hopeful, affirmative close. Though separated by nationality and experience, both composers treat the clarinet as a human narrator in intimate dialogue with the string quartet, and together these two quintets chart a shared chamber ideal: music that speaks close and true.