Rebecca Clarke 1886
Evening Music | May 6, 2010
Heading the score of Rebecca Clarke’s Viola Sonata are these words by Alfred de Musset: “Poet, take up your lute; the wine of youth this night is fermenting in the veins of God.”
It’s Rebecca Clarke’s birthday (1886), so naturally we begin our evening with one of her works, Lullaby, for viola and piano. Many more lullabies follow, one by Gershwin, two by Arvo Pärt, and as a special treat, the chamber work, Lullaby and Doina, by Osvaldo Golijov. But back to our birthday celebrant. Clarke started her musical life as a violinist, but soon switched to viola, becoming one of the first women to play professionally in an orchestra. Her instrument of choice is naturally featured in the sonata we hear this evening, performed by violist Patricia McCarty and pianist Virginia Eskin.
Vincent D’Indy’s “Symphony on a French Mountain Air” rounds out the evening. A melody D’Indy heard in the Cevennes mountains is the principal subject of all three of the work’s movements, and it undergoes all kinds of transformations throughout. Charles Munch conducts the Boston Symphony, while Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer’s flying fingers add pianistic textures to this cheerful and invigorating work.
» The Rebecca Clarke Society
It’s Rebecca Clarke’s birthday (1886), so naturally we begin our evening with one of her works, Lullaby, for viola and piano. Many more lullabies follow, one by Gershwin, two by Arvo Pärt, and as a special treat, the chamber work, Lullaby and Doina, by Osvaldo Golijov. But back to our birthday celebrant. Clarke started her musical life as a violinist, but soon switched to viola, becoming one of the first women to play professionally in an orchestra. Her instrument of choice is naturally featured in the sonata we hear this evening, performed by violist Patricia McCarty and pianist Virginia Eskin.
Vincent D’Indy’s “Symphony on a French Mountain Air” rounds out the evening. A melody D’Indy heard in the Cevennes mountains is the principal subject of all three of the work’s movements, and it undergoes all kinds of transformations throughout. Charles Munch conducts the Boston Symphony, while Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer’s flying fingers add pianistic textures to this cheerful and invigorating work.
» The Rebecca Clarke Society
