Heaven and Earth
Join us in the stunning acoustics of St. Peter’s Church of Ireland for an evening that explores the ground we walk on and the sky above.
The programme will include Shostakovich’s first piano trio which was written exactly 100 years ago when the composer was a mere 16 years old. The Romantic work only hints at Shostakovich’s later more mature style and was dedicated to his first love, Tatyana Glivenko. It will be performed in this concert by BMF Co-Directors Aisling Manning, Julie-Anne Manning and Deirdre Brenner in celebration of their founding of the Boyne Music Festival as a trio in 2013.
This trio will be followed by two works of chamber music composed in the USA in 2001. Osvaldo Golijov’s piece How Slow the Wind, performed here in his original version for soprano and string quartet, was written in memory of his friend Mariel Stubrin after her sudden death in a car accident. He writes of the piece “'I had in mind one of those seconds in life that is frozen in the memory, forever-a sudden death, a single instant in which life turns upside down.” It is dedicated to the same person for whom the piece “Mariel” for marimba and cello was written, which can be heard at the BMF on Thursday, 27th July at Slane Castle.
American composer Kevin Puts wrote his chamber work And Legions Will Rise for violin, clarinet and marimba in the summer of 2001. He explains that the work is about the power in all of us to transcend during times of tragedy and personal crisis. “While I was writing it, I kept imagining one of those war scenes in blockbuster films, with masses of troops made ready before a great battle. I think we have forces like this inside of us, ready to do battle when we are at our lowest moments.”
“How slow the wind —
How slow the sea —
How late their fathers be!
Is it too late to touch you, dear?
We this moment knew —
Love marine and love terrene —
Love celestial too —”
Ernest Bloch’s work From Jewish Life was written almost 100 years ago as well, in 1924 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It is comprised of three pieces: Prayer, Supplication, and Jewish Song, all dedicated to the cellist Hans Kindler. Bloch wrote that his intent was not to reconstruct authentic Jewish music or melodies, but to capture the complex, ardent Jewish spirit and soul. It will be performed here in an arrangement for solo cello and strings.
The evening programme will conclude with a much loved work in its less-often performed original arrangement for two pianos: Gustav Holst’s The Planets. An early devotee to astrology, Holst was inspired to create a work inspired by the astrological nature of the planets with each movement intended to convey the different ‘personalities’ of each planet. He composed the work between 1914 and 1917 in a version for 2 pianos, 4 hands and the premiere was by two of his colleagues at the St. Paul’s Girls School in London, Vally Lasker and Nora Day.
Programme
Dmitri Shostakovich - Trio No. 1 for violin, cello and piano
Osvaldo Golijov - How slow the wind for soprano and string quartet
Kevin Puts - And Legions Will Rise for violin, clarinet & marimba
Ernest Bloch - From Jewish Life - arr. for solo cello and strings
Gustav Holst - The Planets, mvt. 1-4 in the original arrangement for 2 pianos by the composer
Performers
Deirdre Brenner, piano
Robert Cohen, cello
Mia Cooper, violin
Anna Devin, soprano
Carmen Flores, viola
Jessie Grimes, clarinet
Sibila Konstantinova, piano
Aisling Manning, violin
Julie-Anne Manning, cello
Alex Petcu, percussion