Played in the prestigious concert hall of the Marc Chagall National Museum, the six programs of this festival connect landmark works by 20th-century composers with more unique pieces by contemporary European artists who reinvent the traces of their predecessors. The richness of these repertoires follows the course of perpetually renewing musical writing!
Program for Saturday, October 14th at 8 PM
*Darius Milhaud, Suite for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano opus 157b
Walter Skolnik, Trio for Clarinet, Violin, and Piano
Francis Poulenc, Sonata for Clarinet and Piano
Ottorino Respighi, Tre Pezzi for Violin and Piano
Igor Stravinsky, Soldier’s Tale Suite for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano*
Violin: Isabella Piccioni
Clarinet: Frédéric Richirt
Piano: Roberto Galfione
Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) was interested in all musical genres: opera, chamber music, symphonic music, concertos, ballets, vocal music. He explored all possibilities of writing: both a fine contrapuntist, he frequently used polyrhythm and polytonality, which make his work extremely rich and diverse. Walter Skolnik was born in New York in 1934. He teaches at Ohio University, and his works are presented both on university campuses and at the Lincoln Center. It was in New York at Carnegie Hall that Francis Poulenc’s (1899-1963) Sonata for Clarinet and Piano was premiered in 1963. It was performed by Benny Goodman on clarinet and Leonard Bernstein on piano. Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) studied composition in Bologna and learned orchestration with Rimsky-Korsakov. As a professor of composition at the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome from 1913, he embarked on the path of renewing the Italian symphony. After the creation of “The Soldier’s Tale” in 1918 in Lausanne, Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) derived a suite from it the following year in five parts for piano, clarinet, and violin.
Program for Sunday, October 15th at 6:30 PM
*Witold Lutoslawski, Grave for Cello and Piano
Silvia Colasanti, Canto Rosso
Bohuslav Martinů, Duo for Violin and Cello No. 1
Karol Szymanowski, Sonata for Violin and Piano, opus 9
Frank Bridge, Phantasy for Violin, Cello, and Piano*
Violin: Danuta Glowacka-Pitet
Cello: Pierre Delattre
Piano: Sylvie Gisquet
Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994) studied piano and violin and, from 1927, composition at the Warsaw Conservatory. At the end of his studies, his wish to continue his composer training in Paris was thwarted by the political situation. Captured as a prisoner of war by the Germans in 1939, he escaped and worked as a pianist in Warsaw cafes from 1940 to 1945. Besides works for piano and chamber music, he began to take an interest in Polish folklore – arranging many pieces from it – a field he would explore throughout his career for musical education and the dissemination of Polish music. Silvia Colasanti (born 1975) studied with Wolfgang Rihm and Pascal Dusapin. Her opera “The Metamorphosis,” based on Franz Kafka, premiered at the “Maggio Fiorentino” in 2012, and she is currently working on another opera entitled “Faust, Tragedy Subjective in Music,” based on a text by Fernando Pessoa. The Czech Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959) was admitted to the violin class at the Prague Conservatory, from which he was expelled after two years. He then enrolled in an organ class, from which he was also expelled. He obtained a scholarship to study in Paris. Arriving in 1923, he settled there permanently. Albert Roussel took charge of his musical studies. During the 1930s, success came with his first opera Juliette or The Key of Dreams, created in 1938. The Nazis declared his works degenerate and banned them wherever they were in power. The Polish Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) received piano lessons from the age of 7. He entered the Warsaw Conservatory, where he met Arthur Rubinstein and musicians who would form the Young Poland in Music group, which sought to open up to a more European and Western music. He gave many concerts abroad, including in France, where he met Maurice Ravel. He then returned to his homeland, where he became interested in local folklore, inspiring many of his works. His work is structured in three periods: a postromantic period influenced by Chopin (1810-1849), the Young Poland period reflecting an attraction to impressionist music following his encounters with Debussy and Stravinski, and a period where he rediscovered the music of his homeland. Frank Bridge (1879-1941) was born in 1879 in England. Starting in 1896, the young man studied violin and piano at the Royal College of Music in London. A scholarship allowed him to study composition with Charles Villiers Stanford. During his first creative period, Frank Bridge focused mainly on melody and chamber music. He had Benjamin Britten as his only student in composition.
Program for Monday, October 16th at 8 PM
*Samuel Barber, String Quartet, opus 11
Dmitri Shostakovich, Five Pieces for Two Violins and Piano
François Paris, Sombra for Solo Violin
Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Piano Quintet, opus 15*
Violins: Violaine Darmon, Arnaud Chaudruc
Viola: Hélène Coloigner
Cello: Thierry Trinari
Piano: Julien Martineau
Samuel Barber (1910-1981) came from a family of musicians. At 14, he entered the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. It was through a chamber music work that he achieved worldwide fame. On Arturo Toscanini’s advice, he arranged, in 1938, the second movement of his string quartet for string orchestra. Created that same year by the Italian conductor, Barber’s Adagio thus became one of the most popular works in the world. Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) was admitted in 1919 to the Leningrad Conservatory where he studied piano and composition. From 1937 he taught at the same Conservatory. Awarded the State Prize in 1942, he received, in 1954, the title of People’s Artist of the Soviet Union and the Lenin International Prize. The work presented here is an adaptation by Levon Atovmian, who arranged pieces from music composed by Shostakovich for cinema, theater, or ballet. Five were transcribed for two violins and piano. François Paris (born 1961) is the director of CIRM (National Center for Musical Creation) and the MANCA Festival in Nice. His first opera Maria Republica was created at the Graslin Theater in Nantes in 2016. He received, for this work, the Prize for “Best Musical Creation.” In Vienna, Erich Korngold (1897-1957) received his training from his father Julius. At the age of thirteen, he began a spectacular composition career. He quickly mastered the tonal style of his teacher Zemlinsky, as well as those of Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler. From 1920, he gained international recognition due to the success of his opera Die tote Stadt in Hamburg. Forced to emigrate in 1934, he moved to Hollywood and turned to film composition. He won two Oscars in 1936 and 1938.
