Join Michael Long (CMC violin faculty) and friends for a casual afternoon of beautiful Italian and Italian-inspired chamber music for strings. The program will open with two duos. Italian cellist and composer Giovanni Sollima’s “Heimat-Terra” is inspired by a text concerning the ozone hole but also civilizations, cultures, languages, sounds, etc. by the anthropologist Edgar Morin. However the piece follows a more abstract path.
In Martinu’s Three Madrigals for Violin and Viola, the core elements come from Renaissance madrigals, which had a freedom from conventional forms, a variety of textures including equal-voices counterpoint, and rhythm that was free from bar lines. Combining those elements with Eastern European / Bohemian-Moravian folk music themes and dances and the use of the pentatonic scales, Martinů created a modern version of the madrigal.
Respighi’s Quartet in D, composed in 1904 and published in 1921, is a lush, Romantic work structured in four movements, featuring a “Tema con variazioni” slow movement, a light Intermezzo scherzo, and a galloping tarantella finale. This early chamber piece reflects his melodic skill prior to his famous orchestral tone poems.
Michael Long and Aaron Keller, violins
Charlie Longtine, viola
Sung Choi, cello
Sollima – Heimat-Terra for Violin and Cello
Martinu – Three Madrigals for Violin and Viola
Respighi – String Quartet in D
Free (donations gratefully accepted)