News
From the Director - Steven Klimowski
In the midst of this Vermont winter the vcme is warming itself on the
hearth of two wonderful trios. We've been enjoying our work on the Charles
Ives piano trio and Thomas Read's new work Going On for violin, clarinet
and piano. What a wonderful way to spend the cold, dark winter months!
This twentieth anniversary season began with three concerts performed
by the woodwind trio Viente, Berta Frank, flute; Steven Klimowski, clarinet;
and Rachael Elliott, bassoon with Annemieke Spoestra on piano. In addition
to our usual concerts in Montpelier and Colchester we added one at Middlebury
college. Peter Hamlin wrote two new works for the trio: The Art of War,
a multi-movement work after the fifth century BC treatise by Sun Tzu and
a lighter work called Be Good, See You Tomorrow, I love you, for the trio
and accordion (the composer doing the honors on the squeeze box). See
the web site for program notes and other details. We also played a stirring
new work by Allen Shawn, Three Nightscapes for flute, clarinet and piano.
Composed in the summer of 2006, it's a companion piece to last year's
VCME commission In Memory of... and proved to be just as powerful. In
addition, I played Elliott Carter's Steep Steps for solo bass clarinet.
We plan to program more Carter next season. He celebrates his 100th birthday
in December 2008 and is still composing!
November's concert Among Friends featured the trio of the same name for
clarinet, cello and piano by Chan Ka Nin. We performed this colorful work
in 1999 and brought it back as a contrast to Dennis Báthory-Kitsz's
30 minute elegy New Granite. Whereas the Nin is furiously fast paced with
many turns of mood the Báthory-Kitsz is meditative, a musical reflection
of a composer's brooding on the fact that the new granite placed at the
VFW Post with the headings Afghanistan and Iraq would eventually be filled
in. Also on the program was music by two composer's I had not heard before:
Mike Mower's very entertaining Piccolo Sonata and Joachim Horsley's quintet
Transparency. I look forward to hearing more by these fine composers.
In rehearsal now for our February 15 and 16 concerts, we are getting to
the heart of two terrific trios. The Ives, rarely performed in Vermont,
is a masterpiece for violin, cello and piano. It's a hearkening back to
his college days at Yale chock full of the tunes that permeate those memories.
The other trio is a major new work for violin, clarinet and piano by Thomas
Read titled Going On. In this five movement work there are no popular
tunes quoted but, at times, you'll think you're hearing one. All of Read's
compositional techniques and skill developed over decades pays off in
this work of great emotional depth. With each rehearsal I get more excited
about this music; you are in for a wonderful and unique experience.
Looking ahead to Spring, Erik Nielsen is putting the finishing touches
on his new quintet for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano. If you
know any of Nielsen's music you won't want to miss this one. (By the way,
his second string quartet will be premiered at the Chandler Music Hall
in Randolph, Vermont on March 15). Our Spring program also includes Terry
Riley's The Heaven Ladder, Su Lian Tan's piano trio Be You Be Belinda
Reynolds Turns and there will be a Vermont high school composer featured.
Please join us!
This year we have featured the artwork of Carol MacDonald in our season brochure and concert posters. If you would like to see more of her work, please go to her web site www.carolmacdonald.com or you can meet Carol at our next concert at Saint Michael's College on February 16. In the spirit of celebrating local talent we will be featuring the work of a Vermont artist again next year on our brochure and posters. Vermont artists who would like to submit their work for possible use in our publicity, please contact us by email at clarcell@vcme.org.
VCME concerts are a unique experience. Designed to get to the heart of the music. Each concert is preceded by a talk with the composers and/or performers that delves into the work to be heard. For our next two concerts, composer, Peter Hamlin will be giving these talks. At the February concert he will be talking with composer Thomas Read about his new work Going On and at the April concert he will be talking with Erik Nielsen about his new quintet. You will also get a chance to meet the composers and performers after each concert at our sumptuous reception. We look forward to meeting you and hearing your thoughts.
Sincerely,
