Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Clarinet Quintet in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 10 (1895)
Antonín Dvořák String Quintet in G Major, Op. 77 (1875, revised 1888)
Under the tutelage of composer Charles Villiers Stanford, [Samuel Coleridge Taylor] enthusiastically turned to chamber music as Stanford was a strong advocate of the music of both Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvořák. Coleridge-Taylor was a self-proclaimed devotee of Dvořák’s music…The appearance of Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet in 1891 was reportedly taken on as a challenge by Coleridge-Taylor, who by 1895 was interested in forging his own path. Apocryphally, Stanford allegedly proclaimed “You’ve done it my boy!” upon hearing the quintet.
–Rebecca Marchand, BCMS Program Notes, May 2022
Like most liberals Brahms tended to look at the nationalism of Austria’s subject peoples with suspicion, as a threat to the stability and prosperity of the empire. None of that came between Brahms and Dvořák, because still for Brahms, music that he admired excused everything. The two men met in December 1877 and visited periodically from then on.
–Jan Swafford, Johannes Brahms—A biography, p. 445 1999
Season 2021-2022 has reaffirmed for us the power, majesty and necessity of gathering in the presence of great music. We have done so in spaces that are familiar and new—Jordan Hall, Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, video-on-demand, and even back at Sanders Theatre. We have introduced works by Maritnů and Veress, commissions by Joan Tower, Michi Wiancko, and Lowell Liebermann, observed important anniversaries of Schubert, Saint-Saëns, and Vaughan-Williams. In doing so we have celebrated the similarities and differences and enjoyed noticing the mutual influences on our music, both near and far.
For all the many successes this season we wish to acknowledge those patrons who joined us in person or online as well as our artists, Board of Trustees, Commissioning Club members, administrative staff, team of audio engineers and videographers, and the many special contributors who have made it all possible. Our season finale brings us together around music that expresses national differences in the language of common love and respect for the music of Brahms.
Enjoy!
MT
