Mozart Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat major, K. 452**
Fauré La Bonne Chanson, Op. 61*
Schubert Octet in F major, D. 803
**I myself think it’s the best thing I’ve ever written…I wish you could have heard it!
Wolfgang Mozart writing to his father, April 10, 1784 about K.452
With the close of our thirty-fifth anniversary season we look back with gratitude for your generous support and with pride for our artistic opportunities and achievements. Among these were performances of the string quartet and final sonatas by Debussy, the commission and premiere of Ad Concordiam: Quintet Variations by Daniel Strong Godfrey, the first performance of Schoenberg’s challenging Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, and three concerts in our new Saturday Morning Light Series at Arlington Street Church.
We wish you could have heard it all! But, if you missed anything, take heart: like Mozart, much of our best music and music making is still ahead. Each work of our May program is regarded as the best of its genre.
Mozart’s Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat major, K. 452 (1784), last performed by BCMS in 1994, appeared during a celebrated year of concerts and after a period of having written extensively for pairs of winds in the employ of Emperor Joseph II. The quintet of four single winds with piano was a convergence of experiences writing piano concertos with winds in the orchestra, and pairs of winds in sextets, octets, and more. Evidence of its success appears in the letter to his father, and Beethoven’s early quintet for the same combination written twelve years later.
Fauré’s La Bonne Chanson (1898 version), nine song settings from the collection of twenty-one poems under the same title by Paul Verlaine (1870), has special significance for us this season. It was last performed by BCMS in January 1984 on our first concert series at Sanders Theatre, when BCMS was not yet two years old under the auspicious of the Boston Conservatory. We are glad to feature it again after more than three decades to conclude this season, and its final setting, with the welcome of summer! (L’hiver a cessé…Oue vienne l’été!)* Scored for voice, string quintet, and piano, this setting was dedicated to Emma Bardac, who later became Debussy’s wife and to whom Debussy also dedicated several his later opuses, including the sonatas for various instruments!
Schubert’s Octet for Winds and Strings in F major, D 803 (1824) brings together the largest complement of the evening’s players. Last performed in April 2006, this performance will include many performers who have been newly heard at BCMS since that time as we look ahead to the coming season 36!
Have a great summer!
Enjoy!
Marcus
