Sei Solo (You Are Alone) - ChamberFest Cleveland

Description

These works all had their genesis in the loss or death of someone the composer dearly loved. Bach completed the masterful violin solos after returning home from travels and following the death of his wife; the title phrase translates not only as Six Solos but also “you are alone.” The untimely, crushing death of his beloved sister Fanny propelled Mendelssohn to compose a final, stormy quartet. “Perhaps she is lucky,” he observed, “not to have experienced the pain of old age, of life gradually ebbing….” Prophetic words; five desolate months later he was dead, at 38. The death of Brahms’s mother prompted such masterpieces as his German Requiem and this noble, elegiac horn trio. Cage’s separation from his wife was imminent when he composed Perilous Night, which, through prepared piano, explores the loneliness and terror that follows the death of love.

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Solo Sonata No. 1 in G-minor, BMV 1001: I. Adagio (“Sei Solo”)
JOHN CAGE The Perilous Night
FELIX MENDELSSOHN String Quartet No. 6 in F-minor, Op. 80
JOHANNES BRAHMS Horn Trio, Op. 80

Artists:
William Caballero, French horn
Nicholas Canellakis, cello
Diana Cohen, violin
Hsin-Yun Huang, viola
Alexi Kenney, violin
Nathan Meltzer, violin
Roman Rabinovich, piano

Sponsored with support of the Jewish Federation’s Cleveland Israel Arts Connection.

Cost: $15 - $40