The Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival

Our radio broadcast this week features a Telemann Trumpet Concerto, the lesser known of Dohnanyi's two piano quintets, his opus 26 in e-flat minor, and "Mládí," a buoyant, late work for winds by Czech composer Leos Janáček.

Scroll down to find excerpts from Kerry Frumkin and Marc Neikrug's conversation about this week's program, comments from some of the musicians, and a few other things I found along the way.

Thanks for stopping by...
Louise

Liang Wang and one of his many oboe reeds (Image pilfered with gratitude from LW's FB page)

LEOŠ JANÁČEK
Mládí (Youth)

Tara Helen O'Connor, flute and piccolo; Liang Wang, oboe; Michael Rusinek, clarinet; Kyle Knox, bass clarinet; Nancy Goeres, bassoon; Julie Landsman, horn

One can hear a blend of romanticism and modernity in Janáček's. music. Similar to Robert Schumann's keyboard suite "Kinderzeinen," Janáček's Mládí, or "Youth," captures an adult's nostalgia looking back at one's younger days. Janáček wrote it in 1925 when he was 70 years of age.

"It's not just five instruments, and it's not just the normal five..." Marc tells Kerry about the challenges Janáček must have faced in composing this wind quintet.

"What's fascinating to me is the idea of writing a piece about youth when you aren't one..." says Marc to Kerry about this lovely, rhythmically tricky music.

Janáček composed "Mládí" when he was 70, and similar to Robert Schumann's "Scenes from Childhood," the work conveys the nostalgia of an adult looking back at youth. Here is a sample from a Phil Ramone classical music animation project for children based on the music from Schumann's "Kinderzeinen." Marc Neikrug is the pianist and the selection is Von fremden Landern und Menschen, "About strange Lands and people..."

GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN
Trumpet Concerto in D Major

David Washburn, trumpet; Allen Vogel and Robert Ingliss, oboes; L.P. How and Kathleen Brauer, violins; Yu Jin, viola; Mark Brandfonbrenner, cello; Marji Danilow, bass; Kathleen McIntosh, harpsichord

"Telemann probably wrote more pieces than anyone on earth..." Marc and Kerry discuss this prolific composer and the spectacular performance of trumpeter David Washburn.

Though Vivaldi also composed a great number of concerti, Telemann seemed capable of varying the capability of the concerto form in ways that Vivaldi never thought of. Here is an excerpt from Marc and Kerry's discussion on this subject.

On spontaneity and contemplation in Telemann's compositional style... Kerry asks Marc about the oboe writing in the Trumpet Concerto.

Did you know?
Telemann liked the sound of the trumpet, and he wrote numerous concertos for that instrument, including a number of concertos for multiple trumpets. When Telemann wrote these concertos in the eightieth century, the valved trumpet had not yet been invented and these concerti were composed for an instrument Telemann knew as the clarino, a small valveless trumpet with a piercing and very clear sound. It was extremely difficult instrument to play, since the player had to produce the different pitches by varying lip pressure. The invention of the modern trumpet has solved many of these problems, but Telemann's brilliant writing for the trumpet in his concertos, often high in the instrument's range, remains difficult even on today's instruments. A large number of Telemann's trumpet concertos are in D Major, a key that was comfortable on the instrument of his day.

ERNST VON DOHNÁNYI
Piano Quintet No. 2 in E-Flat Minor, Op. 26

Daniel Phillips and Benny Kim, violins; Steven Tenenbom, viola; Eric Kim, cello; Jon Nakamatsu, piano

Although Dohnányi lived well into the 20th Century, his lush, romantic music was a "through-back to an older time." Daniel Phillips tells Louise Frank about Dohnányi's Piano Quintet No. 2 in e-flat minor, opus 26.

None of the members of the ensemble – all accomplished chamber musicians – had played this piece before. Here cellist Eric Kim describes how the group came to love this piece, despite a difficult beginning when they first saw the score.

"There's a degree of darkness in the sound..." Eric Kim talks about Dohnányi's use of key signature in this E-Flat Minor composition.

In this unedited out-take from their conversation, Marc and Kerry discuss Dohnányi in conjunction with his fellow contrymen, Kodaly and Bartok, in respect to the adventuresomeness or conservatism in their music.

Marc and Kerry discuss what is the lesser known of Dohnányi's two string quintets.

Ernst von Dohnányi and his pupil Edward Kilenyi around 1955. (Copyrighted photo courtesy of The Ernst von Dohnányi Collection at The Florida State University.)

The Hungary of Dohnányi, Bartók, and Kodály -- Pozsony (Bratislava) is the birthplace of Ernst von Dohnányi. Zoltán Kodály (born in Kecskemét) lived for several years in Galanta. And Béla Bartók was born in Nagyszentmiklós which is now called Sînnicolau Mare and is in Roumania (on the map not far from Timisoara). Bratislava and Galanta are nowadays on Slovak territory. (Hungary as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Hungary before WW II - Map (c)1995, drawn by R.A.B.)