Musical Explorations 

November 6, 2022

Titus Underwood, oboe*

Evin Blomberg, violin*

Gabriel Napoli, viola*

Ilya Finkelshteyn, cello

*Linton Debut

Explore a range of musical styles in this program that displays Beethoven’s early genius and Mozart’s elegant charm, remembers the brilliance of Klein and creativity of Villa-Lobos, and highlights the talents of James Lee III. Meet and hear Titus Underwood, CCM oboe professor, as he joins members of the CSO for this exciting opening program. 

Program Notes

Gideon Klein (1919 – 1945)

String Trio

Stylistically, Gideon Klein was an Expressionist who experimented with microtonality and advanced 12-tone techniques. Sadly, it is the extramusical history surrounding his career that tends to take the spotlight. Klein was studying piano, composition and musicology at the Prague Conservatory and the Karl University when the Nazis closed Czech schools of higher learning in 1939. At this time, the young talent had already been granted a scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Music in London, but he was denied his petition to leave the country. Despite the continually worsening circumstances, Klein continued working under a pseudonym, writing and performing in small avant-garde theaters in Prague for two years before being deported to the Terezín (Theresienstadt) prison camp and ghetto in 1941.

Klein composed his String Trio while imprisoned at Terezín and completed it in October 1944, just ten days before his deportation to Auschwitz and his eventual murder in the Fürstengrube slave-labor camp. The Trio is one of several important compositions that came out of Terezín, and likely the last major work to come out of the camp before the war ended. 

Musically, the Trio sounds classically inspired and, indeed, more approachable than Klein’s earlier, more modernist, works. Yet underneath the lighthearted nature of the piece lies direct references to Klein’s Moravian roots and the idyllic early life he saw destroyed by the Nazi invasion. The outer movements have a distinctly Czech inflection and brighter character that help provide a setting for the slow, melancholic second movement that forms the heart of the work. Longer than the first and third movements combined, the central movement presents a theme and pair of variations built on a Moravian folksong, “The Knezdub Tower,” whose narrative of a goose flying up into a high tower symbolizes the freedom lost by those imprisoned at Terezín.

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887 – 1959)

Chôros (bis) for Violin and Cello

The word chôro is Portuguese for “weeping” or “cry,” and it came to be the name used for music played by an ensemble of Brazilian street musicians improvising on both African and European instruments in a free and often dissonant kind of counterpoint called contracanto. As used by Villa-Lobos, chôro does not refer to any definite form of composition, but rather includes a variety of Brazilian types. Chôros bis, or Dois Chôros (bis) (“Two Chôros encores”), composed 1928–29, bear a peripheral relationship to the numbered set of 14 Chôros composed by Villa-Lobos 1920–28. While based on the same Brazilian style as the numbered set, Chôros bis is unique in its two-movement structure. Villa-Lobos intended the pair as an encore to complete performances of the existing set.

The Chôros bis were first given a private reading in 1929 at the residence of Frédéric Moreau in Paris, performed by Tony Close (violin) and André Asselin (cello). The public premiere was given by the same performers on March 14, 1930, at the Salle Chopin, Paris, as part of the Festival de Musique Moderne, in a concert that also included the world premieres of the 14 numbered chôros and Villa-Lobos’ Cirandas for piano and Chansons typiques brésiliennes for voice and piano.

Wolfgang A. Mozart (1756 – 1791)

Oboe Quartet in F Major, K. 370

In 1780, Mozart traveled to Munich, at the invitation of the elector, to compose and supervise an opera to be performed at the Munich Carnival. After years of striving to develop an independent livelihood as a musician outside of the service of the Archbishop of Salzburg, Mozart’s Munich sojourn not only provided a welcome change of pace for the young composer, but also allowed him to renew his acquaintance with the renowned oboist Friedrich Ramm. More than a virtuoso, Ramm had achieved a nearly legendary reputation for the unparalleled beauty of his playing. Inspired by his admired colleague, Mozart composed the Oboe Quartet in 1781. The composer’s talent for highlighting the idiosyncrasies of each instrument complemented Ramm’s unique command of the oboe and has helped secure the Quartet’s place as a staple of the repertoire. 

As is common in Mozart’s chamber works for wind instruments, the Quartet functions almost as a concerto for the oboe with string accompaniment, even adhering to the three-movement fast – slow – fast pattern more common of a sonata or concerto than a string quartet or symphony. The first movement is a trim sonata that is essentially monothematic. The oboe introduces a lilting, ornamented theme with active imitative textures in the top strings. A brief transition to the second key-area shifts the main theme to the violin with the oboe providing countermelodies. Mozart begins the exposition with fresh material—a floating fugue with a short subject in long notes with close imitations. The recapitulation brings back the main theme with new contrapuntal textures and the addition of the four-note head motive from the fugue cleverly worked in.

The central Adagio is brief but intense. Its slower, deliberate pace sets a mood that is mournful, pleading and dark, an ideal lyrical showcase for the timbre of the oboe. Mozart follows ominous shadow with a buoyant Rondo allegro. The lilting 6/8 bounce recalls a French or English country dance with the oboe almost emulating a pipe or flute. Mozart ends the quartet with a famous polyrhythmic section wherein the oboe plays in common time (4/4) against the strings in 6/8 with an oddly shimmering effect of four beats against three. 

James Lee III (b. 1975)

Principal Brothers No. 2

Program note, from composer James Lee III:

“The year 2020 has definitely been a very challenging year with many upheavals. During this time of the Covid-19 health crisis, wearing masks, and high racial tensions, I decided to compose four short solo woodwind works for flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon, which represent the core woodwind section in an orchestra. I was inspired to compose these short pieces after I first heard Igor Stravinsky’s three short pieces for clarinet, which totals a little more than four minutes in duration. I thought that it would be nice to highlight and honor my African American male colleagues in the orchestral music world. I wanted to celebrate the fact that they are the principal player in the section of their respective orchestras. The short pieces are as follows: Principal Brother No. 1 for flute solo for Demarre McGill, Principal Flute of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra; Principal Brother No. 2 for oboe solo for Titus Underwood, Principal Oboe of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra; Principal Brother No. 3 for clarinet solo for Anthony McGill, Principal Clarinet of the New York Philharmonic; and Principal Brother No. 4 for bassoon solo for Bryan Young, Principal Bassoon of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. These works all begin with notes that are representative of their name; D for Demarre, B for Titus (ti in solfège starting on C), A for Anthony, and B-flat for Bryan. There is also a rhythmic figure in the opening measures of each piece, which represent the utterance of their names. All four of these works are rhapsodic in nature with elements of improvisation.” 

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)

String Trio No. 2 in D Major, Op. 9

Beethoven composed only five string trios before abandoning the form to focus on string quartets in 1798. The later set, the three trios of opus 9, assume the four-movement model of the traditional quartet, an indication that they were, for Beethoven, more serious endeavors than his first two attempts at the genre. In these larger-scale trios we can get a sense of Beethoven’s masterful craftsmanship and the range of sonic possibilities he could explore with only three instruments. 

The violin dominates the D Major Trio, and the part may have been intended for Ignaz Schuppanzigh, a gifted player who collaborated frequently with Beethoven. The opening allegretto features a lyrical violin melody set against a restless atmosphere created by the incessant accompaniment from the other musicians. The second movement, with its flowing 6/8 rhythm and minor mode, recalls an arcane dance before giving way to a lively minuet that hints that Beethoven would soon abandon this courtly dance in favor of the more vigorous scherzo. The final rondo sees the cello taking the lead before the main theme ultimately shifts back to the violin to close the Trio.