Music for the Planet: A Chamber Recital for Oboe, Viola, and Piano
Wednesday, November 3, 2021, 12:00 pm
NYC's Interchurch Center
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Katelyn Simone
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Lauren Siess
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A free, live, 30-minute performance open to all. The Interchurch Center is located next to Riverside Church on Riverside Drive and 120th St.
Program:
William Grant Still (1895-1978): Incantation and Dance
Charles M. Loeffler (1861-1935): Two Rhapsodies
- The Pond
- The Bagpipe
This musical offering celebrates the natural world we all share. As it transpires, world leaders will be convening at the two-week United Nations Climate Conference 2021 (COP26), in Glasgow, Scotland. The summit is one of the last, best chances to commit to solutions that keep the target of 1.5 degrees of global warming within reach.
Featuring music by two composers greatly inspired by nature, this program invites reflection on our many relationships with the environment--from the personal to the societal, from gardening to heavy industry--and calls attention to the responsibility we have to sustain it for future generations.
A masterful American composer of operas, ballets, and symphonies, William Grant Still is regarded as the “Dean of African-American Classical Composers.” Among his many accolades, Still was the first Black man in the United States to have a symphony performed by a major symphony orchestra. In 1961, he received the prize offered by the U.S. Committee for the U.N., the N.F.M.C. and the Aeolian Music Foundation for his orchestral work The Peaceful Land, cited as the best musical composition honoring the United Nations. Still himself played the oboe, and like much of his work, Incantation and Dance combines classical, jazz, and gospel elements into his own unique and thoroughly American sound.
The romantic, evocative Two Rhapsodies by Charles Martin Loeffler are the German composer’s best-known works for small ensemble. Drawing inspiration for these pieces from two eerie poems by French symbolist poet Maurice Rollinat, Loeffler explores beautifully the expressive ranges of the oboe, viola, and piano. No two moments are alike in this rich music that is at various turns playful or haunting, but always captivating. Loeffler was born in Schöneberg bei Berlin, but favored the French style and lived most of his life in Boston; his music combines these and many other influences. These two pieces are dedicated to Léon Pourtau and Georges Longy, respectively the former principal clarinetist and oboist of the Boston Symphony.
Health information: Audience members will be socially distant from one another and will be asked to wear masks, regardless of vaccination status.