Vladivostok, Primorsky Stage, Chamber Hall

Chamber music evening Three Edwards


PERFORMERS:
Alina Mikhailik (soprano)
Elizaveta Senatorova (soprano)
Valeria Samoilova (mezzo-soprano)
Ilya Astafurov (tenor)
Alexei Kostyuk (tenor)
Dmitry Nelasov (baritone)
Georgy Kremnev (bass)
Tatiana Kuznetsova (violin)
Elena Strukova (violin)
Elizaveta Kulman (violin)
Andrei Volkov (violin)
Yana Cizman (violin)
Natalia Kirilina (viola)
Vladimir Fletcher (viola)
Elena Loginova (cello)
Olga Selskova (cello)
Yevgeny Bystrov (double-bass)
Tereza Charyeva (harp)
Andrei Annenkov (piano)
Elena Kotelnikova (piano)
Ivan Kuligovsky (piano)

PROGRAMME:
Edward Elgar
Sonata for viola and piano in E-minor, Op. 82 
String Quartet in E-minor, Op. 83
Salut d’Amour for viola and piano Op. 12
Song cycle Sea Pictures for contralto and piano, Op. 37
Come, Gentle Night! (Lyrics by C. Bingham), IEE 111

Edvard Grieg
I Love But Thee! (Lyrics by H. Andersen), Op. 5, No. 3
A Swan (Lyrics by H. Ibsen), Op. 25, No. 2
A Dream (Lyrics by F. Bodenstedt), Op. 48, No. 6
The Cottage (Lyrics by H. Andersen), Op. 18, No. 7
Sunset (Lyrics by А. Munch), Op. 9, No. 3
The Way of the World (Lyrics by L. Uhland), Op. 48, No. 3
The Last Spring (Lyrics by A. Vinje), Op. 33, No. 2

Eduard Napravnik 
Berceuse of Adele from the opera Harold
Romance of Dubrovsky from the opera Dubrovsky
Venice at Night from the cycle Six Solo Quartets for Two Tenors and Two Basses (Lyrics by A. Fet), Op. 77, No. 3
Mélancolie for string orchestra, Op. 48, No. 3 

Host of the concert: Elizaveta Sushchenko

About the Concert

The Chamber Music Evening Three Edwards is devoted to three composers who were almost namesakes of each other and lived in different European countries in the letter half of the 19th century.

Sir Edward William Elgar (1857–1934) is the most celebrated romantic composer in England. Some events of his personal life, his feeling for nature and his predilection for a viola which is one of the primary instruments in his artistic legacy were often translated into Elgar’s music. His score of the violin piece Salut d’Amour, Op. 12, first published in 1888 was an engagement present to Caroline Alice Roberts who later became Lady Elgar, a constant inspiration for him. In 1917 the married couple moved to a quiet village in West Sussex where Elgar’s major chamber compositions, Op. 82 and Op. 83, were written. When his Violin Sonata in E-minor, Op. 82, was nearing completion, Edward Elgar suggested devoting it to a family friend, Marie Joshua. She had died suddenly, and as a tribute to her memory, the composer quoted the dolcissimo melody from the slow movement just before the sonata coda. According to the composer’s relatives and friends, Elgar’s String Quartet in E-minor, Op. 83, was inspired by beauty of the local woods and by his walks along wood trails during his idle time. 

Sea Pictures, Op. 37, Elgar’s song cycle for contralto and orchestra (or piano), was written between 1897 and 1899 and consists of five songs written by various authors. The cycle mood is varied from a gentle lull in No. 1 to a gleeful rave in No. 3. It is remarkable that the melody from the first song is heard again in other parts of the cycle.

Edvard Grieg (1843–1907), a Norwegian composer, turned to the genre of song throughout his life. He had composed over 140 songs whose success was undoubtedly furthered by his wife Nina, a professional singer. Grieg set his music to lyrics written mainly by Scandinavian poets such as Ibsen, Andersen, Vinje, and Munch, and in his music he kept to the Nordic tints. This concert includes his most known songs such as A Swan, The Cottage, I Love But Thee! and others.

The name of the Russified Czech Eduard Francevič Nápravník (1839–1916) is often recalled in connection with his work as a music director of the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre where he had been a principal conductor over fifty years. Many operas including those by Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov were premiered under Nápravník’s baton. His music legacy is almost forgotten nowadays, although his romantic opera Dubrovsky (1894) was widely popular at the turn of the 19th century, and his opera Nizhegorodtsy filled the bill of imperial theatres for ten years; it was a unique achievement for any Russian composer of that time. Eduard Nápravník also composed symphonies, concertos and chamber music which was highly appreciated and recommended by Tchaikovsky for publishing at Jurgenson’s Publishing House. The audience at the Primorsky Stage will be glad to hear Nápravník’s Mélancolie, Op. 48, No. 3, whose two versions – for piano and for string orchestra – were composed in 1888 and his vocal music including opera arias and a quartet for four masculine voices a cappella (i.e. without instrumental accompaniment).

Natalia Rogudeyeva

Age category 6+

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