The Berkeley Ensemble
Libby Burgess piano
Prokofiev Overture on Hebrew themes for clarinet, string quartet & piano Op 34
Poulenc Mouvements perpétuels for wind quintet, string trio & double bass
Martinů Nonet for wind quintet, string trio & double bass
J Strauss II arr Schoenberg Emperor Waltz for flute, clarinet, string quartet & piano
Woolrich A bagatelle for clarinet, bassoon, horn, string quartet & double bass
Schubert Quintet in A major for piano quartet & double bass ‘Trout’ D667
A hundred years ago, Prokofiev, now living in America, was approached by a Russian ensemble about to tour the USA, for a work using klezmer melodies it had collected together. The year before, Poulenc, then a protégé of Satie, wrote a piano work very much in his mentor’s style, rescoring it in 1925… the same year that Schoenberg, unlikely as it may seem, arranged the Emperor Waltz, but with hidden subtexts of his own alluding to Austrian nationalism. In Schubert’s Vienna, on the other hand, it would appear there is not a cloud in the sky as his trout leaps out of the crystal-clear stream trying to evade the wily fisherman. And with a piece like that to close, we hope that you are hooked for another year.
