Music in the Galleries
Sunday, May 11, 2025
12:00 PM / 1:00 PM
Clyfford Still Museum, Denver, CO
In partnership with the Clyfford Still Museum, Friends of Chamber Music Denver presents The Playground Ensemble for a Sunday afternoon concert in the art gallery.
This event will include two identical concerts at noon and 1 p.m. Performances are included with museum admission.
Seating is limited and first come, first served. The music may be enjoyed from any gallery.
Program
The Jet Whistle (1950) by Heitor Villa-Lobos
Performed by:
Sonya Yeager-Meeks, Flute
David Short, Cello
Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) was one of the most significant figures in 20th century Brazilian art music. As a child, he learned cello and clarinet from his father along with severe discipline in his musical education. While exposed to classical music, Villa-Lobos was not interested in pursuing a formal musical education and instead taught himself guitar away from home as the instrument was thought of with disapproval by “polite society.”
After the premature death of his father in 1899, Villa-Lobos more fully immersed himself in the street music of Rio de Janiero and played in a local street band. In his later teenage years he also played cello in theater & cinema orchestras. At age 18, filled with a yearning for freedom and great fondness for new discoveries, Villa-Lobos set out for Brazil’s interior and spent a decade traveling and exploring the Amazon. Following his travels there was a period of intense creativity that cemented his place as a leading voice in Brazilian classical music. In 1923 Villa-Lobos went to Paris where he held concerts of his major works that were met with enormous success. While in Paris, he met many leading composers of the time including Stravinsky, Ravel, Prokofiev, and Varèse. By the time he returned home he had attained a recognition and acclaim in Europe like no other Latin-American composer.
Throughout his career, Villa-Lobos never forgot his early “musical education” - the street bands of Rio, travel throughout the Amazon, and the music of the movie halls and theaters. This education led to unique compositional styles which combined contemporary European techniques with the diverse musical influences from his childhood in Brazil.
Villa-Lobos composed Assobio a Jato (The Jet Whistle) in New York in 1950. The composition is an excellent example of his eclectic style. The flute and cello provide contrast in timbre and range as they work as equal partners throughout the piece exchanging lead and accompaniment roles. The title of the piece comes from a technique used by the flutist in the last movement where the player blows directly and forcefully into the instrument.
Dash (2001) by Jennifer Higdon
Performed by:
Sonya Yeager-Meeks, Flute
Matt Dearie, Clarinet
Joshua Sawicki, Piano
Originally written for violin, clarinet, and piano but later arranged for flute, clarinet, and piano, "Dash" comes at the beginning of the 21st Century, where speed often seems to be our goal. This image fits well the instruments in this ensemble, clarinet, violin, and piano, because these are some of the fastest moving instruments in terms of their technical prowess. Each individual plays an equal part in the ensemble, contributing to the intensity and forward momentum, as the music dashes from beginning to end.
Une relecture des Kinderszenen (Scènes d'enfants op. 15) by Robert Schumann, Tristan Murail
Performed by:
Sonya Yeager-Meeks, Flute
David Short, Cello
Joshua Sawicki, Piano
Von fremden Ländern und Menschen (Of Foreign Lands and Peoples)
Kuriose Geschichte (A Curious Story)
Hasche-Mann (Blind Man’s Buff)
Bittendes Kind (Pleading Child)
Glückes genug (Happy Enough)
Wichtige Begebenheit (An Important Event)
Träumerei (Dreaming)
Am Kamin (At the Fireside)
Ritter vom Steckenpferd (Knight of the Hobbyhorse)
Fast zu ernst (Almost Too Serious)
Fürchtenmachen (Frightening)
Kind im Einschlummern (Child Falling Asleep)
Der Dichter spricht (The Poet Speaks)
From Tristan Murail: “Finally, to illustrate the encounter that is the theme of this album, the idea developed, and quickly took hold, of my making an instrumentation of a piece by Schumann that would establish the most obvious link between the two sound worlds. This work would of course be written for the three partners on the disc, cello, flute and piano. It quickly occurred to me that the Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood) would be perfect for this project. In fact, Scenes from Childhood has musical, expressive and evocative potential that far surpasses Schumann's version for piano…
… I tried to provide "colouring" for Schumann's pieces (just as old black and white films are now sometimes "colourised"), amplifying the ideas and feelings, while remaining as faithful as possible to the letter and spirit of the score… I tried to emphasize the character of each piece, and to reveal the intentions behind the simplicity of Schumann's piano, thus obtaining contrasts that the original version does not allow - or allows less. To bring out the "childish" or enchanting quality of the music, I made use of several additions... I decided to make them more "luminous" in some places, adding high resonances or doublings, or on the contrary, adding several lower notes to give the sonority more "body".
It is thus a strange sonority (bisbigliando on the flute, harmonic trills on the cello) that introduces the first piece, then soars above it (Von fremden Ländern und Menschen = Of Foreign Lands and Peoples), that Hasche-Mann (Blind Man's Bluff) becomes even more furtive, while Knight of the Hobbyhorse (Ritter vom Steckenpferd) chatters, sighs and whinnies. Fürchtenmachen is really frightening! In the ultra-famous Dreaming (Traümerei), after the announcement of the theme in the cello's expressive upper register, the piano suddenly becomes dominant, as in a romantic concerto. As I said earlier, several "childish" elements are added to the sonic storyline from time to time: a little music box (high in the piano) in the first and last piece, percussive col legno on the cello in Wichtige Begebenheit (An Important Event) - transformed for the occasion into a military march for tin soldiers... And finally, the child falls asleep (Kind im Einschlummern), lulled by the cello shifting between ponticello and ordinario, and comforted by the breathy sounds of the flute...”
Vessels (2022) by Nathan Hall
Performed by:
Sonya Yeager-Meeks, Flutes
Nathan Hall, Singing Bowls
A chamber work for flute/bass flute and singing bowls, ‘Vessels’ was commissioned and premiered by flutist and educator Cobus du Toit. This work incorporates improvisation and collaboration from the singing bowl players, who are guided by the flutist to play graphic scores (abstract shapes and basic instructions) along with the flute throughout the piece--no musical training required. The piece ultimately hopes to open up access to 'classical' music performance while also creating a space for listening, reflection, responding, and the unique sound characteristics of these instruments. Duration is flexible depending on each performance and there are 8 ‘movements’ and two short flute solo interludes.