The two canonical clarinet quintets, and there are really only two, attain that status at least in part because listening to them, one wonders why such a beautiful combination isn’t regularly attempted by composers everywhere. For now, no one’s done it better than Mozart in 1789 and Brahms in 1891, and it was their respective clarinet quintets that occupied a program of the … [Read more...]
PB Symphony inaugurates chamber music series with program of overlooked American master
Even if you’re a devotee of classical music, you might never have heard of William Grant Still. It was different in Still’s own day. Music historians have long called Still (1895-1978) the dean of African-American classical composers, and that came out of his prominence, which began in the 1920s when he made his initial name as an arranger for leading bands in the new … [Read more...]
Chameleon’s piano quartet rarities delight, impress
By Robert Croan Two of the three composers represented on Chameleon Musician’s season finale Sunday afternoon were names that few, if any, members of the audience had ever heard before. The delightful and enthusiastically received concert, in the Josephine S. Leiser Opera Center, featured rarely heard piano quartets by Dora Pejačevič and Zygmunt Noskowski, along with a … [Read more...]