Friday, February 28, 2025 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, March 2, 2025 2:00 p.m.
Henriette Renié (1875-1956)
Trio in B-flat major for harp, violin, and cello
Allegro risoluto
Scherzo. Vivace scherzando
Andante
Final. Allegro
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Trio in G major for flute, bassoon, and piano, WoO37
Allegro
Adagio
Andante con variazioni
~~~ Intermission ~~~
Florence Price (1887-1953)
String Quartet No. 2 in A minor
Moderato
Andante cantabile
Juba. Allegro
Finale. Allegro
Henriette Renié
Trio for Harp, Violin, and Cello
A child prodigy on the harp, Henriette Renié did not need to leave her native Paris to obtain a thorough musical education. At the age of eleven she received a first prize in harp at the Paris Conservatory and proceeded to study harmony and composition there. Renié enjoyed a long career as performer, teacher, composer, and arranger; nearly all her music features the harp. Her most ambitious works, including a concerto and this trio, date from around 1900. This trio is dedicated to one of her teachers, Charles Lenepveu.
In this trio Renié has clearly mastered the late Romantic style; there are a number of spots that remind the listener of Franck. Of course, by 1900 that style was losing ground to the new music of Debussy and Ravel, and had Renié chosen to pursue composition further, she would undoubtedly have moved in that direction. Taken on its own terms, the trio is an attractive piece, and Renié is particularly imaginative in the variety of sounds and textures she gets out of the three instruments.
The march-like tune that opens the trio sets the first movement in motion, though more lyrical material soon follows, and Renié maintains a good balance between the two throughout the piece. The scherzo is light and airy even though the main section is in a minor key. The following slow movement is also in the minor mode, but more lyrical and reflective. As in many a Romantic composition, the last movement of the trio brings back material from the earlier movements; as this happens in the introduction to the movement, the specific model is Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Once that is out of the way, the rest of the movement provides a lively conclusion to the whole.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Trio for Flute, Bassoon, and Piano
Beethoven apparently composed this trio in 1786 for three members of a noble family that supported him during his early years in Bonn. The trio speaks the language of the time well without saying anything remarkable; on the other hand, as its composer was only fifteen, that is an indication that there might be greater things to come.
The trio shows a good understanding of harmony and an ability to invent attractive thematic ideas. The first and most ambitious movement also shows a grasp of the conventions of musical form: it has the proper succession of themes in the proper keys. On the other hand, the texture of the trio is generally thin, with the principal melody moving around among the flute, the bassoon, and the right hand of the piano, but with very little happening in the accompanying parts. The second movement is cut short to lead into the finale, which is a set of variations on a conventional theme. Beethoven and his supporters understood that he was reaching the limit of what he could accomplish in Bonn and that he needed to go elsewhere for advanced instruction. The year after this trio he went to Vienna to audition for Mozart. While a family crisis forced him to return, in 1792 he would go back there to study with Haydn and the famous counterpoint teacher J. G. Albrechtsberger, acquiring the technical skills that enriched his music and made him the Beethoven we know.
Florence Price
String Quartet No. 2
For a Black girl born in Little Rock in 1887 the prospects of receiving a thorough musical education at home were minimal, so at the age of sixteen Florence Smith (as she was known at the time) entered the New England Conservatory in Boston, studying organ, piano, and composition. She taught at institutions in Atlanta and Little Rock until 1927, when she moved to Chicago. In that city she found a vibrant Black cultural community and wider horizons; she completed her training as a composer and began creating ambitious larger pieces, winning a national competition in 1932 with her Symphony no. 1. Her works—they number over 300—received only limited circulation in her lifetime, partly because of prejudice on the basis of her race and sex, but also because her lushly Romantic style was completely at odds with the prevailing trend of her day, which was dominated by the modernism of Stravinsky. With the passing of time we see these things very differently, and in the last few years Price’s works, especially Symphonies no. 1 and 3, have received a large amount of favorable attention.
Price had written her first string quartet, in two movements, about 1929 as she was starting out as a composer of large-scale works. This second quartet, from 1935, has the layout of a symphony and has much in common with her symphonies. The medium of the string quartet, however, calls for greater concentration and economy than the symphony; if a few places in Price’s symphonies may run a bit long, this quartet seems just the right length for what it has to say. Though it is one of Price’s finest works, no public performance during the composer’s lifetime is documented.
The very opening, with an accompaniment figure in the second violin soon joined by the other instruments with the melody and harmony, is something that one might expect in a quartet by Dvořák or even Schubert. The theme proper could almost be by one of those masters, and most of the movement is in a contemplative mood. A bit past the midpoint, however, the opening theme returns and the music becomes increasingly agitated. The string writing becomes orchestral in character, and the whole end of the movement sounds more symphonic than one would expect in a quartet.
In the two middle movements the influence of African-American music is more evident. The second movement begins with a mournful tune that might be a spiritual or a lullaby, and the somewhat more optimistic middle section of the movement does little to change the quiet overall mood. As in her symphonies, Price gives us a Juba dance as a third movement: a lively, extroverted solo dance with African roots, with syncopated music that reminds one of the best of ragtime. Also as in her symphonies, Price concludes the work with a tarantella.