TONIGHT'S PROGRAM

Classical Set 1:  approx. 8:00pm
Classical Set 2: approx. 8:40pm
Classical Set 3: approx. 9:15pm
Classical Set 4: approx. 10:00pm

CLASSICAL SET 4: Approx. 10:00pm

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Nocturne in F Minor (recomposed by Chad Lawson)
Featuring ODC/Dance
Excerpt: Collision, Collapse and a Coda
Choreography: Brenda Way
Dancers: Addison Norman & Colton Wall, Jeremy Bannon-Neches & Joanne Kim, Christian Squires & Jaime Garcia Castilla, Brandon “Private” Freeman & Katie Lake, Jeremy Bannon-Neches & Jenna Marie, Rachel Furst & Ryan Rouland Smith 

Polish composer Frédéric Chopin maintained worldwide renown as a leading virtuoso of his era, one whose poetic genius was based on a technical mastery without equal in his generation.

Chopin composed a number of nocturnes – rhapsodic piano fantasies in a subdued tone – to satiate the public appetite for piano music in 1830s Europe, where the piano had become a bourgeois status symbol..

Chopin’s career played out in two decades that were a charmed moment for the piano and piano composers. He released small-scale works regularly; the more accessible of his pieces fueled demand for his more adventurous works.

The opening theme, which is also the principal theme of this work, returns often, slightly altered nearly every time. It bears a melancholy that is deepened by the almost obsessive repetition of the initial melody, which proceeds in a tempo and rhythm characteristic of nocturne contemplation. This elegiac aura is contrasted with a brief counter-theme: music that escapes for a moment into a realm of brighter sonorities (A flat major), though it does so in vain.

Following the example of Bach, he closes the work with a ray of hope, by changing a single note, as a result of which the key of F minor becomes F major. For the pianist, it is a perilous moment, as one easily falls into a naive-sentimental mood. The famous pianist and editor Theodor Kullak summarised that passage from the minor to the major with an ironical sigh: ‘And so, thank God, the goal is reached!’

Performed by Eclecta Quartet
Violin: Shaina Evoniuk & Rachel Noyes
Viola: Michi Aceret
Cello: Chloé Mendola
with
Clarinet: Carlos Ortega

Thank you to  ODC/Dance

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