St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble Presents LIFE STORIES, Now thru 5/4

St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble completes its 2011/2012 chamber series with a program that explores the themes of youth, intimacy and memory with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, contemporary composer Ingram Marshall and Russian late-Romantic composer Reinhold Glière. Life Stories will be presented in three concerts taking place at Brooklyn Museum (today April 28, 2012) and The Morgan Library & Museum (Wednesday May 2 and Friday May 4, 2012). 

Mozart's three divertimenti for strings are among his most beloved early works. Composed at the age of 16, the first of the three, theDivertimento in D Major, K. 136, exemplifies the meaning of the word "divertimento" as "music to have fun with." Likewise, Mozart'sHorn Quintet in E-flat Major possesses a spirit of cheerfulness and play. The piece was composed for Mozart's close childhood friend and horn virtuoso Joseph Ignaz Leutgeb. Unusual in its scoring for two violas instead of two violins, this string quartet emphasizes the mellow sonority of the horn, while still serving as a vigorous showpiece for a horn player. 

A different perspective on childhood comes from New York native Ingram Marshall's haunting Evensongs, which is, in the words of the composer, "a reflection on the mirror of childhood one sees in one's own children." Composed in 1991-92 for a collaboration with Stuart Pimsler Dance Theater, the first movements of the work recall hymns typically sung at evening mass ("Now the Day is Over" and "Abide With Me, Fast Falls the Eventide"). The final movement, composed four years later, was based on portions of Schubert's "Wanderer's Night Song" and contains the tune of the children's hymn "Jesus Loves Me." This series is the second time St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble's will perform portions of Marshall's Evensongs. It was first performed by the ensemble in June 2005.

Also on the program is Reinhold Glière's Prelude and Cradle Song from Eight Duets for Violin and Cello, Op. 39. Glière's lesser-known chamber duos paint a soulful portrait of the dialogue between two string instruments interacting in miniature.

Life Stories

St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble

PERFORMERS
Krista Bennion Feeney, violin
Naoko Tanaka, violin
David Cerutti, viola
Louise Schulman, viola
Myron Lutzke, cello
Patrick Pridemore, horn

PROGRAM

DATES & TIMES