Bowdoin International Music Festival

July 14 – Wednesday Upbeat!

Saint-Saëns – Bassoon Sonata in G major

Baker – String Quartet No. 2: "Capriccio" (world premiere)

Chopin – Piano Trio in G minor

Schumann – Symphonic Etudes

Camille Saint-Saëns

French composer Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) was a prolific composer in a wide variety of genres. He began playing piano and composing while only two or three years old, first studied composition at seven, and gave a large-scale piano concert at ten. He then studied at the Paris Conservatory and at that time began to work as a church organist, later also teaching. In 1875, he married a much younger woman, but both of their children died and the marriage ended. In the 1890s, he became interested in such places as Egypt and Algeria, where he died in 1921. In 1915, he visited the US. In most of his works, Saint-Saëns explored relatively traditional forms and styles. His best-known works are his Piano Concerto No. 2, Symphony No. 3 ("Organ"), symphonic poem Danse macabre, opera Samson et Dalila, and suite The Carnival of the Animals. As with his silent-era film score (The Assassination of the Duke of Guise, 1908), his chamber works are less well-known. However, they include his very last work: the Bassoon Sonata in G major.

More about Saint-Saens Works by Saint-Saens

Bassoon Sonata in G minor (op. 168, 1921)

Recordings of Saint-Saens - Bassoon Sonata

This work was part of a set of three sonatas for "otherwise neglected instruments"—oboe, clarinet, and bassoon. It is more straightforward than Saint-Saëns' earlier chamber music, and it follows time-honored Classical forms. It was published just before the composer's death, and he dedicated it to a bassoonist/professor friend. The work was premiered after the composer's death. The first movement ("Moderately fast") ebbs and flows between major and minor key areas and includes a development section with a gentle peak. The second movement ("Playfully fast") is quite "snarky" in style. The third and final movement bridges a rather plaintive slow section ("Very slowly") with a shorter, "choppy," fast one ("Moderately fast").

Claude Baker

American composer Claude Baker (b. 1948) has won numerous fellowships and grants, several of which took him to Italy. His various awards and prizes included a 2002 Academy Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has composed a number of commissions, and his works have been performed by major orchestras throughout the US and Europe. He studied at East Carolina University and then at the Eastman School of Music. He taught at the University of Louisville and, more recently, at Indiana University, Bloomington. His best-known works include The Glass Bead Game, Shadows: Four Dirge-Nocturnes, and Awaking the Winds. Baker's catalogue includes 33 published works and a number of recordings. Among similar honors, he served as Resident Composer of the Bowdoin International Music Festival in 2008 and in 2010.

String Quartet No. 2: "Capriccio" (2007)

Claude Baker - Website

Baker describes this work as a "whimsical, light-hearted romp" that is sometimes "nostalgic and wistful" but also sometimes "tongue-in-cheek." It is based on an "extremely well-known theme" that he prefers (literally) not to spell out for us. The work begins with an Introduction, followed by fourteen Variations and a Finale. Of the variations, four are marked as parodies. Six are marked only with two-letter initials that are presumably meant to suggest what certain other 20th- and 21st-century composers might have done with the same theme. The second-last variation is marked as a violin cadenza. Three of the variations are "original," although "anonymous" might be a more suitable indication, given the composer's main ideas for this work.

Frédéric Chopin

Polish composer and pianist Frédéric Chopin (1810-49) was a musical prodigy and already a published composer of piano music before his eighth birthday. He graduated from the future Warsaw Conservatory in 1829, having been proclaimed "exceptionally talented" and "a musical genius." His early works include the Variations in B-flat (op. 2, 1827) on 'Là ci darem la mano' from Mozart's Don Giovanni and his two piano concertos (1829-30). Most of Chopin's works are from his later career in France and for solo piano. These include his nocturnes, mazurkas, waltzes, etudes, and Polonaise-fantaisie in A-flat major (performed on June 30). However, he also composed chamber works with cello, including the Cello Sonata in G minor (July 5), the Introduction and Polonaise Brilliante, and the Piano Trio in G minor.

More about Chopin Works by Chopin

Piano Trio in G minor (Op. 8, 1828)

Recordings of Chopin - Piano Trio in G minor

In the era of this work, young Chopin mainly explored combinations of piano and orchestra. These included the op. 2 Variations and the pair of concertos. His later works were almost entirely for solo piano. Thus, the handful of Chopin's chamber works are something of a curiosity. This work's dark and agitated first movement ("Quickly, with fire") initially has the piano take the lead. However, the violin first provides the emotional main theme. The second movement, a Scherzo ("With motion, but not too much"), is much less anxious and thus more care-free. The third movement ("Slow and sustained") has the piano play the lyrical main theme first. However, the material is then deepened in its emotional content by the violin and by the complexity of the cello contributions. The Finale ("Quite quickly") is active, positive-sounding, and was arguably influenced by Polish music. It also sounds something like Chopin's more familiar, later piano music.

Robert Schumann

German composer and music critic Robert Schumann (1810-56) was profoundly influenced by literature and by an arduous battle for the love of his life. However, he also increasingly suffered from mental problems, attempted suicide in his early forties, and spent his final years in an asylum. (Program notes for other concerts of this Festival provide additional information about Schumann's life and works. See the Table of Contents .)

More about Robert Schumann A Timeline for Robert and Clara Schumann

Schumann's works from his early career in the 1830s include the:

Symphonic Etudes (Op. 13, 1834)

Free Recordings of Schumann - Symphonic Etudes

The genre of the piano etude was explored more extensively by Schumann's contemporary Chopin. Schumann generally preferred to explore existing works by other composers (e.g., Paganini) within his "studies." However, the twelve (originally eighteen) pieces within this work are both expressive and virtuosic. In addition, the composer referred to his unifying approach as "Studies in the Form of Variations." The somewhat gloomy theme was composed by a baron, the daughter of whom was once engaged to Schumann. Most of the individual etudes reference this theme, although in varying degrees. The work's propulsive final etude does not reference its main theme at all. Instead, it is based on an opera theme by a different composer. The theme and twelve following pieces include the following stylistic indications and/or other features:

  1. Theme: "At a walking pace" - gloomy - from Baron von Fricken
  2. Variation 1 - "A little more life" - funeral march-like
  3. Variation 2 - "Well marked, distinct" - nocturne style
  4. Etude 1 - "Lively" - staccato (detached)
  5. Etude 2 - canon
  6. Etude 3 - rhythmic, imitative
  7. Etude 4: "Agitated" - syncopated
  8. Etude 5: "Quite fast" - dynamic, repetitive
  9. Variation 3 - thin, ornamented
  10. Etude 6: "As fast as possible"
  11. Variation 4 - witty
  12. Variation 5: "With expression" - despairing
  13. Finale: "Brilliantly fast" - based on a Marschner opera theme
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