Rembrandt Chamber Musicians Presents: 20th Century Romance

SUNDAY, MARCH 16, 2025 | 3:00 PM - Nichols Concert Hall, Evanston

ARTISTS: John Macfarlane, Simon Michal, violin; Carol Cook, viola; Calum Cook, cello; Marta Aznavoorian, piano

PROGRAM:

SHOSTAKOVICH: Five Pieces for 2 violins and piano

MOSZKOWSKI: Suite for Two Violins and Piano, Op. 71

INTERMISSION

KORNGOLD: Piano Quintet in E Major, Op. 15

20th-Century Romance

Today’s audience often describes early- to mid-20th-century classical music as

harsh and resistant to the ears. As composer Milton Babbitt famously wrote in 1958, “Who cares if you listen?” While some musicians were engaged in breaking the bounds of tonality and writing music that deliberately trod less familiar ground, others were recognizing the limitations of this new aesthetic creed. As Aaron Copland wrote retrospectively of his atonal works, During the mid-1930s I began to feel an increasing dissatisfaction with the relations of the music-loving public and the living composer. The old ‘special’ public of the modern music concerts had fallen away…. It seemed to me that we composers were in danger of working in a vacuum. Not all composers shared the belief in modern music as an art form divorced from the “music-loving public,” as the works on this program demonstrate—particularly those whose writing focused on genres that depended on the public’s approval, like movie music. Shostakovich’s 5 Pieces for 2 Violins and Piano, compiled from music he wrote for film, ballet, and theater, are far removed from the angst-ridden political climate of the Soviet regime. Moszowski’s Suite for Two Violins and Piano is unabashedly Romantic, hearkening back to the 19th-century composers with whom he was most frequently linked. Finally, the lush melodies of Korngold’s Piano Quintet are deeply indebted to his Hollywood success.