Program III:
Universal Resonance

Thursday, August 15, 2024 | 7:30 PM

The East Coast Chamber Orchestra’s PCMF debut in 2022 drew raves from audiences: “The energy and artistry was astounding!” “Such virtuosic performances, and such wit and joy!” Well, they’re back, bringing with them Handmade Universe, a brand new work by Grammy-nominated composer Vijay Iyer that blends jazz harmonies with intricate orchestrations. A playful flourish of a string trio and a breathtaking arrangement of Bach's stunning Chaconne open the program, and the youthful vigor of Mendelssohn’s delightful Octet, written when he was just 16, brings the evening to a ravishing close.

Friedrich Hermann Capriccio No. 1 in D Minor for Three Violins, Op. 2 (1845)

Tai Murray, J Freivogel, Nick Kendall, violins

J.S. Bach (arr. Michi Wiancko) Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004 (1717-1720/2019)

East Coast Chamber Orchestra

Vijay Iyer Handmade Universe (2023), Maine premiere

Shai Wosner, piano; East Coast Chamber Orchestra

Felix Mendelssohn String Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 20 (1825)

I. Allegro moderato ma con fuoco

II. Andante

III. Scherzo: Allegro leggierissimo

IV. Presto

Anthony Marwood, Kristin Lee, Li-Mei Liang, Susie Park, violins; Jessica Thompson, Melissa Reardon, violas;
Rachel Henderson Freivogel, Kenneth Olsen, cellos

* Programs and artists subject to change

PCMF is delighted that Handmade Universe will also be performed at Salt Bay Chamberfest on Friday, August 16th at 7:30 PM.

Concert run time is approximately 2 hours including a brief intermission. The concert will be live-streamed for free on our YouTube channel. The archived stream will be available to view for 24 hours.

Click here for

program notes

Meet The Artists

Nathan Farrington
bass

J Freivogel
violin

Rachel Henderson Freivogel
cello

Nick Kendall
violin

Kristin Lee
violin

Li-Mei Liang
violin

Anthony Marwood
violin

Tai Murray
violin

Kenneth Olsen
cello

Susie Park
violin

Raman Ramakrishnan
cello

Melissa Reardon
viola

Dov Scheindlin
viola

Jessica Thompson
viola

Shai Wosner
piano

Meet The Composers

Johann Sebastian Bach
1685-1750

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific authorship of music across a variety of instruments and forms, including orchestral music such as the Brandenburg Concertos; solo instrumental works such as the cello suites and sonatas and partitas for solo violin; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and choral works such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B Minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival, he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music.

Bach's Chaconne, which forms the fifth and final movement of the Partita No. 2 in D Minor, is one of the longest and most challenging solo pieces ever composed for the violin. Bach’s string compositions, including a half dozen partitas and sonatas for solo violin, were composed in the late 1710s and early 1720s, while the composer was employed at the court in Köthen, Germany. It was a period of great freedom and creativity for Bach. The Chaconne draws upon the Baroque dance form of the same name, in which a basic theme stated at the opening is then restated in several variations. In the words of Johannes Brahms, "On one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I imagined that I could have created, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of excitement and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind."

Friedrich Hermann
1828-1907

Friedrich Hermann was a German composer, arranger, violinist and editor. In 1843, he entered the Leipzig Conservatory, which had just been founded by Felix Mendelssohn, and became a violin student of Ferdinand David. He also studied composition with Moritz Hauptmann and Mendelssohn himself. He later joined the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and was appointed Professor of Violin at the Leipzig Conservatory in 1848. Hermann was the editor of many violin works published by the Peters Edition publisher, and also wrote a violin manual.

Hermann's Capriccio No.1 in D Minor for Three Violins is the first of three which he wrote for this unusual combination. It dates from 1845, and was premiered at a concert at the Leipzig Conservatory where he was teaching and intended to showcase his talented students. Hermann took the part of third violin for the performance. It opens with a short Adagio introduction; the main section, Allegro, opens with a frantic subject which eventually is followed by a more lyrical melody. The two themes alternate with each other eventually leading to a brilliant conclusion.

Vijay Iyer
b. 1971

Vijay Iyer an American composer, pianist, bandleader, producer and writer based in New York City. The New York Times has called him a "social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway." Iyer has received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a Grammy nomination, and the Alpert Award in the Arts. In 2014, he received a lifetime appointment as Professor of the Arts at Harvard University, where he was jointly appointed in the Department of Music and the Department of African and African American Studies.

Iyer's Handmade Universe was commissioned for pianist Shai Wosner and the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, and makes its Maine premiere on this concert. According to the composer, the title "refers to the piece’s instrumentation: for pianists and string players, every sound is the result of a gesture. For me, this old and obvious truth still somehow unsettles music’s fundamentals. Lyricism, for example, amounts to an aural illusion, insinuating a voice that is absent; musical phrasing can simulate breathing without actually correlating to it; a walking beat is generated by fingertips rather than feet. Another organizing idea emerged in response to a simple question: What can this aggregate - a conductorless ensemble with a powerful existing rapport - do together? The piece became an exploration of different forms of group synchrony that can be felt from within, and different forms of independent expression in relation to it."

Felix Mendelssohn
1809-1847

Felix Mendelssohn was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include symphonies, concertos, piano music, organ music and chamber music. His best-known works include the overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, the Violin Concerto, the String Octet, and the melody used in the Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing." Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words are his most famous solo piano compositions.

The String Octet in E-flat Major was written by 16-year-old Felix Mendelssohn during the fall of 1825 and completed on October 15. Written for four violins, two violas, and two cellos, this work created a new chamber music genre that gained increasing popularity (up until that point, the string quartet was king). In the score, Mendelssohn wrote that the piece should "be played by all the instruments in the style of a symphony." The Octet was one of the first works of Mendelssohn to be very well received.

Michi Wiancko
b. 1976

Michi Wiancko is a composer, arranger and violinist whose work has been performed by ensembles, bands and orchestras around the world. She has collaborated with artists from across a wide musical spectrum and performed with some of the great musical artists of our time, including Rhiannon Giddens, Missy Mazzoli, Steve Reich, Silkroad, Yo-Yo Ma, Wye Oak, and Laurie Anderson. She also directs the summer music festival, artists’ retreat, and community organization, Antenna Cloud Farm.

Wiancko has written several compositions for the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, many of which fall into the genre of what she calls her “reimagining” works. These are arrangements of works from the past that she draws inspiration and source materials from, but ultimately fashions into something fresh and new. Through many layers of inspiration, from Portuguese folk dance to Baroque violin sonata to Concerto Grossi, Wiancko's dazzling arrangement was commissioned by the East Coast Chamber Orchestra in 2010.