FEELINGFUL * PRESENT * LIVE! Between Friends III - June 11, 2022

Saturday June 11, QSCM's "Between Friends III" event, live at St Paul's United Church, Stirling ON (7 pm) celebrates connection and deep feeling.

Performed by cellist Amahl Arulanandam and pianist Petya Stavreva, the program is eclectic, featuring in the first half the music of that Romantic genius Robert Schumann. Fantasiestücke, Op.73 c. 1849, underscores the idea that creativity is about emotions unleashed, and imagination unrestricted! The intensity of this expression is matched in the second half by the controlled fervour of Sergei Prokofiev'sSonata for Cello and Piano Op. 119. In this work, constrained by the formalism of the classical sonata, the composer somehow manages to transcend the challenges posed to all Soviet artists creating under Stalin's total hegemony, with emotional drama and depth that cannot help but move us all in these times of political strife.
 
 These are exciting works, innovative, even shocking, when composed, now well entrenched in the canon of traditional repertoire. However Amah and Petya are also offering much that is new to the ear. The June 11 concert opens with the work of Nadia Boulanger, possibly the most influential musician of the 19th century! Boulanger stepped onto the scene at a time when women were to be seen and not heard, at least not unless they were saying only what a man wanted to hear! A woman in a man's world, she taught everybody and raised them to greatness! Name me a great musician born around or after 1900 and you will find Nadia Boulanger was his teacher and/ or mentor. Also a gifted musician (pianist, organist, conductor) and composer in her own right she created works of lasting significance, the “Three Pieces for Cello and Piano” c. 1911-1913, on this program among them.
 
 Boulanger's influence was not limited to the great male musicians of the the last and current century, but even today the credibility is much more readily assigned to the male voice over that of equally brilliant, gifted and productive women.

 QSCM is excited to be part of changing that! We are delighted that Amahl and Petya have chosen to bring the music of three other women composers to our attention. Russian composer Lera Auerbach has been described as "one of the most arresting and unique figures in classical music in the early twenty first century. " Her music is described as offering 18th-century forms, informed by a 19th-century sensibility (that of the brilliant virtuoso) expressed in a 21st-century vocabulary." [ https://leraauerbach.com/selected-press-quotes/. ] The music of Canadian Jocelyn Morlock is emotionally accessible even as she speaks in the language of modernity, or rather, "post-modernity". If these terms make you feel uncomfortable, ignore them! The music speaks for itself, Morlock's 2018 Juno Award for Classical Composition of the Year attesting to the appeal of her expression to a wide audience! The second half of Saturday's program opens with music by Pulitzer Prize winning American composer Ellen Zwillich. "Lament" is a commemorative tribute to friend and colleague Judith Arron, former executive and artistic director for Carnegie Hall. It is a moving, reflective piece that asks the utmost from the performers in interpretive flexibility.

You can read more about all of this music by googling the composers names and the works listed in the program. To that end, a sneak peak at the program is offered here! But don't stop at the words: be sure to join us June 11 to share in the music making, live and in person! There is nothing quite like it!