Student Recital: Mozart and Walton
This week, we present a Student Recital. Violist Ayane Kozasa is featured in both works on the program. We will present Ayane's Graduation Recital later in the On Stage at Curtis season.
Mozart: String Quartet in F major, K. 590
Nikki Chooi & Luosha Fang, violins; Ayane Kozasa, viola, Nathan Vickery, cello
This beautiful quartet dates to July of 1790, and is the third of Mozart's "Prussian Quartets," so named because he dedicated all three to King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia, an amateur cellist. Mozart had displayed his piano virtuosity for the king a year earlier, resulting in this three-quartet commission. Little wonder that the cello plays such a prominent role in each of the quartets.
Walton: Viola Concerto
Ayane Kozasa, viola; Elena Jivaeva, piano
At the instigation of Sir Thomas Beecham, William Walton wrote this concerto in 1929 for Lionel Tertis, who, to his everlasting regret, declined to play it. The honor went instead to Paul Hindemith. Walton's concerto is greatly influenced by the Prokofiev Violin Concerto No.1. The composer revised the concerto more than once, both for the solo part and the orchestration. Several violinists have picked up the viola to offer their own versions of the concerto over the years.
Musical Word of the Week: Concertante
1. brilliantly virtuosic: a concertante part for solo violin. 2. solo rather than accompanying: a sonata for recorder and harpsichord concertante. 3. (noun): an 18th-century work with sections for solo instruments.
(via dictionary.com)
