Concert Idea

The title of my fourth doctoral concert, Echoes of the Past, referred to musical and cultural interconnections among the compositions performed as seen from different angles. Mitya Stillman’s Fantasy on a Chassidish Theme radiates a certain nostalgia about his Jewish childhood in Ukraine while living as an immigrant in the US. Efrem Podgaits mixed traditional clarinet composing styles with elements from popular music genres, keeping the performer in intense action Until the Last Breath. Vladimir Tarnopolsky evoked in his title-giving trio Echoes of the Passing Day associations of classical music, literature and history in a radical avant-gardist musical language. Grigory Krein in his Poème reflected on his Jewish background through French musical ideals from the beginning of the 20th century. Finally, in his Clarinet Quintet, Edison Denisov alluded to to Mozart’s masterpiece in that instrumentation, clarinet and string quartet. To me as a performer, one especially intriguing aspect in this concert program is the perception of a time frame – how a composition can “feel” as if it comes from an entirely different period than the one  it was actually composed in.