Willy Sucre and Friends play Trios for Oboe, Viola, and Piano

violist Willy Sucre 

will be joined by

oboist Thomas O'Connor

& a pianist to be announced soon.

by August Klughardt

August Friedrich Martin Klughardt was a German composer and conductor born on November 30, 1847 in Köthen. He took his first piano and music theory lessons at the age of 10. Soon, be began to compose his first pieces. In 1866 he brought his compositions to the public for the first time. One year later, he began to earn his living as a conductor. From 1869 to 1873, he worked at the court theatre in Weimar. There, he met Franz Liszt, which was very important for his creative development. During this time he wrote the Schilflieder which means Reed Songs for oboe, viola and piano. The five stanzas of Nikolaus Lenau’s poem are printed in the score and set the mood for each of the five movements. From 1882 to the end of his life, he was director of music at the court in Dessau. Klughardt died suddenly on August 3, 1902 in Roßlau at the age of 54.

Klughardt is considered as a rather conservative composer in spite of his interest in more modern tendencies. Some of his compositions show him as a child of his times. Today, most of his output is nearly forgotten.

Notes adapted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia website.

I N T E R M I S S I O N

~<^>~

by Charles Martin Loeffler

I.  L'Etang (the Pool)

II. La Cornermuse (the Bagpipe)

Charles Martin Loeffler was born on January 30, 1861 in Schöneberg, near Berlin, Germany. Throughout his career he claimed to have been born in Mulhouse, Alsace, France. In his lifetime articles were published dissecting his ‘typically Alsatian’ temperament! As a young boy, he turned against Germany when the Prussian authorities imprisoned and apparently tortured his father, an agricultural chemist and author of Republican ideals. Loeffler aligned himself with France by asserting French nationality and acquiring French manners and tastes. Ultimately, he chose America as his permanent residence, becoming a citizen in 1887 as well as one of the greatest protagonists of impressionistic music in the United States.

Loeffler's principal instrument was the violin; by the age of thirteen, he had decided to become a professional violinist and studied in Germany. After three years of instruction at the Hochschule, he traveled to France to continue his musical training. On July 27, 1881 he arrived in New York, armed with a letter of introduction and immediately found employment playing in the New York Symphony Orchestra. In the fall of 1882 he assumed the post of assistant concertmaster for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a position he held for over twenty years.

Having established himself in professional circles as an accomplished musician, Loeffler dedicated more of his time to composition. Rapsodies was written in 1898, as a vocal setting of three poems by the French poet Maurice Rollinat. In this arrangement, Loeffler replaces the original voice and clarinet parts with a prominent oboe part. The Deux Rapsodies for oboe, viola and piano was recomposed in 1901, from Nos. 1 & 2 of the three original Rhapsodies.

After twenty-one years of service, he retired from the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1903 and, two years later, settled in Medfield, Massachusetts. After a twenty-four year engagement, Loeffler married his long-time fiancée, Elise Fay, on December 10, 1910. He died there on May 19, 1935.

Notes adapted from The Library of Congress American Memory, Art of the States, and Classical Composer web sites.

Time, date, and program subject to change.