With works by Sergei Prokofiev and Antonin Dvorak on the program, the audience for the next RDSO Chamber Series, Eastern Romance, can prepare to encounter big, over-the-top feelings, said conductor Claude Lapalme.
“Eastern European music tends to be hard on the sleeve — it’s emotional music,” he added. And in the 19th century, it was often woven through with nationalistic, folkloric elements.
Dvorak’s Piano Quintet in A Major, which will be performed on Sunday, Feb. 13, at Studio A at the Red Deer College Arts Centre, definitely falls into this category, with the last three of its four movements based on folk dances, said Lapalme.
Dvorak, who lived in an area called Bohemia — now part of Czech Republic — opened his piano quintet with a “gorgeous” cello solo that contains nationalistic elements.
“There’s a melancholy, Slavic feel to it. You know you’re not listening to music from Italy,” said Lapalme , who added the other movements flip-flop between sad and happy.
Lapalme considers this piece one of three great piano quintets written during the Romantic era (along with works by Brahms and Schumann). He said the chamber musicians are excited to be performing it because “all the parts are marvelous.”
Violinist Kai Gleusteen and his pianist wife Catherine Ordronneau are joining Red Deer Symphony orchestra members cellist Janet Kuschak, violist Dean O’Brien and violinist Naomi Delafield.
Gleusteen is a Calgary native who is concert master for an opera house in Barcelona. His wife is a solo pianist from Paris.
The musicians will also perform Prokofiev’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in D Major, which has a strange history.
It was originally written for piano and flute in 1942 while the Russian composer was living in a temporary camp after being evacuated because of advancing German troops.
While such dark circumstances might be thought to have inspired a contemplative, serious composition, Lapalme said Prokofiev instead produced a “really, really happy piece.” He thinks this fuels the assumption by many who knew the eccentric, people-shy composer that he was not entirely rooted in reality.
In any case, the concerto was eventually rewritten for violin and piano, at the urging of violinist David Oistrakh, who heard it and wanted to play it.
And the versatile piece has performed double duty ever since — Lapalme said it’s equally popular, whether played with the violin or the flute.
Tickets to the 3 p.m. concert are $25 ($10 students) from Ticketmaster.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com