I first got to know West Side Story through the wonderful 1961 movie starring Natalie Wood and Rita Moreno. The music, the dancing, those costumes! I thought wearing your pants with cuffs made you look really cool. Our final program for the 2024 season, OFF THE CUFF, is full of cool music to ease a hot afternoon. Thank you for joining us this season! 

— Jeffrey Sykes, DMA, Artistic Director (all program notes by Jeffrey!)

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)

Ballade in C minor, op. 73, for cello and piano (1907)
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, born in 1875 in London, was a pioneering British composer of African descent. His father was a physician from Sierra Leone and his mother a white Englishwoman. He showed exceptional musical talent from a young age and received a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music, where he excelled in composition and violin performance. He was admitted to the composition studio of Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, the most famous composition teacher in England at the time. Stanford’s other students included Ralph Vaughan Williams, Herbert Howells, Gustav Holst, Frank Bridge, and Rebecca Clarke, so he was in very good company. Coleridge-Taylor's compositions often drew inspiration from African, British, and American musical traditions, reflecting his multicultural heritage. His most famous work, the cantata Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, brought him international acclaim and established him as one of the leading composers of his time. He made several trips to the United States, primarily to study Negro spirituals and, on one of his trips, was invited to the White House by President Teddy Roosevelt. 

The Ballade in C minor, op. 73, was written in 1907 for the Russian violinist Mikhail Zacherevic. Originally for violin and orchestra, Coleridge-Taylor realized the work would receive more performances if he recast it for violin and piano. Lachezar Kostov took this version and recast it for cello and piano. As you will hear, it succeeds brilliantly in this arrangement.

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805-1847)

Piano Trio in D minor, op. 11 (1847)
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, the older sister of the much-more-famous Felix Mendelssohn, was considered by many people to be the greater musical talent of the two. Born into a wealthy, post-Enlightenment, cultured Jewish family, she received a thorough education in all aspects of music from some of the greatest teachers of her day. Her family, while it encouraged her to develop her talents, at the same time squelched her attempts at public performance and publication of her compositions. Fanny’s father had written her in 1820, “Music will perhaps become [Felix's] profession, while for you it can and must be only an ornament.” Tragically, she only began defying that familial ban near the end of her life. 

Fanny and her brother Felix were both child prodigies. Throughout their lives they remained extremely close, stimulating and challenging one another intellectually and artistically. Felix sought Fanny’s advice on musical matters, and she played a major role in the creation of some of his greatest works, notably the oratorio St. Paul. For his part, Felix encouraged Fanny in composition—and yet he drew the line at publication and public performance. Echoing his father’s sentiments, Felix felt it was unseemly for a woman to present herself before the public in such a manner and forbade his sister from publishing her work. “From my knowledge of Fanny,” he wrote in 1837, “I would say that she has neither inclination nor vocation for authorship. She is too much all that a woman ought to be for this. She regulates her house, and neither thinks of the public nor of the music world, nor even of music at all, until her first duties are fulfilled. Publishing would only disturb her in these, and I cannot say that I approve of it.” To soften this attitude, he allowed some of her works to be published under his name. One such work is the song Italien. When Felix played a private concert for Queen Victoria of England, the queen asked him to play Italien, declaring that it was her favorite song. Felix was forced to admit that the song had been written by his sister.

Fanny’s primary musical outlet was a salon she held in her home in Berlin. For her salon she played the piano, conducted, and wrote most of her compositions. If you were a musician traveling through Berlin in those years, a visit to the Mendelssohn salon was de rigueur. She counted among her guests Clara Schumann, Liszt, and the poet Heinrich Heine. In 1839-40, and then again in 1845, she and her husband, the painter Wilhelm Hensel, made trips to Italy, trips which were to prove tremendously inspirational. In Rome she met the young Charles Gounod, later to be famous as the composer of the great opera Faust and as the father of the French mélodie. Today scholars can trace the tremendous impact Fanny Mendelssohn had on Gounod’s vocal style and the development of the mélodie. How ironic that a German woman composer would exert such influence on this most French of genres!

Fanny wrote a tremendous amount of music—over 450 compositions, almost all of very high quality. And thus, it is difficult to understand today why Felix was so vehemently opposed to Fanny publishing her works. Partially it was the prevailing cultural attitude of the day. But scholars increasingly see evidence of jealousy and fear of competition on Felix’s part. Fanny was clearly frustrated by Felix’s attitude but depended greatly on his good opinion of her talents, and feared the loss of that good opinion if she defied him. And so it is that only a few of her works have been published even today, as many of her manuscripts remain in private hands. Her great but forgotten cycle of character pieces for the piano, Das Jahr (“The Year”), stands on the level of the great piano cycles of Schumann—very high indeed. In fact, her music often combines the precision and clarity of Felix’s music with the unbridled rhapsodic passion of Schumann’s. 

Her Piano Trio in D minor, op. 11, her last major work, is a perfect example of this. It was written for her sister Rebecka’s birthday in 1847 and premiered at her family home in Berlin. The work surges with passion, but it is a passion that gives way to tenderness in the lyrical second theme of the imposing first movement. The third movement is entitled “Lied”—”song”—and reminds us of her gifts as a song composer. It is perhaps also a nod to her brother: there is a strong reference to a theme from Felix’s great oratorio Elijah, and the title of the movement itself reminds us of Felix’s famous “Songs without Words.” The finale opens with a dramatic, almost improvisatory piano solo, leading into a tempestuous movement that briefly recalls themes from earlier in the work. 

Sadly, Fanny died of a stroke while rehearsing one of her brother’s oratorios shortly after completing the trio. She was only 42. Felix became disconsolate at her death and died himself less than five months later. 

Kenji Bunch (b. 1973)

Concerto for piano trio and percussion (1998)
Kenji Bunch, an American composer and violist, has garnered acclaim for his innovative and eclectic approach to contemporary classical music. Born in 1973 in Portland, Oregon, Bunch's compositions blend classical, jazz, folk, and popular music elements, reflecting his broad musical interests and background. Educated at The Juilliard School, where he studied both viola and composition, Bunch has built a diverse career as a performer, composer, and educator. His works are widely performed by prominent orchestras, chamber ensembles, and soloists, and he is known for his ability to create accessible yet sophisticated music that resonates with a wide audience.

Bunch’s Concerto for piano trio and percussion was completed in 1998. Commissioned by the Ahn Trio, it was premiered by them in October 1998 at the Miller Theater in New York. It is a short, driving, exhilarating one-movement composition that requires virtuosity of every player in the ensemble.

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

Symphonic Dances from West Side Story for two pianos and percussion (1961), arr. John Musto (1998)
Leonard Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, premiered in 1961, is a brilliant orchestral suite derived from his groundbreaking musical. Bernstein, one of the most influential American composers and conductors of the 20th century, created the original musical in 1957 in collaboration with choreographer Jerome Robbins, lyricist Stephen Sondheim, and playwright Arthur Laurents. The musical, a modern retelling of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet set in the streets of New York City, achieved critical and commercial success for its innovative blend of classical music, jazz, Latin rhythms, and popular music.

The suite contains nine interconnected sections that follow the narrative arc of the musical from the rivalry between the Jets and Sharks to the tragic love story of Tony and Maria. Bernstein details these sections in the score:

Prologue (Allegro moderato)—The growing rivalry between two teenage street gangs, the Jets and Sharks.
“Somewhere” (Adagio)—In a visionary dance sequence, the two gangs are united in friendship.

Scherzo (Vivace e leggiero)—In the same dream, they break through the city walls and suddenly find themselves in a world of space, air, and sun.

Mambo (Meno presto)—Reality again; competitive dance between the gangs.

Cha-cha (Andantino con grazia)—The star-crossed lovers [Tony and Maria] see each other for the first time and dance together.

Meeting Scene (Meno mosso)—Music accompanies their first spoken words.

Cool Fugue (Allegretto)—An elaborate dance sequence in which the Jets practice controlling their hostility.

Rumble (Molto allegro)—Climactic gang battle during which the two gang leaders are killed.

Finale (Adagio)—Love music developing into a procession, which recalls, in tragic reality, the vision of “Somewhere.”

John Musto, a well-known American composer and arranger, arranged the Symphonic Dances for two pianos in 1998. It is a masterful transcription that captures the vibrancy of the original. It’s even better when you add in two percussion players. This is thrilling music—hold on to your hats!

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