Concert 1

In the year 1788, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completed his last two symphonies and his last three keyboard chamber music works, including the Trio in C Major for Piano, Violin and Cello, K. 548, which Orion performs on this program. Musicologist Alfred Einstein referred to the Trio as “classic in its mastery.” The work displays Mozart's consummate artistry in handling a genre that began as a keyboard sonata accompanied by violin and cello and became, in his hand, so mature and balanced that it flows in elegant simplicity as a lively conversation between the three instruments.

Regarding Gabriel Fauré’s Quartet in C Minor for Violin, Viola, Cello and Piano, Op. 15 (1883), Roger Ducasse wrote, “Everything here seems astonishingly simple and clear with a precise sense of balance and above all that spiritual perfection of rhythm and proportion. …For Gabriel Fauré the feelings of the heart come before the work of the mind.” This quartet is an example of the childlike character, the plainchant influences, the charm and reason, the serene grandeur and the humanity of Fauré's music.

The program also includes Orion’s performance of Italian composer and conductor Michele Mangani’s Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (2016). A clarinetist himself, Mangani has written extensively for the clarinet, bringing out the instrument’s lyricism, virtuosity and rich palette of tonal colors.