Program

Francois Poulenc: Sextet for Winds and Piano (1932)
1. Allegro Vivace
2. Divertissement: Andante
3. Finale: Prestissimo

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach: Duet for flute and oboe in E minor F.54 (1710)
1. Allegro
3. Vivace

Jürg Wyttenbach: Una Chica en Nirvana (2002)

Ruth Crawford Seeger: Suite for Wind Quintet (1952)
1.Allegretto
2. Lento Rubato
3. Allegro possible

Valerie Coleman: Red Clay and Mississippi Delta (2016)

PERFORMERS

Flute: Rosie Gallagher
Oboe: Phoebe Xu
Clarinet: Oliver Shermacher
Bassoon: Ben Hoadley
French Horn: Nicholas Mooney
Piano: Lee Dionne

Listening Guide

To be a composer described as ‘modern’ in one's time is a compliment; it means you’ve moved the dial forward and are doing something that hasn’t yet been done. Ruth Crawford Seeger, against the gender bias of her time, needled at dissonance, contrapuntal ostinati, text and form in such unique ways that she emerged as a leader of ultra-modernist American composers in the early 1900s. Crawford’s Suite for Wind Quintet (1952) was composed in the penultimate year of her life, a return to formal composition after embracing American folk music for the decades before.

At the same time in Paris, Francis Poulenc was enjoying a wave of professional celebrity due to the success of his latest ballet with Diaghilev Les Biches. His Sextet for Piano and Winds (1932) is as entertaining as it comes, full of wit and sentimentality, and melodies that will have you wanting to sing along.