Program

J.S. Bach: Partita No. 5 in G Major (1730)
1. Praeludium
5. Tempo di Minuetto
7. Gigue

François Couperin - Le Tic Toc Choc ou Les Maillotins (1716)

Reza Vali: Folk Songs Set 9 (1991)
1. Lament
2. Folk Dance
3. Andante
4. Molto vivace
5. Adagio
6. Allegro scherzando
7. Lullaby
8. Molto Allegro

Oliver Messiaen: Louange à l’éternité de Jesus (1941)

Olivier Messiaen: Vingt regards: No.10 Regard de l'esprit de joie (1948)

PERFORMERS

Piano: Lee Dionne
Flutes: Rosie Gallagher
Cello: Chris Pidcock

Listening Guide

In darkness, music breathes light. Such power was wielded by French composer and ornithologist Olivier Messiaen who wrote his expressive masterpiece Quatuor pour la fin du Temps, while witnessing the darkest of humanity as a prisoner in a German prisoner of war camp. The lone movement for cello and piano, Louange à l’éternité de Jesus, honours Messiaen’s life long ties to Catholicism, a theme also present in his epic work for solo piano Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus, written in 1944 in Pairs during the city’s liberation from Nazi occupation.  Both works "record the rebirth of an ordinary soul in the grip of extraordinary emotion.” (Alex Ross, New Yorker)

Reza Vali (b.1952) Iranian musician and composer, follows in the traditions of Bela Bartok, Manuel de Falla and Zoltan Kodaly, of using folk music as a primary source for his western compositions. In 1979 as a student at the Teheran conservatory, Vali began to collect Persian folk music as inspiration for his chamber music compositions, an activity he continues today. Set No.9, for flutes and cello, involves singing while playing, crystal glasses and a tambourine.

J.S. Bach composed his partitas between 1726-1731, while living a busy life in Leipzig. Bach was never able to travel outside of Germany, and yet remained curious and engaged with the fashions and news of composers abroad. The partitas were the last of Bach’s keyboard suites, and include his impressions of German, French and English song and dance.