Thursday, March 12th 2026

ENSEMBLE SCHUMANN

                                        ARTISTS

Thomas Gallant, oboe;  Steve Larson, viola;  Sally Pinkas, piano

                                                                                                                                 

PROGRAM

Arthur Foote (1853-1937)

Sarabande and Rigaudon(WoO) for oboe, viola and piano

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)   

 Märchenbilder , Op. 113 for viola and piano

• Nicht schnell
• Lebhaft
• Rasch
• Langsam, mit melancholischem Ausdruck

W. A. Mozart (1756-1791)

Trio in E-flat Major, K.498 for oboe, viola  and piano

• Andante
• Menuetto
• Rondeaux, Allegretto                 

INTERMISSION

Robert Schumann            

Three Romances, Op. 94 for oboe and piano 

• Nicht schnell: Moderato
• Einfach
• Nicht schnell

Michael White (1931 – 2022)

Introduction and Dance for oboe, viola and piano

August Klughardt  (1847-1920

Schilflieder, Op.28 for oboe, viola and piano

• Langsam traumerisch
• Leidenschaftlich erregt
• Zart, in ruhiger Bewegung
• Feurig
• Sehr ruhig

PROGRAM NOTES

 

–Rosemary Waller

Arthur Foote: Sarabande and Rigaudon, WoO, for Oboe, Viola, and Piano

A descendant of Yankee sea captains, Arthur Foote was of the generation just preceding Aaron Copland and Samuel Barber, and was the first important American composer to be trained entirely in this country.  At Harvard University he received the first Master of Arts degree with a major in music to be awarded in the US.

Pursuing his entire career in Boston, Foote was appointed organist at the First Unitarian Church, a position he held for 32 years.  He authored a number of pedagogical texts and hymnals, and was a founding member of the American Guild of Organists.  Though he lived long enough to witness the profound transformation of classical music during the early 20^th century, his compositions remained rooted in late 19^th-century European Romantic tradition, albeit imbued with his own distinct personality.  His large choral and orchestral works were once performed regularly by the Boston Symphony, but today his body of chamber music is considered his finest.

The sarabande is a slow, stately Spanish dance known for its emotional intensity, and the rigaudon is a lively dance for couples, of Provençal origin.

Robert Schumann: Märchenbilder [Fairy Tale Pictures], Op. 113, for Viola and Piano

In September 1850 Robert and Clara Schumann and their five children moved from Dresden to Düsseldorf, where Robert had accepted the position of Municipal Music Director.  He had high hopes of jumpstarting his career, and the first year appeared to start out quite well.  With her husband conducting, Clara had brilliantly soloed with the orchestra, performing her husband’s Piano Concerto, and Robert had composed two major works, his Cello Concerto and Third (Rhenish) Symphony.

It was during this initial, successful season that Schumann dashed off the lovely Märchenbilder pieces, the first on March 1, 1851 and the last on March 4.  But soon the Düsseldorf honeymoon was over.  His shyness and recurring bouts of ill health, physical and mental, were contributing factors, but it also became apparent that he was, at best, not a very good conductor.  By 1853 he was forced to resign.  Just a year later his disastrous mental decline led to confinement in the asylum where he would spend the final two years of his life, dying at age 46.

For his new concertmaster in Düsseldorf, Schumann had chosen violinist Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski, who wrote the following: “After Schumann had written his Märchenbilder, which to my great pleasure he dedicated to me, he had his wife play them through while I took the viola accompaniment.  He then said with a smile, ‘Childish pranks!  There’s not much to them.’ … He made no objection when I called them delightful.”

W.A. Mozart: Trio in E-Flat, K. 498 (Kegelstatt)

On the first page of his Twelve Duos for Basset Horns, K. 487 Mozart jotted “Vienna, 27 July 1786 while playing skittles.”  Just nine days later he signed and dated his Trio in E-Flat, K. 498, with no reference to multi-tasking, skittles or otherwise.  But an eager publisher apparently deemed it clever marketing to add the Kegelstatt [place for playing skittles] label to the Trio, and it has stuck.  “Kegel” [skittles] is a precursor to modern bowling.

The trio grew out of Mozart’s connection with the musical Jacquin family.  Nikolaus played the flute, daughter Franziska was one of the composer’s favorite keyboard pupils, and son Gottfried was a close enough friend that Mozart gifted him with several songs to pass off as his own.  The Jacquins hosted frequent house concerts, with Mozart visiting weekly “for discussions, games and music-making,” as he wrote to his father.

A regular participant was the clarinetist Anton Stadler, and the first performance of K. 498 took place at the Jacquins, with Stadler, Mozart on viola, and Franziska at the piano.  The modern clarinet had only recently emerged, and Stadler had made a name for himself as both virtuoso and technical developer of an improved version of the instrument.  Later he would be Mozart’s inspiration for both the Clarinet Concerto and the Quintet for clarinet and strings. (Today’s performance will feature the oboe instead of the composer’s originally designated clarinet.  Such transposition of instruments to accommodate the availability of performers was not unusual in the relaxed format of 18^th-century house concerts. Mozart would likely not be displeased!)

Stadler was an interesting presence in Mozart’s life.  He is said to have possessed unusual charm and was undoubtedly a great artist.  A Viennese critic wrote, “I would not have thought that a clarinet could imitate the human voice so deceptively … Your instrument is so soft, so delicate in tone that no one who has a heart can resist it.”  But alas, Stadler’s character did not match his outstanding musicianship.  In the first English-language biography of Mozart, Marcia Davenport wrote, “The most conspicuous of the leeches [who surrounded Mozart] was Anton Stadler, a wretched lying thief who took every advantage of Wolfgang and yet made it hard for his poor friend to believe that such a superb clarinetist could be a rogue.”

In 1791, the year Mozart died, Stadler “borrowed” 500 Gulden, a sum large enough to raise the question of how the perennially cash-strapped composer was able to help his friend.  The debt was listed in Mozart’s posthumous assets as “uncollectible.”  There is also evidence that Stadler stole some of Mozart’s pawn tickets, selling them and pocketing the money. 

Robert Schumann: Three Romances, Op. 94, for Oboe and Piano

Schumann composed the Three Romances in 1849, in Dresden.  Like the Märchenbilder of just over a year later, the Romances were written in a short period of three days: Dec. 7, 11, and 12.  It had been a highly prolific year for Schumann, thought to be fueled by one of his manic episodes.  But probably equally compelling were the financial needs of his and Clara’s rapidly enlarging family and Robert’s ongoing lack of a well-paying position.  The 1851 move to his new post directing opera and symphony in Düsseldorf would all too soon prove a disaster and his devastating health decline would overwhelm the couple.

The Romances were presented by Robert to Clara as a Christmas gift.  They were published around 1850 by Nikolaus Simrock, who wrote to Robert requesting permission to include additional parts for the work, so that the oboe part could be performed alternatively by a violinist or clarinetist.  Schumann adamantly refused, replying that if he had intended the Romances for either of those instruments, they would have been a very different work.  Simrock nonetheless went ahead with his plan, disregarding the composer’s wishes. 

Michael White: Introduction and Dance, for Oboe, Viola, and Piano

Born in Chicago, Michael White studied composition at The Juilliard School in New York, where he would later serve as distinguished and beloved teacher, from 1979 until shortly before his passing at age 90 in 2022.  For many summers he inspired students of all ages at Virginia’s Wintergreen Music Festival.   The festival’s website includes a fascinating obituary.  White’s devotion to music and to teaching was legendary: a hallmark of his character was his dedication to dispelling all forms of hate and standing up for creativity over commercialization. The tribute continues: “A true New Yorker, … [White] lived his last four decades in a 600-square-foot apartment containing a single bed; a writing table; both an upright and baby grand piano; and a life’s worth of books, recordings, scores, and manuscripts.   … [He] met the challenge of isolation during the coronavirus pandemic … by converting his small living space into a classroom from which he taught remotely.”

Here are some excerpts from the composer’s notes for Introduction and Dance: “Written for Ensemble Schumann, this work concentrates on the differences rather than the similarities between the three instruments … The Introduction is a slow, lyrical duet for the oboe and the viola, and is followed immediately by the fast, rhythmically exciting Dance.  This new section uses constantly shifting meters, jazz inflections, and imitative counterpoint between all three instruments.  In the final minute of the work, the oboe and viola drop out, leaving the piano to finish alone—literally fading into nothingness.”

August Klughardt: Schilflieder [Songs of the Reeds], Op. 28, for Oboe, Viola, and Piano

The German composer Klughardt completed these five fantasy pieces in 1872, motivated by poetry of the same name by Nikolaus Lenau.  Lenau’s verses inspired orchestral tone poems by Franz Liszt and Richard Strauss, as well as songs by Felix Mendelssohn and others.  Schilflieder expresses one of the core themes of German Romanticism: contemplation of lost love amid scenes of nature.  Klughardt chose instrumental chamber music as his medium, but also superimposed lines of the poems into the musical score.  Though Klughardt’s music is largely unknown today, his Schilflieder was popular during his lifetime and is now enjoying a well-deserved revival.