Music Speaks: Undiluted Days – Merz Trio
Tuesday | March 1 2022 | 7:30 pm
Directed by Jonathan Levin
“Riveting” … “stunning virtuosity and ensemble work” … “fresh and surprising interpretations” — Susan Pena, Reading Eagle
CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI – Interrotte speranze (Broken hope, 1619)
arr. Merz Trio
FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN – Piano Trio No. 45 in E-flat Major, Hob. XV/29 (1797)
1. Poco allegretto
JEFFREY MUMFORD – undiluted days (2000)
ALMA MAHLER – Laue Sommernacht (Mild summer night, 1910)
arr. Merz Trio
ÉDITH PIAF/LOUIGUY/MARGUERITE MONNOT – La vie en rose (Life in pink, 1945)
arr. Merz Trio
CARLO GESUALDO – Moro, lasso, al mio duolo (I die, alas, in my suffering, 1611)
arr. Merz Trio
IRISH TRADITIONAL – "Samradh Samradh" ("Summer Summer") Irish Traditional, arr. Merz Trio
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY – Piano Trio in A Minor, Op. 50 (1882)*
"À la memoire d'un grand artiste" (In memory of a great artist)
I. Pezze elegiaco. Moderato assai -- Allegro giusto
II. (A) Tema con variazioni: Andante con moto (B) Variazioni finale e coda
RICHARD STRAUSS – Morgen! (Tomorrow!), Op. 27 No. 4 (1894)
arr. Merz Trio
Merz Trio are First Prize winners at the 2021 Naumburg International Chamber Music Competition. Composed of players hailed as “impressive” (New York Times), “impeccable” (Fanfare Magazine), and praised for “a sense of joyful virtuosity” (South Florida Classical Review), Merz Trio has quickly emerged as a unique and award-winning ensemble, garnering the First Prize at the 2019 Fischoff Competition and the First Prize and Audience Prize at the 2018 Chesapeake Competition.
Jeffrey Mumford's undiluted days is the tempestuous heart of this program, set against Tchaikovsky's great elegy on the second half. Raw, passionate, and elegiac by turns, Mumford's trio gathers around it a small community of works ranging from Carlo Gesualdo to Alma Mahler, Édith Piaf to Irish traditional, all sharing a quality of unapologetic, undiluted experience. In the shadow of these twin elegies, we are charmed by mild summers and the joys of friendship, we experience the pains of heartbreak and la vie en rose, and we begin gradually to introduce the universe of emotion we will encounter fully in Tchaikovksy's “in memory of a great artist.”
$15 students tickets are available by phone or in person. Call the box office at 212 501 3330.
Sponsored by Augusta Gross and Leslie B. Samuels
