Concert Program V

LA VILLE-LUMIÈRE: PARIS, 1920–1928

Paris in the 1920s was a cauldron of modern ideas, stirred by the Western world’s visionary artists and thinkers. Gertrude Stein’s salon hosted fellow American émigrés Ernest Hemingway and Ezra Pound; Picasso kept a home in Montparnasse, where he fraternized with Guillaume Apollinaire and Jean Cocteau. Musically, Paris marked the intersection of Gabriel Fauré’s nineteenth-century elegance, the Impressionist stylings adopted by his student Maurice Ravel, and France’s emerging avant-garde, epitomized by the irresistible sophistication of Francis Poulenc and Darius Milhaud, whose jazz ballet La création du monde begins Concert Program V. “La Ville-Lumière” celebrates this exciting period and includes works by some of the many expatriate composers who made Paris their adoptive home: the Russian composer Sergey Prokofiev’s devilish Opus 39 Quintet for Winds and Strings, music by America’s populist ambassador Aaron Copland, and reigning enfant terrible George Antheil’s notorious Second Violin Sonata. The evening ends fittingly with the perennial George Gershwin favorite An American in Paris in the composer’s version for two pianos.

Following this performance, join Music@Menlo festival musicians and Artistic Directors David Finckel and Wu Han over drinks and French bistro fare at Left Bank Brasserie. Learn more »

PROGRAM

Darius Milhaud (1892–1974)
La création du monde (1923)

Aaron Copland (1900–1990)
Movement for String Quartet (ca. 1923)

George Antheil (1900–1959)
Violin Sonata no. 2 (1923)

Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953)
Quintet in g minor, op. 39 (1924)

Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924)
Barcarolle no. 13 in C Major, op. 116 (1921)

Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré (1922)

Francis Poulenc (1899–1963)
Sonata for Clarinet and Bassoon, op. 32 (1922)

George Gershwin (1898–1937)
An American in Paris (1928)

Saturday, August 7

8:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Tickets: $60/$50 adult; $30/$20 student
Check Ticket Availability »

Prelude Performance*
6:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Free Admission

ARTISTS

Jonathan Fischer, oboe
Todd Palmer, clarinet
Dennis Godburn, bassoon
Alessio Bax, piano
Ken Noda, piano
Wu Han, piano
Jorja Fleezanis, violin
Erin Keefe, violin
Beth Guterman, viola
Scott Pingel, bass
Jupiter String Quartet
   Nelson Lee, violin
   Megan Freivogel, violin
   Liz Freivogel, viola
   Daniel McDonough, cello

*Learn more about Prelude Performances »

Image: Anonymous, twentieth century. The Eiffel Tower, illuminated during the 1900 World’s Fair. Paris, France. Photo: Adoc-photos/Art Resource, NY