MUSIC

Castelnuovo-Tedesco Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 70
Toch Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 44
Eisler Selections from the Hollywood Songbook
Gruenberg Four Indiscretions for String Quartet
Korngold “Mond, so gehst du Wieder auf” from Abschiedslieder, Op. 14
Korngold Piano Quintet in E major, Op. 15

Chris Pedro Trakas, baritone Ida Levin, Harumi Rhodes, violins
Roger Tapping, viola Michael Reynolds, cello Randall Hodgkinson, Mihae Lee, pianos

The concert features music by composers who fled tyranny in Western Europe before and during the Nazi era and settled in Hollywood. With his music banned from the radio and all performances of his work cancelled, Castelnuovo-Tedesco fled Italy for the United States in 1939 just before the outbreak of the war. Amidst the 200 film scores he composed for MGM studios, Castelnuovo-Tedesco found time to compose many concert works, including this Piano Trio No. 2. The Sonata for Violin and Piano by Toch was composed in 1928 before the rise of Hitler forced him west. A self-taught composer, Toch’s music in his early years is profoundly melancholy. Eisler’s Hollywood Songbook, composed in 1943, reflects his experience of actual and spiritual exile through a sense of rootlessness and strain of desperate humor. Gruenberg immigrated to the United States as a baby and spent his life advocating for indigenous American music and the American composer. His Four Indiscretions for String Quartet are full of strong jazz and ragtime influences. Child prodigy, renowned opera composer, film composer, arranger, conductor and winner of two Academy Awards for best original score, Korngold straddled two worlds, composing concert music in Europe and creating the symphonic film score as we know it today in Hollywood. His Abschiedslieder and Piano Quintet reflect the progressive and bold approach to music of his years in Vienna

In the free public forum preceding the January concert we will ask various scholars to explore issues surrounding the experience of artists such as being uprooted from their native soil and transplanted in a new land, social and professional acceptance, accommodation to or resistance of public taste, and their impact on the growth and teaching of arts in America.