One Art Ensemble – April 25, 2014

John Woods Duke Three Sonnets for Voice, Viola & Piano (1959)Rebecca Clarke Viola Sonata (1919)Vartan Aghababian Two Songs for Soprano, Viola & Piano (2010); Three Dickinson Songs (2011) and selections from Songs of a Second April (2007)William Bolcom Let Evening Come (1994)With In Her Words, One Art Ensemble highlights the poetry and music of 20th century women, offering an evening of varied and unique repertoire that displays a merging of art song and chamber music genres. Their program also celebrates the fiftieth birthday of composer Vartan Aghababian, with whom the Ensemble has a lengthy history of close collaboration. In trio settings of poetry by Elizabeth Bishop and Edna St. Vincent Millay, Massachusetts composers Vartan Aghababian and John Woods Duke employ soprano, viola, and piano as equal partners to fuse text, melody, and emotion. Aghababians Bishop settings were commissioned by One Art Ensemble in 2010, while Dukes Millay settings were discovered posthumously and have enjoyed only a few rare performances since their 1959 premiere. William Bolcoms Let Evening Come is a grand meditation on life, loss and acceptance, which grew out of a duet commission for MET singers Tatiana Troyanos and Benita Valente. When Troyanos suddenly and tragically died at the outset of the commission, Bolcom re-imagined the work for soprano, viola and piano, choosing texts by Angelou, Dickinson and Kenyon which “describe with ever greater acceptance the phenomenon of death.” The Ensemble offsets trio repertoire with daring and delightful works for duo instrumentation. Rebecca Clarkes virtuosic 1919 Viola Sonata is a lush, vibrant, and at times sensuous work which shows off the full range of the viola as well as the piano. Aghababians Three Emily Dickinson Songs illuminate this beloved American poets voice with contemporary freshness and honesty. Selections from his brooding and dramatic Songs of a Second April on poetry by Millay receive their West Coast premiere at Old First Concerts. Come allow the “captivating sound” (San Francisco Classical Voice) of One Art Ensemble to draw you into this rich and multi-textured concert program. oneartensemble.org