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Book Aaron Wolff for a groupmuse

Homeward Bound


Details

Aaron Wolff full profile / Cello & Piano / 2 musicians

Other players: Sophiko Simsive


Full program notes

Thomas Demenga - New York Honk
Fazil Say - Four Cities - I. Sivas
Sulkhan Tsintsadze/Robert Schumann - Ten Pieces in Folk Style
Antonin Dvorak - Silent Woods

This program is a journey away from “home” and back again. Through our travels, we will consider whether the sensation of home can be musically transmitted. The scene is introduced by Thomas Demenga’s quasi-parodic New York Honk. In the blink of an eye we are transported to Turkey, portrayed through polystylistic sprawl in Fazil Say’s Four Cities, a musical tapestry of his homeland. The centerpiece of the program – a fusion of two sets of folk songs – brims with unfiltered warmth and wit. Written a century apart, Robert Schumann and Sulkhan Tsintsadze each wrote 5 Pieces in Folk Style based on music from of their homelands of Germany and Georgia. While the Schumann is more extroverted than the often-inward Tsintsadze, when woven together they create a seductive world. Antonin Dvorak’s Silent Woods, written just before the composer left his Bohemian homeland for New York City, is all intimacy and dream: an intensification of the feeling of home triggered by an impending departure.


Historical context

The music you’ll hear tonight uses folk, or “the people’s” music as source material. As someone who enjoys listening to non-classical music as much as classical, I believe the barrier between them has long been murkier than history books let on. The genius of great composers is undeniable. What they do with folk tunes and rhythms dazzles us. But the ease with which we accept their ideas as original overshadows the contributions of indigenous traditions and people. It’s vital that we to both welcome and celebrate all “folk” in the concert hall.


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