That splendid tradition of “Music at Trinity” will continue this weekend with a concert by exquisite flautist Suzanne Duffy, with the virtuoso collaboration of her guest from France, pianist Sophia Vaillant.
The concert is called “Music Inspirations: From France to the United States” and is offered in tribute to 18th-century writer, philosopher and composer Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who will turn 300 this June 28 (why, it seems like only yesterday that he … ).
The concert will begin at 3:30 p.m. Sunday in Trinity Episcopal Church, 1500 State St. in Santa Barbara. There is technically no admission charge, but if you feel like making a donation, before or afterward, I doubt anyone will seriously discourage you.
I think that with these two artists on the bill, a wonderful time is guaranteed to the music lover. The program is not called “From France to the United States” because it is exclusively, or even mostly, French — in fact, there are as many American compositions as French, with two Germans and a Neapolitan thrown in for ballast — but because these two musicians played the same program last month in France, and now they are playing it in America.
Sunday’s performance will consist of “Early Song,” from Three American Pieces by Lukas Foss (1922-2009), Thème et Variations on Die Schöne Müllerin, Opus 25 (Var. 1, 4, 5 and Finale) by Franz Schubert (1797-1828), “Air à Colette” de Le Devin du Village (The Village Soothsayer) by Rousseau (1712-78), arranged by Vaillant (text spoken), Syrinx (1913) by Claude Debussy (1862-1918), Prélude, Chorale and Fugue (1884) by César Franck (1822-90), the “Poco adagio” from Solo Sonata in A-Minor, Wq.128 by C.P.E. Bach (1714-88), Canzone (1961) by Samuel Barber (1910-1981), the Fantasia sulla “Traviata” di Verdi, Opus 248 by Emanuele Krakamp (1813-1883), and movements one and three from the Duo for Flute and Piano (1971) by Aaron Copland (1900-90).
There is probably a reason why Rousseau is far better remembered as a writer and philosopher — not to mention all-purpose crank — than as a composer, but this piece, with its spoken text, is bound to be fascinating.
The Barber Canzone is the composer’s own arrangement — for either flute-piano or violin-piano — of the haunting and wistful middle movement (“canzone: moderato”) of his piano concerto, done and performed before he had even completed the larger work.
Despite the Teutonic crackle of his surname, Krakamp was born in Naples and spent the majority of his working life in Italy. He was a great flautist, with an international reputation, and a prolific composer. As with Niccolò Paganini and many other virtuoso-composers, a substantial part of his oeuvre consisted of Fantasias on the themes from famous operas, such as this one, from Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributor. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk or @NoozhawkNews.