Respighi, Italian Serenade, Madrigals and More!

The program will open with two duos. Italian cellist and composer Giovanni Sollima’s “Heimat-Terra” is inspired by a text concerning the ozone hole but also civilizations, cultures, languages, sounds, etc. by the anthropologist Edgar Morin. However the piece follows a more abstract path.

In Martinu’s Three Madrigals for Violin and Viola, the core elements come from Renaissance madrigals, which had a freedom from conventional forms, a variety of textures including equal-voices counterpoint, and rhythm that was free from bar lines. Combining those elements with Eastern European / Bohemian-Moravian folk music themes and dances and the use of the pentatonic scales, Martinů created a modern version of the madrigal.

Respighi’s Quartet in D, composed in 1904 and published in 1921, is a lush, Romantic work structured in four movements, featuring a “Tema con variazioni” slow movement, a light Intermezzo scherzo, and a galloping tarantella finale. This early chamber piece reflects his…