Contrasts

Suite for Violin, Clarinet and Piano, Op. 157b (1936)

George Gershwin

Three Preludes for Piano (1926)

Charles Ives

Largo for Violin and Piano (1901)

Leonard Bernstein

Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (1941-1942)

Béla Bartók

Contrasts, Sz. 111 (1938)

In Full Swing

Jazz, tango, and other dance music brought new life into the compositions of more and more composers about a hundred years ago. Clarinetist Jelmer de Moed, violinist Coraline Groen, and pianist Rik Kuppen perform a colourful program where swing takes center stage. At the heart of the program is Contrasts, the brilliant trio for violin, clarinet, and piano composed by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók for the legendary jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman. Two dance movements frame a middle section featuring exciting night music.

Bartók was inspired by the suite for the same line-up by his colleague Darius Milhaud, which is based on incidental music about a soldier suffering from memory loss.Igor Stravinsky also composed music for a play about a soldier, who sells his violin to the devil. In L’Histoire du soldat, Stravinsky incorporated ragtime, a waltz, and a tango, music he heard in Parisian clubs.

Bartók listened to musicians in the countryside, including farmers and gypsies, and incorporated their music into his compositions, including his Romanian dances and his virtuosic First Rhapsody for violin and piano. In an evening filled with classical music inspired by dance music and jazz, the Three Preludes by Gershwin, as well as Leonard Bernstein’s clarinet sonata, are just as indispensable.