Program notes for “Sonic Light” NEXUS North Shore, August 21st, 2024

This year, NEXUS Chamber Music makes its debut in the village of Winnetka, bringing their exciting programming and roster of international artists to the stunning Winnetka Congregational Church.

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Zwei Gesänge, Op. 91

1. Gestillte Sehnsucht 
2. Geistliches Wiegenlied  

Zwei Gesänge Op. 91, or Two Songs for Voice, Viola, and Piano, was composed by Johannes Brahms for the celebrated violinist Joseph Joachim and his wife Amalie, who were close friends of the composer.

The first song, “Gestillte Sehnsucht” (Longing at Rest), composed in 1884, is set to an 1816 poem by Friedrich Rückert that revolves around nature and personal longing; both topics were dear to Brahms. The second song, “Geistliches Wiegenlied” (Sacred Lullaby), is a cradle song based on a text by Emanuel Geibel that Brahms set to music in 1863. The viola begins with the medieval Christmas carol “Joseph, lieber Joseph mein,” in which Mary asks Joseph to help her to rock her baby. The two songs were published together in 1884 and first performed publicly a year later in Krefeld, northern Germany, with contralto Auguste Hohenschild, violist Alwin von Beckerath, and Brahms on the piano. They have been among Brahms’ most cherished works ever since.

Augusta Read Thomas (b. 1964) Plea for Peace (2017) 

“Scored for wordless soprano and string quartet, Plea for Peace acts as a single, seamless block beginning in near-immobility, with the voice animating the instruments as the music embarks on its slow, implacable progress. With the voice and instruments’ lines constantly interweaving and building upon each other, the music imperceptibly grows in fervor without ever changing its spaciously inexorable pace. The work’s ultimate peak is as vociferous as it is inevitable. But, as the ending winds back to the opening stillness, there’s no sense of fulfillment or arrival. The listener, along with the music, is left awaiting an answer to this impassioned plea.”

Amy Beach (1867-1944) Piano Quintet, Op. 67 

Amy Beach (nee Cheney) was the first successful American female composer of large-scale art music. She was an internationally-respected pianist and was one of her era’s most highly regarded American composers. After her marriage to Henry Harris Aubrey Beach in 1885, she began limiting her public performances to two per year and devoted herself to composition, listing her professional name as “Mrs. H. H. A. Beach. She resumed full activity after her husband’s death in 1910,  helping the careers of young composers, publishing frequent articles, and advancing the cause of music education. Amy Beach died in 1944, the Romantic style of her music fell out of fashion, and her body of work would remain obscure until a revival began at the end of the 20th century.

Beach wrote her Quintet for Piano and Strings in F-sharp minor, Op. 67, in 1905, apparently in homage to the Brahms Quintet in F minor; it is the most Brahms-like of Beach’s chamber music. Beach herself gave the first performance with the Hoffmann String Quartet in Boston in 1908 in front of a large audience and to great critical success. The Quintet was among the most popular of her works during her lifetime but languished after her death. With the renewed interest in Amy Beach’s music in recent decades, the Opus 67 has come to be accepted as an essential addition to the chamber music repertoire.