Posnakschwartzvega 4tet - CARPENTER: Violin Sonata / String Quartet / Piano Quintet [CD]

John Alden Carpenter (1876-1951)Violin Sonata • String Quartet • Piano Quintet John Alden Carpenter was born in Park Ridge, Illinois, on 28th February, 1876. The son of a successful industrialist and professional singer, he enjoyed a thorough musical education, graduating from Harvard University in 1897, having studied composition with John Knowles Paine. He joined the family firm, becoming its vice-president in 1909 and thereafter, like his very different contemporary Charles Ives, combined business with composition. He had a brief period of study with Elgar in Rome during 1906, and from 1908-12 lessons in theory with Bernhard Ziehn, whose ideas on counterpoint were much admired by Busoni. Carpenter was the recipient of five honorary doctorates, and in 1947 the gold medal of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He died in Chicago on 26th April, 1951. Although Carpenter’s early work was much influenced by Germanic models absorbed from Paine, the ballet Adventures in a Perambulator (1914) confirms a knowledge of French and Russian sources, while the presence of Chicago ‘urban’ jazz is evident as early as the 1915 Concertino. The ‘jazz pantomine’ Krazy Kat (1921) and the Paul Whiteman-commissioned A Little Piece of Jazz (1925) were seminal jazz-classical fusions in their day, while the ballet Skyscrapers (1924), initially planned for Dyagilev’s Ballet Russes, complements the ballets of Stravinsky and Prokofiev. Later works, such as the Whitman-inspired Sea Drift (1933) and the Violin Concerto (1936) return to the Romantic, nostalgic idiom which characterizes the three chamber works here featured. The Violin Sonata was completed in 1913. A placid piano introduction prepares for the Larghetto’s ruminative, rather Delian theme, effortlessly floated by the violin. A more impassioned continuation finds the instruments integrating more closely, before the theme itself is tenderly recalled. Another animated episode, and the movement concludes with a fleeting reminiscence of the main theme. The Allegro opens with a robust dance motion in both instruments, followed by a wistful theme for violin. The opening music returns, then a minor key version of the second theme, and both ideas are further alternated before the brusque coda. The Largo mistico is one of Carpenter’s most haunting inspirations. The limpid opening melody intertwines violin and piano to poetic effect, the latter introducing the elegiac second theme with scarcely a break in mood. This arrives with heavy piano chords, and a more intense recall of the first theme, winding down in a mood of expectancy. The Presto giocoso opens at a canter, its spry main theme deftly folk-inflected. The second theme is in complete contrast, encouraging the violin to a heartfelt outpouring, before the first idea makes a reappearance. The melodies are briefly combined, then the second builds to a fervent climax, involving a recall of the main theme