In Focus (Adella Premium) Ep. 10, Style & Craft

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About the Music

Ravel  Sonatine

Britten  Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge

This broadcast features two talented young musicians — one French, one English, and both with great gift for melody and form, style, and craft.

Frenchman Maurice Ravel wrote a short sonata movement to enter into a magazine contest in 1903. The piece was disqualified on a technicality, but soon enough expanded into a three-movement work, Sonatine, that gained admirers everywhere — onstage and off.

Three decades later, an acquaintance asked the young Benjamin Britten if he could complete a brand-new commission on very short deadline. The resulting homage to Britten’s teacher Frank Bridge was given its premiere at the world-famous Salzburg Festival just three months later, adding to Britten’s newly surging reputation. Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge aptly mirrors Bridge’s wide-ranging musical taste and dynamic personality, from Viennese waltz to a march, from funeral march to beguiling opera aria.

In addition to the concert performances, each episode of In Focus includes behind-the-scenes interviews and features about the music and musicmaking.

Performing Artists

The Cleveland Orchestra
Vinay Parameswaran, conductor
Frank Rosenwein, oboe
Carolyn Gadiel Warner, piano

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