Sponsored in part by Fairfield Iowa Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Tickets $18 for general audiences, $14.50 for students, children over age 12, IA Course participants & seniors 60+.  Children age 12 and under: free.  Tickets available by calling the Sondheim Center box office at 641-472-2787.  www.sondheimcenter.com

The Hong Heyboer Murray Trio will perform a recital of works for flute, cello and piano by Haydn, Martinù and Mendelssohn at the Sondheim Center in Fairfield, Iowa on Saturday, May 23, 2009 at 7:30 p.m.

This distinguished ensemble draws upon an international musical background to bring to life seldom heard works with brilliance and polish.

Pianist Hye-Jung Hong has received critical praises for the artistry of her performances in Germany, Holland, Italy, Malaysia and throughout North America.  Flutist Jill Heyboer is active in the Interlochen Music Festival and is principal flutist in the Springfield Symphony.  Cellist Michael Murray has performed widely in Europe and the United States.

Hong, Heyboer and Murray are presently faculty colleagues in the Music Department of Missouri State University in Springfield where they perform and teach.

    PROGRAM

Joseph Haydn

Trio in G Major, Hoboken XV:15

Allegro

Andante

Finale: Allegro moderato

Bohuslav Martinù

Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano

Poco Allegretto

Adagio

Allegretto scherzando

    INTERMISSION

Felix Mendelssohn

Trio in D Minor, Opus 49

Molto Allegro agitato

Andante con moto tranquillo

Scherzo: Leggiero e vivace

Finale: Allegro assai apassionato

Listen to Haydn:

Trio in G Major, Hoboken XV:15:

Andante

    PROGRAM NOTES

The year 2009 commemorates both the 200th anniversary of the death of Joseph Haydn and the 200th anniversary of the birth of Felix Mendelssohn.   Today’s program offered by the Hong-Heyboer-Murray Trio offers works by each composer in celebration of their respective musical legacies. 

Haydn may never be shed of the “Papa Haydn” myth that wrongly claims that he is the “father of the symphony.”  His achievements in elevating and enriching earlier models of the symphony cannot be overstated.  However, it is in the chamber music arena where Haydn can be more accurately and more nearly regarded as the literal “father.”  The composer’s masterful achievements in the string quartet and the keyboard trio were without precedent.  Haydn wrote at least forty-five keyboard trios, including trios for piano, flute and cello.  The Trio in G major on this evening’s program was composed in 1790, shortly after Haydn’s first great success with London audiences.  The work begins with a gesture of closure, one of those witty musical surprises for which Haydn is associated, followed by a sort of musical conversation between piano and flute with the cello providing under-pinning.  The second movement provides a lyrical contrast to the opening movement yet has its own surprise:  what begins in sunny C major soon moves to dark C minor and remains there for a good deal of time.  The final movement is a spirited rondo during which on two occasions the piano veers slowly away from the musical discourse with some surprising harmonic twists.  Haydn wraps up all the fun with same closure heard at the beginning of the work.

Martinù was a prolific Czech composer who admired all the modern trends of his day.  His music reflects an eclectic musical interest in styles as various as those of Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Moravian folk tradition and American jazz.  The Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano has become a standard work for ensembles of this type and was composed after Martinù emigrated to the United States in the early years of World War II.  The first movement exhibits a neo-Classical approach to form in that there are clear-cut alternations of musical sections each with a distinctive mood.  The middle movement is a slow meditation evocative of bells.  Martinù was born in a bell tower and one might suppose that the composer is harkening back to his early childhood and memories of his Czech roots.  The final movement presents the listener with a playful conclusion filled with contrasting sections and technical display.

Mendelssohn’s Trio in D minor is one of the most beloved works of 19th century chamber music and this evening it is presented in a little-known version arranged by the composer for flute (rather than violin), cello and piano.  The flute arrangement was made at the request of a London publishing company, J.J. Ewer & Co, a year after the work’s original publication with violin a year earlier.  Mendelssohn was at first unsure about the transformation of a violin part into a flute part but the modifications are so numerous and so inventive that one senses that the composer enjoyed the process of recasting the original version. Regardless of what version one hears, this work offers sweeping lyricism, sparkling delicacy, rich emotional range and powerful bravura.  What better work to pay tribute to a birthday anniversary?

— Michael Murray

Hye-Jung Hong, Piano

Jill Heyboer, Flute

Michael Murray, Cello

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