A Fortas Chamber Music favorite, the Dover Quartet pays tribute to Duke Ellington as part of the Kennedy Center’s Ellington125 celebration, with an arrangement of “In a Sentimental Mood.” Ellington said he composed the jazz standard in 1935, at a party. “I was playing piano when another one of our friends had some trouble with two chicks. To pacify them, I composed this there and then, with one chick standing on each side of the piano.”
Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes will join the Dover in two Piano Quintets: Ernö Dohnányi’s No.2 in E-flat minor and Brahms’ in F minor.
Ernö Dohnányi (often known by the German version of his name, Ernst von Dohnányi) was celebrated as a pianist, conductor, composer, and teacher. His first quintet, Opus 1, written at the age of 18, was promoted by Brahms himself. The second dates from nearly two decades later, and was completed in 1914, just before he returned to his native Hungary from Berlin. The gorgeous 3-movement work is intensely passionate.
Brahms was 31 when he composed his only piano quintet. His great friend, Joseph Joachim, accused the original string quintet version of lacking “charm.” So, more at home with the piano than string instruments, Brahms transformed the quartet into a two-piano sonata. But his friend Clara Schumann was unimpressed by this iteration. She thought the piece required a larger format. Brahms obediently went back to the drawing board. Another confidant, Hermann Levi, suggested he try recomposing the sonata as a piano quintet, and that turned out to be the magic solution. “The Quintet is beautiful beyond words,” wrote Levi, “you have turned a monotonous work for two pianos into a thing of great beauty, a masterpiece of chamber music.” Sometimes composing by committee really does work!
Program:
Dover Quartet
Joel Link, violin
Bryan Lee, violin
Julianne Lee, viola
Camden Shaw, cello
Leif Ove Andsnes, piano
Duke Ellington arr. Daniel Schlosberg: “In a Sentimental Mood”
Ernö Dohnányi: Piano Quintet No.2 in E-flat minor, Op.26
Johannes Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor, Op.34
Tuesday, April 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater
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