French composers showcase the harp at the start of a new music epoch;
Friday, Sept. 9, 7:30 p.m.
TACOMA, Wash. – You can see it at a classical concert. The harpist’s fingers rise and then fall to the strings, eliciting musical poetry that somehow rises above every other sound in the room—and all eyes in the audience turn to watch.
An instrument loved and admired by many, the harp, nonetheless, does not often take center stage. However, one handful of composers in one period of French music allowed the harp’s seraphic voice to steal the show unabashedly.
“The music of the first half of the 20th century in France, from Saint-Saëns to Debussy, Ravel, and beyond, was a perfect match for the colors of the harp, and remains the most exquisite and expressive music to play as a harpist,” says Catherine Case, harpist, in University of Puget Sound’s School of Music.
Audiences can share in this experience at the first Jacobsen Series concert of the academic year, Debussy and Friends, on Friday, Sept. 9, at 7:30 p.m., in Schneebeck Concert Hall on campus. The performers include Puget Sound faculty members and affiliate artists Catherine Case, harp; Karla Flygare, flute; Alistair McRae, cello; Joyce Ramée, viola; Maria Sampen, violin; Tanya Stambuk, piano; and Dawn Padula, mezzo-soprano.
“This evening will be a chance for the audience to immerse themselves in the tonal landscape that emerged during this time,” Case said. “To me, it is some of the most colorful and imaginative music that exists. Both incredibly warm and lush, as well as utterly stark and simple, this music transcends time and place and enters an otherworldly realm—one of pure beauty.”
The evening’s program will include:
Camille Saint Saëns: Fantasie for violin and harp, Opus 124
Maurice Ravel: Chansons madécasses for mezzo-soprano, flute, cello, and piano
Claude Debussy: Sonata for flute, viola, and harp
Claude Debussy: Sonata for cello and piano
Jacques Ibert: Trio for violin, cello, and harp
Debussy was an innovator of his time, breaking tradition with the heavier romanticism before him with fluid new textures, tones, and chord structures that greatly influenced French music's future. Debussy and Camille Saint-Saëns and continue to be staples of the harp chamber music repertoire. The Ibert trio is performed less often but is a beautiful and exciting piece, well deserving of a place among the greats of French chamber music literature.
“The three works for harp on this program outline the early, middle, and late periods of the first half of the 20th century in French chamber music,” Case said. “The two Debussy sonatas were written in the same year, shortly before his death, and they form the heart of this program, reflecting a composer who was simultaneously looking back and ahead, and one who forever changed the musical landscape of his country.”
The Jacobsen Series, named in honor of Leonard Jacobsen, former chair of the piano department at Puget Sound, has been running since 1984. The Jacobsen Series Scholarship Fund awards annual music scholarships to outstanding student performers and scholars. The fund is sustained entirely by season subscribers and ticket sales.
FOR TICKETS: Tickets are available online at tickets.pugetsound.edu or Wheelock Information Center, 253.879.3100. Admission is $15 for the general public; $10 for seniors (55+), students, military, and Puget Sound faculty and staff. The concert is free for current Puget Sound students. Group ticket rates are available for parties of 10 or more by calling 253.879.3555 in advance. Any remaining tickets will be available at the door.
For directions and a map of the campus: pugetsound.edu/directions
For accessibility information, please contact accessibility@pugetsound.edu or 253.879.3236, or visit pugetsound.edu/accessibility.
Press photos of Catherine Case can be downloaded from pugetsound.edu/pressphotos.
Photos on page: From top right: Catherine Case; Claude Debussy, by Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen; and Maurice Ravel with harpist Lily Laskine (1935)
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