Get to know the composers: Léger, Vaughan Williams & Brahms
Well folks - this is it! Our final tour of the season is this week, with the first concert beginning this Wednesday in Moncton. Carolyn Farnand is in town, and we’ve been in the thick of rehearsals all weekend. It’s been a blast playing with her, and yesterday the composer Sasha Louis Léger came up to Fredericton to workshop his new piece “Tin Foil Clouds” with us. This will be a fun run of shows!
Tickets are available - click on the link to grab yours in advance! As a heads up for folks in Moncton and Saint John, ticket sales have been picking up, so grab yours before they’re all gone ;)
And for people in St. Andrews - limited tickets are available in person by cash at Cockburn's Corner Drug Store.
Sasha Louis Léger - Tin Foil Clouds
Sasha Louis Leger is an acclaimed Canadian composer and sound designer who elegantly blends his musical roots in folk and rock with accomplished classical training. His music explores the meeting point of structure and vulnerability, mirroring the delicate essence of being. The young composer’s sonic identity is said to align seamlessly with the growing neoclassical movement.
Sasha holds an undergraduate degree in classical music composition from the University of Moncton and a Master’s degree in Scoring for Film, Television and Video Games from the prestigious Berklee College of Music. His works have been recorded by various professional ensembles and orchestras at notable studios around the world, such as AIR Studios in London, Studio 22 in Budapest, and BNR Recording Studios in Bulgaria.
☁️ About “Tin Foil Clouds” ☁️
“Tin Foil Clouds brings me back to being a kid and often gazing at the sky during the hour-long drive to my grandparents in rural New Brunswick. I would see more than weather— animals, ships, faces, whole stories unfolding in slow motion. Tin Foil Clouds taps into that same way of seeing: the way the imagination responds to repetition, to ambiguity, to slow, shapeshifting forms.
Though grounded in minimalist traditions, I wanted the music to gradually drive towards a culmination point in the middle of the piece, where the ensemble briefly acts as a collective voice. Ultimately, I invite the audience to consider fragility, tension, and the quiet drama of stasis as they listen.”
-Sasha Louis Leger
Sasha chats about “Tin Foil Clouds” in his own words!
Sasha released a beautiful solo album a year ago that Mark played some viola on — you can listen to the album below!
Ralph Vaughan Williams - Phantasy Quintet (1912)
There’s a reason Ralph Vaughan Williams’ 1912 viola quintet is titled “Phantasy Quintet.” The piece was dedicated to Walter Wilson Cobbett, a wealthy businessman, connoisseur of the arts, and someone who had a peculiar love for the 1-movement rhapsodic form of the “Phantasy.” Cobbett loved it so much, in fact, that he founded and endowed a competition for emerging British composers – specifically for them to write pieces in the Phantasy format. This is why many of the prominent British composers, from Bax to Britten to Bridge, have uncoincidentally added “Phantasies" to their repertoire.
Vaughan Williams was already a prominent composer by the time he wrote his “Phantasy” viola quintet, and didn’t need to compete in emerging composer competitions. He did, however, see the value (wink wink) in dedicating a composition to Cobbett, as he was a well-connected and highly philanthropic arts champion. While the viola quintet isn’t a true Phantasy (as it has four distinct movements), Vaughan Williams remedied this by adding a simple italicized “attacca” between movements – by performing it all the way through without stopping, how would Cobbett ever know it wasn’t a Phantasy without seeing the score?
Vaughan Williams has a unique compositional style thanks to his eclectic selection of teachers. He first attended England’s Royal College of Music, then later studied with the German Romantic composer Max Bruch, before wrapping up his studies with French Impressionist Maurice Ravel. Through this, Vaughan Williams developed a style of his own; lush ‘German’ romantic harmonies, an impressionistic tendency to break away from form, and a nostalgic love for English folk song. In fact, Ravel once described Vaughan Williams as his only pupil who did not end up sounding like merely a Ravel imitation. What a compliment, hah!
Johannes Brahms -
Viola Quintet No. 2, Op. 111 (1890)
It was the summer of 1890, and Brahms was spending another summer in the Alps on a writing retreat. His getaway cabin was in the Salzkammergut region outside Salzburg (think von-Trapp family hikes in the Sound of Music). Brahms had composed some of his greatest works there, away from the Vienna hustle and bustle. This time, Brahms was pouring over sketches that would be the source for his last piece of music ever. He was 57, after all.
The sketches were intended to be a Fifth Symphony, but, like the violin sonata and the string quartet, it wound up being for a smaller ensemble: this time, a Viola Quintet. While his symphonic plans didn’t pan out, the piece is almost as grandiose as one. The piece is dense - and the iconic opening is a perfect example of this, with the upper strings rocking thick oscillating chords while the cello soars with the heroic first theme.
When he sent the Viola Quintet No. 2 to his publisher, Brahms melodramatically wrote “With this letter you can bid farewell to my music—because it is certainly time to leave off.” A triumphant end to a composing career! Until a few months later, when he heard clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld perform in concert. Brahms was so inspired, he came out of retirement to compose just one more piece: a clarinet trio. And then a clarinet quintet… and two sonatas (which sound great on viola!). And a few Fantasies and Intermezzos for piano, and Four Serious Songs, and Eleven Choral Preludes for Organ…
But, even if Brahms hadn’t taken his victory lap, the Viola Quintet op. 111 in G Major wouldn’t have been a bad way to leave off. We figured it would at least be a good way to end a concert season.
*PS - fun fact about Brahms for trivia folks: his father was named Johann, and his mother was named Johanna. So it’s fitting his first name was Johannes!
Program
Tin Foil Clouds Sasha Louis Léger
Phantasy Quintet Ralph Vaughan Williams
I. Prelude - Lento ma non troppo
II. Scherzo - Prestissimo
III. Alla Sarabanda - Lento
IV. Burlesca - Allegro moderato
- Intermission -
Viola Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 11 Johannes Brahms
I. Allegro non troppo, ma con brio
II. Adagio
III. Un poco Allegretto
IV. Vivace ma non troppo presto