Thomas L. Read

Guitar and Violoncello

CONCERT CHAMPÊTRE was composed in 2013 for Aaron Larget-Caplan, who, together with Anton Andreev gave the premiere on May 22, 2014 in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The initial concept of my duet emerged with recollection of two famous paintings: Le Concert Champêtre, c. 1509, by Titian, and Et in Arcadia Ego, 1639, by Nicolas Poussin. The music is cast in three interconnected movements that are played without pause. I think the music resonates especially with the Titian painting, invoking a utopia where mankind lives in harmony with nature. At the same time, and with particular reference to the Poussin, “a celebration of nature in a darkening landscape” is an apt commentary on earlier portions of the music. 

As symbol and metaphor the ambiguity and mystery of the shadow has frequently served artistic inspiration. Such was the case while composing my wind sextet, Beneficent Shadow. The haunting treatment of light and shadow in two famous paintings, The Mountain (Summertime) by Balthus, and Melancholy and Mystery of a Street by De Chirico was suggestive, even encouraging my choice of instrumentation: two flutes-doubling piccolo and bass flute, two clarinets-doubling bass clarinet, and two bassoons.
 

The sextet’s two movements are episodic in nature, each comprising seven motivically and harmonically inter-related sections. The first movement, marked Andantino, unfolds a variety of colors and textures. Sometimes lyrical phrases in the upper voices are parodied darkly and, even grotesquely, in the lower voices. There are moments when a shadowy phrase stands alone, heard as a possible recollection or foretelling of a lighter reality. The second movement, molto vivace, differs from the first,  being more virtuosic in effect and having a symmetrical design. That is, unlike the first movement, some sections are repeated in varied form. Together all seven are rondo-like in quality and order: a, a’, b, ac, d, ac, a.”