Festival in Residence: Ann Arbor

Ethan Soledad: Poems from Angel Island
(b.1999)

Albert, Scott, Trio Dolce

Johannes Brahms: Viola Sonata in F minor, Op. 120
(1833-1897)
Allegro appassionato
Andante un poco adagio
Allegretto grazioso
Vivace

Barnatan, Huang

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: String Quartet No.16 in E-flat major, Op. 10 “Haydn”, K. 428
(1756-1791)
Allegro non tropo
Andante con moto
Menuetto, Allegro
Allegro vivace

The Dolphins

Tonight I want to dwell upon a decorative element of architecture, ornamental and so not strictly necessary (what art is?) and yet foundational to how we might hear this program. Among sculpture’s oldest techniques is relief, the raising of an image from the raw matter of material by whittling away at its negative space. The Parthenon Frieze is no doubt the most famous of these, but they’re everywhere in ancient architecture (our Vitruvius, who has followed these notes like a Virgil, would have known them intimately). And though the word itself—from the Latin relevere, “to raise up”—suggests that ascendency is the most important quality, I want to propose the opposite. The three works tonight each encode relief in their forms: to hear it, we must for the etymologic counterpoise: what is raised by relief, whether memory or life or song, only ever comes from an equal and opposite sinking down. Read more…

© Ty Bouque