Francois Couperin
Onziême Ordre de Clavecin (pub. 1717)
Les fastes de la grande et ancienne Mxnxstrxndxsx
Robert Schumann
Faschingsschwank aus Wien (1839)
Franz Liszt
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 9, Carnival in Pest (1847)
Igor Stravinsky
Trois mouvements de Pétrouchka (1921)
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Carnaval das crianças (1919-20)
The CARNIVAL recital program grew out of the time I've spent contemplating personal traditions and the challenge of planting a family in a new culture.
My husband and I are both immigrants to the United States, but our daughters were born in Houston, and so I’ve thought a lot about the ways in which their cultural upbringing differs from my own. I've always been intentional about giving my daughters a sense of "place”; what this means to me is that I try to balance their immersion in the cultural traditions of my and my husband's origins with a healthy dose of fully belonging to the place where they were born. One way in which we've made an effort to give them roots in the Gulf Coast is by celebrating Mardi Gras, a regionally important holiday.
This seems obvious, I know: adopting Mardi Gras as a family tradition has been a huge hit. Who wouldn't love a holiday that celebrates naughty behaviour and excess?!
Musicians throughout history have always loved a good party, so it's no surprise that the classical tradition offers a great deal of Carnival-related music. In this program I've selected, the holiday is sometimes referred to as Shrovetide, Fasching, or Mardi Gras; it ranges from Couperin's satirical pageantry to Villa-Lobos's mischievous characters to Liszt's riotous street scenes; it originates in France, Austria, Germany, Russia, and Brazil. The celebration of Carnival is a rich trove of musical treasures, and this program represents some of the piano's greatest party music.
Onziême Ordre de Clavecin (pub. 1717)
Les fastes de la grande et ancienne Mxnxstrxndxsx
Robert Schumann
Faschingsschwank aus Wien (1839)
Franz Liszt
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 9, Carnival in Pest (1847)
Igor Stravinsky
Trois mouvements de Pétrouchka (1921)
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Carnaval das crianças (1919-20)
The CARNIVAL recital program grew out of the time I've spent contemplating personal traditions and the challenge of planting a family in a new culture.
My husband and I are both immigrants to the United States, but our daughters were born in Houston, and so I’ve thought a lot about the ways in which their cultural upbringing differs from my own. I've always been intentional about giving my daughters a sense of "place”; what this means to me is that I try to balance their immersion in the cultural traditions of my and my husband's origins with a healthy dose of fully belonging to the place where they were born. One way in which we've made an effort to give them roots in the Gulf Coast is by celebrating Mardi Gras, a regionally important holiday.
This seems obvious, I know: adopting Mardi Gras as a family tradition has been a huge hit. Who wouldn't love a holiday that celebrates naughty behaviour and excess?!
Musicians throughout history have always loved a good party, so it's no surprise that the classical tradition offers a great deal of Carnival-related music. In this program I've selected, the holiday is sometimes referred to as Shrovetide, Fasching, or Mardi Gras; it ranges from Couperin's satirical pageantry to Villa-Lobos's mischievous characters to Liszt's riotous street scenes; it originates in France, Austria, Germany, Russia, and Brazil. The celebration of Carnival is a rich trove of musical treasures, and this program represents some of the piano's greatest party music.