Palladium Chamber Series – Across Time & Timbre: Beethoven, Poulenc, and Dvořák

TICKETS Reserved: $45, $28, $15 Doors at 6:30pm | Show at 7:30pm Presented by The Palladium at St. Petersburg College Season Opener! – The 2025–26 Palladium Chamber Series launches with Across Time & Timbre, as pianist Jeewon Park joins members of The Florida Orchestra for an unforgettable night of Beethoven’s elegance, Poulenc’s wit, and Dvořák’s warmth. Jeewon Park, piano Jeffrey Multer, violin Vivek Jayaraman, violin Natalie Yu, violin Sebastian Stefanović, viola Victor Minke Huls, cello Clay Ellerbroek, flute Mitchell Kuhn, oboe Natalie Hoe, clarinet Maggie O’Leary, bassoon David Smith, french horn Ludwig van Beethoven – Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 12 No. 2 Francis Poulenc – Sextuor, FP 100 –-Intermission– Antonín Dvořák – Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 81 By Kurt Loft, freelance writer and former music critic for The Tampa Tribune What to listen for: Unlike many sonatas from the classical period where one instrument dominates, this work at the dawn of the romantic era unfolds as a conversation between equals. Scholars of Beethoven divide his career into three distinct phases, and because he wrote an accumulation of works in specific forms ─ sonatas, quartets and symphonies, for example ─ listeners have the luxury of hearing his development in a linear, ever-evolving way. The 10 Sonatas for Violin and Piano are a portal into this creative process. Beethoven conceived the first nine over a span of six fruitful years and finished his last sonata a decade later. While the Spring and Kreutzer enjoy the most attention, the unnamed sonatas offer a wealth of intimate ideas, such as the work on tonight’s program. Beethoven needed money for rent, groceries and beer (not necessarily in that order) and knew that writing music for serious amateurs in the home would sell. So, he penned his Op. 12 as Hausmusik for non-professionals but still worthy of concert duty. He dedicated these sonatas to Antonio Salieri, the Viennese court composer who advised the younger man on vocal composition, especially Italian opera. Published in 1798 as the middle child in a set of three, the Sonata in A is early period Beethoven, where the influences of Haydn and Mozart still linger − but infused with an underlying strength of purpose. Nor is one instrument dominant or compliant: Both are equals in the conversation, especially in the aria-like slow movement. Aside from its lyrical glow throughout, the sonata stands out as an example of Beethoven moving away from classicism and satisfying his impulses for a new romantic language, particularly in the flexible give-and-take between the two instruments. A freedom of expression appears from the 28-year-old composer, who was still some years away from his exploratory “heroic’’ period. The genial opening movement is full of brio and insistent repeated phrases, and its lighthearted character belies the complex design that supports it. The sonata deepens in tone and emotion in the A-minor andante – a forebearer of the great slow movements Beethoven would later immortalize. The finale takes a brisk clip marked allegro piacevole, or “pleasingly lively,’’ and a cascade of arpeggios emerge from the piano before the music ends on a single, affirmative note. What to listen for: This witty, impish score for piano and wind instruments blends a jovial character with bouts of seriousness, intended to be played with flourish from start to finish. Poulenc was a member of an ad-hoc group of musicians known as Les Six, composers who sought to free French music from foreign nationalism, and even the country’s own Impressionism movement. Influenced by the writer Jean Cocteau, their aim was to be anti-Romantic, to break away from Wagner, to take potshots at the musical establishment, to write with clarity and restraint – and most of all, to have fun. Poulenc was not only fun but eclectic. He composed in all the major musical genres, including film – the director Alfred Hitchcock used his Perpetual Motion No. 1 in the 1948 murder-mystery classic, Rope. He loved the sound of wind instruments, in part because of how they mimicked the human voice. His best works are in fact vocal: the quietly spiritual Mass, the Stabat Mater, and the popular Gloria. Also known as the Sextet for Piano and Wind Quintet, the work you will hear tonight includes flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn. Poulenc completed it in 1933, revising it six years later. "There were some good ideas in (the original) but the whole thing was badly put together,’’ he said. “With the proportions altered, better balanced, it comes over very clearly.’’ He cast the 20-minute sextet in three complementary movements: allegro vivace, divertissement, and prestissimo. Lively, upbeat and engaging to the ear, the music can be viewed as an extension of Poulenc’s personality, especially the amusing interplay within the ensemble. It opens with boisterous ascending scales, follows with a midsection parody of Mozart, and a finale that tip