Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)
[University of Maine at Augusta's] Professor of Music Richard Nelson talks about March 2 concert in Jewett Auditorium.
Lucky Clark on Music
February 22, 2018
If classical music is your cup of tea, then you should head over to
Jewett Auditorium for a performance at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 2. The
Portland Piano Trio will be the featured performers and their program
will consist of four pieces that span centuries of classical music with
works by Beethoven, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Amy Beach and UMA’s own
Richard Nelson.
In a recent telephone interview, the professor of music talked about
the concert’s musical selections, the group performing them and the
intent of the program titled “Classical Constellations.”
***
Q: Looking at the program for the performance and seeing Beethoven,
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Amy Beach, and yourself represented by works
composed from the early 1800s through to 2017, this concert certainly
spans the centuries of this genre.
Nelson: Yeah, I think that one
of the really distinctive things about this concert, particularly for
the Augusta region, is that it is an opportunity, with this common
element of the piano-trio format, to see the way classical music has
manifested over time. From the solid work of Beethoven grounding things,
Amy Beach is a terrific American composer who I don’t think we hear
enough about. Her music sort of merges late romanticism and
impressionism in a very beautiful way. Coleridge-Taylor’s work
represents the late 19th-century/early 20th-century style and, in this
case, manifesting his fascination engagement with the African-American
spiritual tradition. And then my piece really landing us in the 21st
century. As you said, quite a span with a fascinating chain of
continuity to get us from Beethoven to the present. Each piece will
engage the audience distinctly even as they combine to kind of create
this sense of continuity over the centuries — a journey through a
musical time and space.
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