Darkness and Light
February 2, 2025 @ UC Berkeley
Eda Er, Always Welcome; Never Invited (World Premiere)
Paul Novak, entwining
Kaija Saariaho, Light and Matter
Olivier Messiaen, selections from Quartet for the End of Time
Adrian Wong, Glass Flowers
Ursula Kwong-Brown, Awakenings
The works on this program were each chosen because of their unique beauty - ranging from ephemeral and fragile to playful and fierce. The earliest work on the program, Olivier Messaien’s Quartet for the End of Time, was premiered in 1941 inside a prisoner-of-war camp in Görlitz Germany, where the composer was permitted to write and perform, despite being held prisoner. We’ve selected two iconic movements: “Praise for the Eternity of Jesus Christ” - a gorgeous, meditative, and quietly ecstatic work for piano and cello - and the famous “Dance of the Furies” for clarinet, violin, cello and piano.
entwining is a set of three interlocking miniatures: a colorful swirl of motion; a shimmering meditation; and a gentle and luminous dance. Complementing this is Kaija Saariaho’s piano trio Light and Matter. The composer’s initial musical ideas were of light and rapid nature, culminating in a perpetual motion piece that advances in spinning motion from luminous fabric towards the inertia of slow choral textures and back again towards a new weightlessness. Ursula Kwong-Brown’s Awakenings is a meditative duet for clarinet and piano that explores the clarinet’s exquisite ability to crescendo and diminuendo to and from silence.
Adrian Wong’s Glass Flowers takes inspiration from the fragility Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants, dating from the 18th and 19th centuries and known as Glass Flowers. These models are indistinguishable from the real thing: the longer you admire them, the more they come to life, and like real flowers, these models too slowly wilt over time as the paint contracts and cracks the brittle glass. In Adrian’s words: “Indiscriminate in its nature, time imparts life upon everything.”
The program also includes a world premiere of Always Welcome, Never Invited, by local artist Eda Er. Written in collaboration with Ninth Planet flutist Jessie Nucho, this piece is designed specially for this program.
Paul Novak, entwining
Kaija Saariaho, Light and Matter
Olivier Messiaen, selections from Quartet for the End of Time
Adrian Wong, Glass Flowers
Ursula Kwong-Brown, Awakenings
The works on this program were each chosen because of their unique beauty - ranging from ephemeral and fragile to playful and fierce. The earliest work on the program, Olivier Messaien’s Quartet for the End of Time, was premiered in 1941 inside a prisoner-of-war camp in Görlitz Germany, where the composer was permitted to write and perform, despite being held prisoner. We’ve selected two iconic movements: “Praise for the Eternity of Jesus Christ” - a gorgeous, meditative, and quietly ecstatic work for piano and cello - and the famous “Dance of the Furies” for clarinet, violin, cello and piano.
entwining is a set of three interlocking miniatures: a colorful swirl of motion; a shimmering meditation; and a gentle and luminous dance. Complementing this is Kaija Saariaho’s piano trio Light and Matter. The composer’s initial musical ideas were of light and rapid nature, culminating in a perpetual motion piece that advances in spinning motion from luminous fabric towards the inertia of slow choral textures and back again towards a new weightlessness. Ursula Kwong-Brown’s Awakenings is a meditative duet for clarinet and piano that explores the clarinet’s exquisite ability to crescendo and diminuendo to and from silence.
Adrian Wong’s Glass Flowers takes inspiration from the fragility Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants, dating from the 18th and 19th centuries and known as Glass Flowers. These models are indistinguishable from the real thing: the longer you admire them, the more they come to life, and like real flowers, these models too slowly wilt over time as the paint contracts and cracks the brittle glass. In Adrian’s words: “Indiscriminate in its nature, time imparts life upon everything.”
The program also includes a world premiere of Always Welcome, Never Invited, by local artist Eda Er. Written in collaboration with Ninth Planet flutist Jessie Nucho, this piece is designed specially for this program.