Presents
Joseph Achron
Kindersuite (Children's Suite) Op.57
For Clarinet, String Quartet and Piano
Joseph Achron (1886-1943) was born in the Lithuanian town of Lodzdzieje (now Lazdijai). He studied violin with his father and then at the Warsaw Conservatory with Isadore Lotto and finally at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Leopold Auer, teacher of such stars as Heifetz, Milstein and many others. Achron knew Heifetz and the two became friends with Heifetz championing Achron's music. After graduation, Achron pursued a career as a soloist, concertizing throughout Russia and Europe, Palestine and America. He taught and served as director of the Kharkov Conservatory and subsequently moved to Hollywood. Throughout his life, he composed. Most of his works are for violin and piano, however, he also wrote in several other genres.
Achron wrote the Children’s Suite while living in Berlin during 1923, prior to his immigration to the United States. It was originally for piano. In 1925, shortly after his arrival in America, he arranged it for a sextet consisting of a string quartet, clarinet and piano. It was premiered in New York shortly after he finished it. It was later orchestrated, but not by him or with his approval. Achron often said that while he was fond of the piano version, he preferred his setting for sextet which he came to regard as the so called “official version." In this work, a set of twenty miniature pieces, one can hear a mix motifs combining elements of Impressionism with those derived from biblical sources. Although one finds the word ‘children’ in the title, it is not music for children. To the contrary, it is a kind of tone poem like Schumann’s Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood), in which Achron attempts to describe or conjure a musical picture of the simplicity of childhood. Each movement bears a title, suggestive of the innocent world of children, of their daydreams, their fantasies and desires, their disappointments and pleasures, and the games they play, all of which children take quite seriously.
Our soundbites present a selection of nine of the 20 pieces from the suite. The Kindersuite is highly evocative and makes a fine selection for the concert hall. And as a bonus it is managable by amateurs.
Parts: $44.95
