Odysseys of Displacement

Arneis Quartet

Lorena Tecu, piano

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Shostakovich Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 147

Britten String Quartet No. 3, Op. 94 

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Two works written in 1975 are featured on this program as a prelude to the Odysseys of Displacement series reflecting on the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.  Premiered on October 1, 1975 the Shostakovich Viola Sonata was the last piece that the composer wrote and serves as a retrospective on his musical and personal life.  The cadenza found in the third movement quotes all fifteen of his symphonies, works in which he often expressed his anti-war sentiments. Britten was a life-long pacifist – many of his works, most notably his War Requiem that was composed in 1962 when the United States involvement in the Vietnam War precipitously escalated, serve as contemporary reactions to global turmoil.

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