Program Notes

"Seven Bagatelles and Finale is dedicated to a distinguished group of violinists who have performed my music, including Joel Smirnoff, Nancy Cirillo, Eric Rosenblith, Joseph Silverstein, Ida Kavafian, and tonight's soloist Lucy Stoltzman (Chapman). "Although the overall character and style of the Seven Bagatelles conform to traditional expectation, the additional Finale movement, equal to one-third of the work's entire duration, considerably increases the temporal magnitude, formal architecture, and ultimate impact of the whole work's character. Although the soloist is given license to abridge this work, to mix and match the various Bagatelles, and to include or omit the Finale, tonight's performance premieres all seven Bagatelles and the Finale. "Each Bagatelle is one to two minutes in length, with a unique emotive and formal character. The succession gradually gathers impetus, ultimately adopting the guise of symphonic movement-structures, culminating in the more elaborate and extensively developed Finale. "The ambitious Finale then acts as a summation of the principal characteristics explored in the preceeding movements and is consequently the most demanding. All of the pieces contain virtuosic, but idiomatic elements, and their cumulative development coupled with the extensive Finale should prove to be large."

—William Thomas McKinley (© 1986), from 24 Jul 1986 and 12 Oct 1986 programs.