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Bartók and Beethoven: compare, contrast, with Camerata SA

Bela Bartók in 1927.
Wikimedia Commons
Bela Bartók in 1927.

Camerata San Antonio's February 2023 concerts paired two pieces for clarinet trio for an interesting contrast between the music of Béla Bartók and Ludwig van Beethoven. In fact, Bartók's trio, which anchors the middle of this edition of Performance Saturday, is indeed called "Contrasts."

Ken Freudigman, one of the founders of Camerata San Antonio, doesn't get to play on the work, but was nevertheless hyped to share it with an audience, saying "A part of the contrast here is... the contrast of of harmonies. There's polar tonality happening where there are two keys going on at once. [Bartók] is using the two timbres of the detuned violin and the clarinet, which are really far away. I mean, it's just really a stunning, stunning work."

Freudigman is featured along with pianist Viktor Valkov and clarinetist Ilya Shterenberg for Beethoven's Clarinet Trio in E-flat, Op. 38, and violinist Matthew Zerweck opens the program with a lovely melody by William Grant Still, "Mother and Child."

Hear the full concert using the audio player above.