All five pieces on this program were composed in the first half of the twentieth century, by composers (French and otherwise) for whom Paris – permanently or for some considerable and formative period - was home. In short, this is a musical snapshot of Paris when it was arguably the most cosmopolitan city in the world. Rich in native cultural traditions, yet also receptive to avant-garde experiments in all the arts, Paris was then a magnet for artistic émigrés displaced by force or by inclination – European composers like Stravinsky and Prokofiev, a whole generation of American composers (Carter, Copland, Sessions, Thomson), and countless performers, writers, painters, dancers, actors, impresarios, and others, including some of the biggest names in modern art (Joyce, Picasso, Diaghilev). Musical life in Paris (as this programme reveals) was astonishingly multifarious in the early twentieth century, nourished by musicians of many different nationalities and aesthetic persuasions – romantics, impressionists, modernists, neoclassicists, scholars, conservatory types, pioneers of the early-music movement. Moreover, in addition to the usual venues for “serious” music (concert hall, opera house, conservatory) there were many informal venues in which Parisians could listen to different kinds of music: private salons (some run by artists, like the composer Darius Milhaud), cabarets, cards, music and dance halls, cinemas, fairs, circuses. Even the earthiest venues proved stimulating to composers of art music, and an easy interplay between classical and popular styles became a distinctive feature of Parisian music. The Concertpiece for viola and piano, (Concertstück) by Georges Enescu, represents the conservative end of the stylistic spectrum. It was composed in 1906 for the instrumental competitions of the Paris Conservatory (for which Enescu served on the jury), and serves as a technical and expressive showcase for the violist. On the other hand, the Choses vues à droite et à gauche (sans lunettes), by Erik Satie, composed in 1914, are parodies of Conservatory pieces: the closing “Muscular Fantasy,” for instance, is a wry send-up of violin virtuosity. Lightness, irony, sophisticated wit, the deflation of pedantry – all were characteristic of Parisian composers, especially the quirky Satie, who drew on both classical and popular styles in order to amuse and confound his listeners. The three Choses, typically, bear absurd, satirical titles and nonsensical performance markings; in the delicious “Groping Fugue,” the violinist is instructed to play the subject “at the edge of the molars,” while the piano accompanies, “tranquil as a Baptist.” (The piece reaches a witty climax with the subject in stretto, rectus et inversus.) To his opening “Hypocritical Chorale,” Satie appended a statement in the score: “My Chorales are the equal of Bach’s, except that mine are more rare and less pretentious.” All of the pieces on this programme reflect a stylistic eclecticism typical of their cultural milieu; one hears, to varying degrees, the lingering influence of Romanticism and Impressionism, a strong neoclassical bent, the harmonic bite and rhythmic ambiguity of modem music, and allusions to “exotic” national styles. Francis Poulenc’s Sonata for violin and piano, composed in 1942-43 and revised in 1949 – and the only one of these pieces to be played with any frequency – is deeply expressive, expansive, flexible in form and texture, unabashedly romantic in many respects (the piano writing, for instance), yet Poulenc also sought to avoid “the never-ending line of violin-melody sonatas written in France during the nineteenth century.” The finale features oblique references to popular music (cabaret and music-hall songs, the can-can), yet it is marked Presto tragico, and the music is dark and turbulent, ending with a slow, grim coda; the contradiction yields an apt musical metaphor for the misery of occupied France, in which the sonata was conceived. In the lyrical “Intermezzo,” however, Poulenc draws on a stylized Spanish idiom, which had been popular in European (including Parisian) music since the midnineteenth century. The piano accompaniment evokes the strumming of a guitar, and indeed the movement was inspired by the poem “La guitare fait pleurer les songes,” by the Spanish writer Federico Garcia Lorca, to whose memory the sonata is dedicated. (Lorca had been murdered by Franco’s Fascists.) The same idiom informs the whole of Joaquin Turina’s Sonata espagnole, of 1929: the piece is a veritable compendium of musical devices - “exotic” scales and intervals, turns of phrase, harmonic progressions, rhythmic patterns, “folkish” violin techniques - that classical composers had employed for generations to conjure up images of Spain. In Bohuslav Martinu°’s Sonata for violin and piano, of 1930, the “exotic” element is American. In the aftermath of the First World War, Parisians were drawn to the freshness, vitality, and spontaneity of American culture. Jazz and other American music could be heard in cabarets, music and dance halls, cinemas, and elsewhere throughout the twenties and thirties, and many American jazz performers found more appreciation for their art (and greater racial tolerance) in Paris than at home. Classical composers were energized by contact with American music; when George Gershwin visited Paris in 1928, hoping to study “serious” composition, he found that the local composers (like Ravel) were more interested in learning from him. Martinu° lived in Paris from 1923 to 1940, and fell in love with the city’s culture and social life. From the “blue” violin lick in the opening bars (there are violin cadenzas in all three movements), his sonata is rife with allusions to le jazz hot, especially Gershwin’s concert music. The outer movements are propelled by the strutting, swinging, syncopated rhythms of ragtime, cakewalk, and Charleston, and hint at Tin Pan Alley songs, stride piano playing, even Latin music, while the bluesy slow movement features a recurring motif (a sequence of descending, parallel dominant-seventh chords) that is straight out of Rhapsody in Blue.

SCOTT ST. JOHN, violin & viola
Canadian-born Scott St.John captures the attention of the musical world through his riveting and virtuosic performances on violin and viola. This charismatic artist has been praised for his “electric” performances and recitals “brimming with extroverted spirit,” still, his exciting talents always serve the music. As the Pittsburgh Press has noted, “he is a musician of impeccable taste and natural instincts. He lets the music do the talking.” Since winning the 1989 Young Concert Artists Award, St. John has performed around the globe, appearing with major orchestras, on prestigious concert series and in international chamber music festivals. St. John’s passionate performances enable audiences to share in his obvious joy in performing. His commitment to new music has led to his giving the North American premiere of Peter Maxwell Davies’ A Spell for Green Corn for violin and orchestra as well as a program of multimedia chamber works in New York. Deeply focused on education and outreach, St. John employs his exceptional communication skills to connect with and inspire students and adults alike. Further evidence of his teaching gifts lies in his appointment to a prestigious performance/faculty position at the University of Toronto. Born in London, Ontario, St. John began his violin studies at age three with Richard Lawrence and subsequently worked with Gérard Jarry in Paris and David Cerone of the Cleveland Institute of Music. He studied viola with Ralph Aldrich of the University of Western Ontario and Robert Vernon, principal viola of the Cleveland Orchestra. In 1990, St. John graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied violin with Jascha Brodsky and Arnold Steinhardt, and chamber music with Felix Galimir. In addition to a Young Concert Artists Award, his many honours include the 1994 Virginia D. Moore Award for Most Promising Young Canadian Artist, Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, first prize in the 1987 Alexander Schneider Violin and Viola Competition and a top prize in the 1992 Munich International Violin Competition.

RENA SHARON, pianist
Born in Montreal, Canada, Rena Sharon began her life in chamber music at the age of eight. Her early studies were with Professor Dorothy Morton at McGill University, and she continued her training at the Eastman School and Indiana University. Her principal teachers were Menahem Pressler and Gyorgy Sebok. and her chamber music coaches included Janos Starker, Franco Gulli, Eileen Farell, and Joseph Gingold, who has called her “one of the finest musicians of her generation”. While still a student, she began concertizing throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, and in 1987 she was awarded a “Best Pianist” diploma at the International Voice Competition of Rio de Janeiro, an unprecedented honour at that competition. One of the foremost chamber musicians in Canada, her performance spectrum also comprises solo, concertos and recitals. The roster of distinguished artists with whom Ms. Sharon has performed includes Steven Isserlis, Scott St. John, Gary Hoffman, Pamela Frank, Sharon Kam, Douglas Boyd, Ben Heppner, Kevin MacMillan, Richard Margison, Marina Piccinini, Shauna Rolston, James Somerville, Martin Beaver, James Ehnes, Susan Platts, Wendy Nielsen, Benjamin Butterfield, and Amanda Forsyth. Recent highlights include concerto appearances with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the premiere of songs by Elliot Weisgarber for the Robinson Jeffers Society in Carmel, California with soprano Erica Northcott; the Vancouver Salon; performances in the Czech Republic and Slovakia with Jozef Luptak and Gabriela Demeterova, and recitals with the renowned tenor Ben Heppner. Currently the Professor of Collaborative Piano Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, she is also Artistic Director of the Whistler Young Artist Experience, a chamber music camp for gifted teens, and Artistic Director of The Song Circle, an innovative performance company dedicated to the art of Song. Ms. Sharon has recorded on the Marquis, Finlandia, Brava, Summit, Sony, and CBC Records labels.