InnerChamber

The music in this program features contrasts in many forms: some by necessity to cope with adversity, others to explore the rich wonders around us. 

Erwin Schulhoff, a Czech composer of Jewish descent, and many other serious composers of the early twentieth century, embraced Dadaism as a lens through which to process the absurdity of the mechanistic age around them. Disguised with lightness and silliness at the dawn of the jazz age, Schulhoff’s mode of expression resonates with the terrible truths of a polarized and dehumanized era of state sanctioned conflict and violence.

Referring out of context to a single line from Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost, the title of Missy Mazzoli’s bass concerto Dark With Excessive Bright highlights the surprising richness and contrast of colour inherent in the double bass when treated as a solo instrument. INNERchamber’s Ian Whitman is the soloist in this effervescent masterwork of the modern double bass repertoire.

Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte was inspired by that subtle watershed moment between the minuet and trio in one of Haydn’s fabulous string quartets. 

Stratford’s own Dan Armstrong provides two pieces inspired by very contrasting sources. His Macbeth Haiku Variations stem from poetry by Roy Lewis, and Ney-ney Weleba has its roots in a jazz song by famed Ethiopan singer, Alemayehu Eshete.