February 7, Saturday 8:00 PM
First Pres Santa Monica

Gabriele Fauré
  Second Violin Sonata in e minor Op. 108 (1917)
  Impromptu for harp Op. 86 (1904)
  Ballade in F-sharp major, Op 103 (1879) original solo piano version
Marius Constant
  Harpalycé for harp (1980)
Louis Vierne
  Piano Quintet in c minor, Op. 42 (1917)

Sarah Thornblade, violin
Mark Robson, piano
Allison Allport, harp
Joel Pargman, violin
Alma Lisa Fernandez, viola
Timothy Loo, cello
Steven Vanhauwaert, piano

Lucid Intensity explores the terra incognita of French music. Liszt found Fauré’s passionate Ballade too difficult and asked him to orchestrate it. A performance of the solo original is extremely rare; and the complex beauty of Fauré’s Second Violin Sonata has been overshadowed. Messiaen student Marius Constant is hardly known either, yet every American recognizes his stolen theme from The Twilight Zone. He uses the harp to recount a dark and vicious myth. Gripping in a different way, Notre Dame’s organist Louis Vierne – blind, cuckolded, and devastated by the death of his son in WWI – poured his tormented soul into a triumphant piano quintet.