Story by University Communications
Google the word "freilach" and you will find that it means "happy" or "joyful," especially in relation to music.
American composer Paul Schoenfield says the Yiddish word also describes his recently composed "Three Rhapsodies for Piano Quintet," commissioned by the UW Pro Arte Quartet as part of its 100-year anniversary celebration.
Schoenfield's composition will receive its world premiere performance on Saturday, November 19, at Mills Concert Hall in the Mosse Humanities Building on the UW-Madison campus.
The 8 p.m. concert is free and open to the public.
The concert will be preceded by a free 3 p.m. lecture in Grainger Hall at the UW Business School: "The Artist as Distant Early Warning System," by Bill McGlaughlin, host of the popular "Exploring Music" program on National Public Radio.
Events also include a 5 p.m. dinner at the University Club (fee required) and a free 7 p.m. concert preview featuring the composer and the lecturer.
This program, the second of the centennial season's four concerts, also includes Shostakovich's "Quartet No. 4 in D Major, Op. 83" from 1949 and Beethoven's "String Quartet no. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131" from 1826, a quartet that many consider his finest.
Schoenfield's piece will add a modern, contrasting component to the evening.
"Every time I sit down to compose a piece of music, a little voice inside my head asks ' When are you going to get a real job?'" says Schoenfield, a Detroit native and professor of music composition at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
"So that became the first movement of my work."
The composition's first rhapsody, as Schoenfield calls the movements, is based on the 1957 Silhouettes doo-wop hit "Get a Job."
The second rhapsody takes both its title and tone from "The Bench of Desolation," an elliptical Henry James Story about unrequited love, a threatened breach of promise suit, and a surprise resolution.
The third rhapsody, "Klezmorim," is "joyfully" composed and performed in the Hasidic fashion, the composer says.
"The finale should have the audience on the edge of its seats," says Sally Chisholm, violist with the Pro Arte who has performed with the composer.
"Paul Schoenfield is a favorite among Madison musicians and always delivers moments of brilliance, wit, and intellect."
Despite his former career as a concert pianist, Schoenfield will not perform the world premier. Brian Hsu, a University of Michigan doctoral student in piano studies, will perform the work with the quartet.
The Quatuor Pro Arte of Brussels, first formed in 1911-1912, was performing at the Wisconsin Union Theatre on the UW campus on May 10, 1940, when Belgium was overrun by Nazi forces, turning three of its original four musicians into war orphans.
By October of that year, the group had officially become the UW Pro Arte Quartet, making it the school's first artist ensemble-in-residence.
In addition to Chisholm, current musicians in the Pro Arte, believed to be the world's oldest continuously performing string quartet and the first quartet anywhere to enjoy a university ensemble-in-residence status, include violinists Suzanne Beia and David Perry and cellist Parry Karp.
For more information on the centennial celebration and a complete schedule of events, visit http://proartequartet.org and click on "Centennial."