Thompson: The Wind in the Willows

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Description

While studying at the American Academy in Rome from 1922 to 1925 on the first Damrosch Fellowship, Randall Thompson, fascinated with Kenneth Grahame's delightful 1908 children's story The Wind in the Willows, wrote two works based on chapters from it. One is a three-movement string quartet written under the influence of composers including Gian Francesco Malipiero and Alfredo Casella and the most recent European music he heard in Rome and at International Festivals he attended. Written between February 20 and March 10, 1924, it was premiered in Rome by the Quartetto Veneziano on March 15, 1925. Cast in three movements—"River," "Toad, esq.," and "The Wild Wood" that are only loosely programmatic—the quartet is considerably more adventurous harmonically than either of his numbered quartets—no. 1 (1938–41), commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, or No. 2 (1967). Along with his five choral Odes of Horace, written at approximately the same time, this work provides us a significant glimpse of Thompson as a composer of chamber music during his formative creative years.

Duration: 14:00