David Dalle
Thursday February 3rd, 2022 with David Dalle
Ukrainian, Baltic, Finnish, Norwegian music: folk, classical, and jazz.

I have been very worried the past month about Russia threatening war against Ukraine. This would be the first war of aggression in Europe since 1939, so it is a very grave concern. Turning to music, we will hear music from Ukraine, and other Russian neighbours from the Baltic states and Scandinavia, with the centerpiece being the Ukrainian-American Jewish composer Leo Ornstein's tremendous Piano Quintet. The quintet was premiered in 1928 in Philadelphia with the composer at the piano, a concert which also featured works composed and performed by Bela Bartok. Ornstein's work tends towards primal, emotional outburst. Many years after he composed the quintet (Ornstein was extremely long-lived, he was born in 1895 and died 106 years later in 2002), he described his quintet as "not a polite piece...it may be overcharged but it is what I heard. Possibly it might have been less blunt and emotionally more reserved, but if one does not sense the almost brutal emotional directness, then I have indeed failed."