Concert Program VII

National Flavors

Music@Menlo’s 2017 festival season finale offers a colorful survey of violin playing across the Western world. The vitality of modern Bohemia is heard in Martinů’s ingenious duo, while the visceral influence of the great Russian school of string playing is evident in Shostakovich’s Prelude and Scherzo for String Octet, completed while the composer was still a teenager. Composer Ernő Dohnányi drew from his native Hungary’s folk traditions in his Ruralia hungarica, while American composer John Corigliano’s Red Violin Caprices glorify the instrument with a distinctly modern voice. The program concludes with the thrilling String Octet by the Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, and conductor George Enescu.