Vela Ensemble Concert Programme Notes
20th June 2025
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120
In the early 20th century Debussy, Stravinsky, and Schoenberg revolutionized the
foundation of Western music in the areas of tonality, harmony, and symmetric meter. At the same
time, Gabriel Fauré was working with this foundation, not by abandoning the traditional structures,
but by “blurring” them – especially in his later works. (Christopher Steele, “Tonal and Formal
Blurring in Fauré’s Piano Trio Op. 120”.) “Blurring” of tradition is an excellent description for
Fauré, but impossible to address in a program note. However, a selective sketch of his life might
provide a hint.
As a composer, from an early age, Fauré developed independently of the establishment.
Rather than the Paris Conservatoire, a gateway for any French musician, he attended the École
Niedermeyer in Paris. His early influences came from Gounod, Massenet, Chopin and Schumann,
but the École added influences from Gregorian chant, Renaissance polyphony, and modality. This
mix – and his imagination – resulted in works that eventually set him at odds with the conservative
Conservatoire. In 1892, when he was considered for a post as composition professor at the
Conservatoire, his nomination was rejected by the head on the grounds that his music was too
“modern.” Four years later, after the head of the Conservatoire died, Fauré was finally appointed
professor of composition. Among his pupils were Maurice Ravel (also represented on this
program) and Nadia Boulanger. Then in 1905 Fauré became head of the Conservatoire. Beginning
in 1911 he began to lose his hearing, and in 1920 he retired as head of the Conservatoire. His
health continued to deteriorate, and in 1924 he died of pneumonia at age 79.
Originally conceived for clarinet, cello and piano, the 1922 Piano Trio is Fauré’s penultimate
work (the string quartet is the last). The first performance was by Jacques Thibaud, Pablo Casals,
and Alfred Cortot. After the premiere a friend reportedly said, “If he lives a hundred years, how far
will he go?” Even with loss of hearing and failing health, Fauré was building and extending his own
compositional technique and continuing to “blur” traditional structures.
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
In this 150th anniversary year of Ravel we are thrilled to present to you his Duo for Violin and Cello.
Ravel was born in the Basque region of France, very close to the border of Spain. Ravel’s father taught him all about engineering and music, and his mother sang him folk songs that influenced his compositional style. Another great influence was the Paris Exposition that took place in 1889. Ravel was fourteen at the time, and he heard works by Rimsky-Korsakov, a member of the Russian nationalists, The Mighty Five. Claude Debussy also attended the Paris Exposition, where he heard the Javanese gamelan, an important influence in his developing style. Of course, he was a bit older than Ravel, but the two became acquaintances in the 1890s.
Ravel was accepted into the Conservatoire de Paris in late 1889. He grew very much as an artist there, but did not conform well to the conservative ways of the institution. Ravel had a unique learning style, having been mostly educated by his father (we don’t have records of formal schooling in his youth). Because he was not the kind of student favored by the Conservatoire at the time, he was encouraged to leave in 1895. He left, choosing to focus on writing music in his own way. While out of school, he met Erik Satie and found Satie’s musical philosophy very influential on his own style. In 1897, Ravel returned to the Conservatoire and met Gabriel Fauré, who would become his teacher and a great source of support. Ravel never quite fit in at the Conservatoire, but his relationship with Fauré remained strong. Ravel seemed unbothered by most people’s opinions, and was unperturbed by unfavorable reviews.
After the death of Debussy in 1918 Ravel was considered the leading French composer.
So it was natural that he was asked to contribute to a special Debussy commemorative supplement for La Revue musicale. Appearing in December 1920, that supplement included what would become the first movement of the Sonata for Violin and Cello (as well as contributions from Bartók, Dukas, Falla, Roussel, Satie, and Stravinsky, among others). Ravel had begun this movement in April 1920, and would need almost two years to complete the four movements of the Sonata. “In my own work of composition I find a long period of conscious gestation, in general, necessary,” Ravel wrote later. “During this interval I come gradually to see, and with growing precision, the form and evolution which the subsequent work should have as a whole.”
This lean, ruthlessly linear Sonata, dedicated to the memory of Debussy, picks up some of the esthetic cast and economy of means of Debussy’s late work. “The music is stripped to the bone,” Ravel wrote. “Harmonic charm is renounced, and there is an increasing return of emphasis on melody.”
Artemi Ayvazyan (June 26, 1902 – November 14, 1975)
Ayvazyan was a Soviet Armenian composer, conductor, founder of the Armenian State Jazz Orchestra, and People's Artist of Armenia (1962).
Gasper Cassado (1897-1966)
Gaspar Cassadó was born in Barcelona in 1897 to a musical family. Joaquín, his father, was a composer and an organist. Cassadó was nine years old, when he played his first public performance: the great cellist Pablo Casals in attendance. Quite taken by the youngster’s talent, Casals offered to take Gaspar as a student, although at the time he had only three students. Gaspar worked with Casals and studied composition with French Impressionist Maurice Ravel, and fellow Spaniard, Manuel de Falla.
The two brothers, Agustin and Gaspar, and their father Joaquín, concertized widely as a trio until the outbreak of World War I. They were forced to return to Barcelona, but Cassadó’s cello career flourished back home. He performed at the Palau de la Música Catalana with eminent artist Arthur Rubinstein and by 1921, he was recognized as one of Spain’s leading musicians. Cassadó performed in concerts with the Barcelona Symphony showcasing music of leading Spanish composers. His Dance of the Green Devil, along with his piece entitled Requiebros, are both popular encores in the cello repertoire.
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
la fille aux cheveux de lin
Both exponents of chamber music, Claude Debussy was 17 years younger than Gabriel Fauré. Even so, they frequented the same social circles in the Parisian fin de siècle. Debussy became one of the most important protagonists of the break with tonal romanticism. But it all began on “paths” blazed by figures such as César Franck and Fauré. Debussy's la fille aux cheveux de lin comes from his first set of preludes, and is one of his most popular and enduring pieces.
Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) Two Songs (arr. Siu Chui LI and Alex Redington)
Oh never sing to me again
Oh do not sing for me, fair maiden,
Those Georgian songs so sad;
They remind me
Of another life and a distant shore.
Alas, your cruel strains
Remind me
Of the steppe and the night,
And the moonlit face of my distant beloved.
How fair this spot
How fair this spot... Just look, there in the distance
The river is ablaze;
The meadows are like a radiant carpet,
And the clouds are white.
There is nobody here… here silence reigns…
Here I am alone with God.
And the flowers, and the old pine tree,
And you, my dream!…
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Piano Trio in C minor op. 101
Brahms enjoyed taking summer holidays in various attractive resorts. There he would find the time to write his music, away from his busy Viennese life. In 1886 he chose Hofstetten on picturesque Lake Thun in central Switzerland. It proved a particularly productive summer as he completed not only this fine Trio but also his Violin Sonata in A and the F major Cello Sonata. Brahms tried the work out in Budapest that December and the official première took place in Vienna with Brahms and members of the Heckmann Quartet on February 26th 1887.
This is a remarkable creation among Brahms’s chamber music in that all the movements are quite short and the musical ideas concentrated into unusually brief time spans. Part of this brevity is due to the fact that Brahms uses a three-note format extensively, rather than any of the long, romantic melodies usually associated with him. The first movement opens dramatically with a commanding phrase led by the piano, indeed much of the Trio is derived from its three-note motto. Following some staccato comments on it, the cello introduces the main melody, which is shared around the instruments, though the motto idea is never far away. It is a short movement and the development of the material is brisk and workmanlike. Even the recapitulation skips the main theme and the coda is just a few abrupt chords. The second movement is a fleeting intermezzo involving a running piano phrase with comments from the strings. The short central sequence involves a distinctive cello pizzicato phrase but the music soon returns to the flurry of its opening and a sudden end.
The gracious third movement has an odd time signature: “3/4 + 2/4 + 2/4”. In essence there are seven beats in the bar, creating a long-flowing melody launched by the piano. The strings add their comments but the piano tends to dominate particularly in the brief, slightly faster, central section. A meditation on the first part follows to round off this movement, with the piano adding a strong full stop. The finale is vigorous with further variants of the three-note idea from the first movement for both of its main themes. Marked very fast it thunders along without any hesitations to a robust conclusion. In a letter to his friend Elizabeth von Herzogenberg he commented I should think the Trio’s finale requires, first very careful handling, and then the reverse!
The Vela Ensemble
The Vela Ensemble is a new chamber collective which was founded by Siu Chui Li and Alex Redington. Other performers in the ensemble have included Charys Green (clarinet) Timothy Steggals (cello) who have also joined Alex and Siu in Linton. We are delighted to be performing with international cellist Bartholomew LaFollette for this concert.
Bartholomew LaFollette (cello)
Bartholomew LaFollette has a rich and varied career as an international solo cellist and chamber musician. Highlights with orchestra include performances of the Elgar and Dvořák Cello Concertos with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Walton and Elgar Cello Concertos in the Barbican Hall, as well as appearing as soloist with the City of London Sinfonia. He has also performed Brahms’s Double Concerto with Daniel Stabrawa and the Poznań Philharmonic in Poland, Elgar's Cello Concerto at the Sibelius International Music Festival in Helsinki and Shostakovich 1 with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra.
In great demand as a chamber musician, he has frequently worked with the award-winning Doric String Quartet with whom he recorded Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s String Sextet for the Chandos label. He also joined the Danish String Quartet on tour across the USA and Canada, as well as the Sitkovetsky Trio on tour throughout Australia and New Zealand. He has been invited to join Anthony Marwood’s Peasmarsh Festival, Lars Vogt’s Spannungen Festival in Heimbach, Benjamin Grosvernor and Hyeyoon Park’s Bromley and Beckenham International Music Festival, Open Chamber Music: Prussia Cove on multiple occasions (including the distinguished OCM Tour) and many others. In these settings he has also collaborated with artists including Steven Isserlis, Christian Tetzlaff, Ferenc Rados, András Keller, Philippe Graffin, Jennifer Stumm, Roman Simovic and Nicola Benedetti amongst others.
His debut CD of Brahms’s Sonatas for Cello and Four Serious Songs, with pianist Caroline Palmer, was released to great critical acclaim on the Champs Hill label. He made his BBC Philharmonic debut (on 6 hours notice) with a live radio broadcast of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto.
Bartholomew is Artistic Director of the Marryat Players Chamber Music Festival, now in its ninth year, which takes place in Wimbledon Village and welcomes internationally renowned artists.
As a YCAT artist (Young Classical Artists Trust) Bartholomew gave numerous performances at the Wigmore Hall, Barbican Centre, Royal Festival Hall, and Bridgewater halls. He went on to win first prize at The Arts Club's and Decca Records’ inaugural Classical Music Award. Bartholomew was also the first recipient of the Irish Chamber Orchestra's prestigious Ardán Award.
Born in Philadelphia, Bartholomew LaFollette has lived in Britain since the age of 13. He trained at the Yehudi Menuhin School, and later the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, from which he received two first class degrees. A dedicated educator, he has taught around the world on courses and festivals and at the age of twenty-six was appointed Professor of Cello at the Yehudi Menuhin School where he maintained an award-winning class for 10 years.
