Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

Join the final concert of of the Athenaeum Concert Series, Renewal from Ashes – War, Destruction, Remembrance, Peace. in its inaugural 2023-24 season, the Athenaeum Concert Series invited five celebrated guest artists to speak about and perform music composed at times of war.

For this finale concert, "Peace," internationally acclaimed pianist Logan Skelton considers the connections between Hungarian composer Béla Bartók and American composer George Gershwin. Both lived and worked in the early part of the 20th century. They both looked to the people for artistic and musical inspiration, Bartók finding his compositional voice through the study of East European folk music, and Gershwin through assimilating American popular music of the time. Both were pianists who combined their work as composers with great skill as performers, the piano being absolutely central to their music. And like so much of the world in the early 20th century, war was an ever-present background to their lives. 

Having lived through World War I, Bartók again experienced war through the beginnings of World War II. He eventually emigrated to America in 1940, settling in New York. Gershwin was a New Yorker through and through, born and raised in the city. In many ways, Gershwin’s music represents an outpouring of energy and American optimism in the period immediately following World War I. Bartók, too, had a period of great productivity between the wars, though his final years were a profound expression of uncertainty during World War II. As such, both artists gave voice to their times. While Gershwin’s music is a kind of celebration of joy during peacetime between wars, Bartók’s music often anxiously, even desperately longs for peace.