The Berkeley Hillside Club Concert Series Presents

The London - Serper - Serper Trio

Sunday 13 March 2022

7:00 pm PDT

Admission: $20 general, $15 seniors & students, $10 Hillside Club members

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The Program:

Ludwig van Beethoven - Trio in Bb Major, for clarinet, cello and piano, Op.1

Johannes Brahms - Trio in A minor, for clarinet, cello and piano, Op.114

Arkadi Serper - Souvenirs for Clarinet, Cello and Piano

Nino Rota - La Passerella di Addio - Arr. by Arkadi Serper

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The Artists:

Larry London - clarinet

Emile Serper - cello

Arkady Serper - piano

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The Berkeley Hillside Club is pleased to mark its return to live-audience concerts with a performance by three very talented musicians, two of whom have appears several times in our Concert Series. The program features a pair of sublime trios from Beethoven and Brahams, as well as two wonderful contemporary pieces, composed or arranged by our pianist, Arkady Serper.

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Covid Safety Note:

In view of the continuing threat that Covid-19 presents to our community, we are limiting attendance at this event to patrons who have been vaccinated. All patrons must have a valid proof-of-vaccination card (one or two vaccinations plus a booster) and must wear a mask.

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About the program:

The two Trios in this program, Beethoven's Op. 11 and Brahms' Op. 114, from the Classical and Romantic periods respectively, are arguably the two greatest works for clarinet, cello and piano. 

Beethoven’s Trio in Bb major, op. 11, was composed in 1797, and it is one of a series of early chamber works that make use of woodwind instruments.  It was originally composed for clarinet, cello and piano, and it is written in Bb to assure some ease of playing for the clarinet, which at that time had only a few keys and had not yet benefited from the development of modern key systems.  

The Trio is in 3 movements.  The first movement is in sonata-allegro form;  the second movement is an Adagio; the third movement is a Theme and Variations, where the theme was taken from a popular comic opera by Joseph Weigl,  Marinaro Ossia Il Corsaro.  The theme, Pria ch'io l'impegno, loosely translated is "Before I work, I must eat." 

Brahms' Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano, Op. 114, composed in 1891,  is one of four late works featuring the clarinet as a primary instrument.  Brahms had planned to retire from composing after finishing his String Quartet in G major, but upon hearing the great clarinetist, Richard Mühlfeld, and seeing the possibilities for expression and technical freedom in his playing, Brahms wrote four important chamber works for clarinet:  two Sonatas, op. 119 and 120, for clarinet and piano,  Quintet, op. 115, for clarinet and string quartet, and this Trio, op. 114.  These are Brahms' last chamber works and are considered among his greatest.   

The Trio is in 4 movements.  The first movement is in a loose sonata-allegro form; the second movement, Adagio, is also in a similar, but more compressed, form;  the third movement, Andantino grazioso, is in 3/4 time, where the first half suggests a slow waltz, and the second half a livelier ländler.   The fourth movement, Allegro, is an exciting and concise finale.

Souvenirs for Clarinet, Cello and Piano were written by Arkadi Serper very recently. Composer was inspired by the unique combination of the instrumental timbres and two significant people in his life – his good friend Larry and his son Emile. The Suite has four movements. The first two, Danza in Seven and Tangoed are self-explanatory. The third movement So Long is a quazi-blues, and the last movement, Schtikele for Three is a Klezmer vignette with a slight poly-tonal touch.

Regarding Nino Rota’s La Passerella di Addio, arranged here by Arkadi Serper, the famous filmmaker Federico Fellini was asked: “What percentage of incredible success of your films do you attribute to music of Nino Rota?” Fellini smiled and answered: “100%!” It takes a great man and great artist to pay such honor, but for those who recall a marvelous ending sequence of the movie “8 ½” with the circus marching band, this footage, indeed, is inseparable from the hauntingly ironic and beautiful score of Nino Rota.

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About the artists:

Larry London did his undergraduate work at Harvard and earned a Master's degree in composition at Mills College.  He studied with Darius Milhaud, Terry Riley and Lou Harrison.  He has played clarinet in all of the Bay Area's professional orchestras and in various chamber ensembles, including the Troika Trio and the Jupiter Quartet. His compositions have been performed at the Aspen, Telluride and Cabrillo Music Festivals, by the Oakland Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony chamber series.   His opera, Dynamo, was premiered at the Telluride Chamber Music Festival in 2016.  

Larry has contributed as a composer, arranger or performer to over fifty films.  He composed the music for Isamu Noguchi: Stones and Paper,an American Masters documentary film, recognized as Best Portrait at the Montreal International Festival of Films in 1998.    He  wrote music for Poumy, A Bridge of Books, and Four Films About Love  in 2002 for New Jewish Film Projects.  He wrote music for Joann Sfar: Drawing From Memory, a film commissioned by French Public Television.    

Larry lives in Berkeley. He teaches music at Ohlone College and at the Crowden Music Center.

Arkadi Serper received his music education in Russia at the Gnesin State Musical College and Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. He enjoys a distinguished career as a pianist, composer and educator. He teaches Piano and Composition and Music Theory at the San Francisco Conservatory in the Preparatory Department and also at The Crowden School. He has written and published choral music for Kairos Youth Choir and compositions in original musical theatre. As an acclaimed composer, his symphonic and chamber compositions have been produced by several major orchestras. As a pianist, he continues to perform concerts, both as a soloist and chamber musician, locally and internationally. 

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Emile Serper studies with Jeremiah Shaw, founder of the acclaimed Telegraph Quartet, in whose studio Emile played masterclass workshops with internationally renowned cellist Bonnie Hampton. He is a four-year veteran of Young People’s Symphony, where he served two years as principal, and won the concerto competition in 2020. Emile performed in the Junior Bach Festival for six years, and currently he plays with the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. 

Emile is also an accomplished composer, studying with David Conte, distinguished chair of the composition department at SF Conservatory. Emile has won several awards including the Kris Getz Composer’s Scholarship Award in 2016 and 2018, and the San Francisco Contemporary Players Victor Salvo Award in 2020. His composition passion launched at an early age; at ten his choral setting of the “Ave Maria,” dedicated to environmental concerns premiered in 2012, was later published by Hal Leonard and is performed by choirs worldwide. 

Emile began his studies at UC Berkeley this fall as a math and music double major, after graduating from Tilden Prep and Oakland Tech High School. In his spare time, Emile works with Kairos Youth Choir as a music assistant, pianist, and coach. He also enjoys playing jazz (bass, cello), hiking, tennis, entertaining people with impersonations, and following the Oakland A’s. His Greek and Russian heritage comes to the fore in his love of friends and food!