A Special Presentation of Prairie Performances

On this special episode of Prairie Performances, we welcome composer, pianist, and theremin player Joy Yang to the studio to discuss her recent performance at WILL’s very own Campbell Hall. The piece we will hear her perform, “Basso Ostinato,” was written by Soviet Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin. Born in 1932 and still alive at the time of this recording, Shchedrin may not be as widely known in the Euro-American classical world, but is an influential figure in the world of Russian classical music. Joy Yang will discuss the foreboding nature of the piece’s persistent ostinato, and finding joy (and Joy) in the darkness. 

 

After that, members of the Sinfonia de Camera perform Johannes Brahm’s Piano Quintet in F minor—a piece composed at a creative crossroads for the composer, and one that went through quite the journey before becoming the work we hear performed in concert halls today. Originally conceived as a string quintet with two cellos, Brahms rewrote the work as a sonata for two pianos, before fellow composer Clara Schumann encouraged Brahms to return the music to strings, which led him to rework the piece into a piano quintet. When Brahms showed the final work to conductor Hermann Levy, Levy proclaimed that the piece was so perfect, no one would ever know it had been written for anything other than a piano quintet. 

Please join us Thursday July 24th at 7pm on WILL 90.9 Classical FM or Available for Stream Here on Friday July 25th 2025.