Oxford May Music: In Memoriam

The theme for tonight’s concert is grief and the consolations that music provides to assuage it. Mozart’s only violin sonata in a minor key was written during his stay in Paris, where his mother, who had accompanied him, died. Smetana composed his piano trio in response to the death from scarlet fever of his eldest daughter at the age of four. 'Da pacem, Domine','“Give peace, oh Lord', was Pärt’s response to the Madrid train bombings of 2004. 'Blue ginger' was written last year in memory of Paul Dean’s father. Brahms was deeply moved by the death of his mother in 1865. The Horn Trio, as most likely his great German Requiem, was a response to that loss.