Tears, Joys, Heroes

Benjamin Britten's Lachrymae ("Tears"), is a touching set of variations on a song by Elizabethan composer John Dowland, unusual in that the music moves towards the theme, rather than away from it. Two short vibraphone-marimba duets follow, then a genial witty trio by Darius Milhaud. John Novacek concludes the concert with a heroic early sonata by Beethoven, that looks back to Beethoven's mentor Haydn, and forward to the great sonatas of his middle years.