When war broke out in 1914, French composer Maurice Ravel was nearly 40 years old. Rejected by the air force due to age and a heart condition, he enlisted in the artillery and faced German bombardment until health problems drove him from the front.
Yet Ravel continued to compose throughout the war. At 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 16, members of the St. Louis Symphony will join faculty from the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences for “Music of the Great War” at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.
Presented in conjunction with the exhibition “World War I: War of Images, Images of War,” the program will open with violinist Erin Schreiber and flutist Andrea Kaplan performing the minuet from Ravel’s “Le tombeau de Couperin” (1914-17), a work he dedicated to fallen comrades.
Next, Kaplan will join violist Morris Jacob and harpist Megan Stout for Claude Debussy’s “Sonate pour flute alto et harpe” (1916). The program will conclude with Edward Elgar’s String Quartet in E minor, Op. 83 (1918), performed by Schreiber, Jacob, violinist Jane Price and cellist Ken Kulosa.
“Music of the Great War” is free and open to the public. The Kemper Art Museum is located near the intersection of Skinker and Lindell boulevards. “World War I: War of Images, Images of War” remains on view through Jan. 4, 2016.
For more information, call 314-935-5566 or email daniels@wustl.edu.