The upcoming Intermezzo program is billed as "The French Connection."
While all three featured composers — Faure, Franck and Widor — are French, they are also late- or post-Romantic composers, writing in a lush, beautiful style.
"I think it will be a very interesting, very accessible program," said Karlyn Bond, who will be a featured performer. "It's a very dramatic and emotionally evocative program."
The concert begins with a piano quartet by Gabriel Faure. "Faure has a style that's definitely unique," Bond said. "It's a four-movement work, and it's a little bit like a late-Romantic, French Brahms — very sweet melodies, beautiful harmonies and harmonic progressions."
Lun Jiang (violin), Roberta Zalkind (viola) and Pegsoon Whang (cello) — all members of the Utah Symphony — will be joining Bond for the Faure quartet.
Bond also mentioned that the four have worked together in other settings under the auspices of "Quattro Amici," so they get along well as a musical team.
"The Widor is a lighter piece," said Bond of the second work, Suite for Flute and Piano. "Of all the works on the program, that's probably the most classical."
She said that both she and Lissa Wildman, the flutist, feel that the influences of Widor's organ writing can be heard. "It would be easy to imagine his extreme registral scoring for organ in this work, because it utilizes the extreme ranges of both the piano and the flute. It's full of dialogue, and there are movements that I don't think really resemble any other composers really clearly. And then there's one movement that's very Schumann-esque."
The last work on the program, Franck's Piano Quintet, is described by Bond as being very "purple." "It's very, very expressive and somewhat melodramatic, with a lot of chromaticism, a lot of very, very rich harmony.
"It reveals a tremendous influence of Franz Lizst, especially in the pianistic writing, and there are long, sweeping, hyper-expressive melodies that reappear over the course of the three-movement work. It's somewhat cyclic."
Bond said that violinist David Porter will join the other quartet members for this piece. "It's a great mix of personalities and perspectives. Combined, they all bring a great combination of emotional sophistication and artistry.
"Lun brings tremendous drama and passion to his music, and David brings a lot of refinement. Pegsoon and Roberta, I see them both as being very, very sophisticated interpreters."
And although Wildman won't be playing in the quintet, Bond said she has worked with her extensively and finds her to be "a meticulous worker who pays tremendous attention to detail."
If you go . . .
What: Intermezzo
When: Monday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Vieve Gore Concert Hall at Westminster College
How much: $15 general admission, students free
Phone: 230-2817
E-mail: rcline@desnews.com