Songs by Antoine Tamestit and Ying-Chien Lin, and Musicians from Ravinia's Steans Institute:Clarke: Sonata for Viola and Piano (1919)Fauré: Piano Quartet No. 1 in C MinorThis week, we’ll hear two works by young composers who benefited mightily from various efforts to support the creation of new chamber music—one in 20th-century Massachusetts, and the other in 19th-century France.First up is the Sonata for Viola and Piano by Rebecca Clarke, a name that is likely new to many of us. She was an accomplished violist, and after leaving home in 1910, she supported herself by performing throughout England, the British colonies, and the US.In 1919, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge—an influential patron of contemporary chamber music—invited Clarke to enter a composition competition she sponsored each year through the Berkshire Festival of Chamber Music. A work by Ernest Bloch won, but Clarke’s viola sonata went on to earn an enduring place in the viola repertoire. Clarke, alas, wrote relatively few works over the course of her career; in total, about 100 works survive, and of those only 20 were ever published. Looking back, Clarke called the viola sonata “my one little whiff of success.” We’ll hear it performed by violist Antoine Tamestit and pianist Ying-Chien Lin.Next, we’ll hear a chamber work from a more familiar source: Gabriel Fauré. The composer himself premiered the work with the National Music Society—an organization dedicated to the presentation of new chamber music, founded by Saint-Saëns in 1871. The founding of the society brought new opportunities for the performance of instrumental chamber music, and with it the impetus to compose such works. On today’s podcast, we’ll hear it performed by Musicians from Ravinia’s Steans Institute. We begin, however, with Rebecca Clarke’s viola sonata.