by Brianna Suazo | Mar 7, 2023
Doors: 7:00 PM
Concert: 7:30 PM
Artists:
Brentano String Quartet
The 2023 Robert Mann Chamber Series continues with the “wonderful, selfless music-making” (The Times, London) of the Brentano String Quartet, Ensemble-in-Residence at the Yale School of Music. The program opens with Mozart’s intriguing “Hoffmeister” String Quartet, a chamber gem of character and complexity. Two touching memorial pieces by James MacMillan follow: his brief and delicate Memento and the miniature For Sonny, rife with pizzicato nursery rhymes and harmonies of shifting tones, composed to honor the memory of a friend’s grandson. It is fitting that Brentano ends their performance with one of the last and most profound pieces by Beethoven, since the Quartet takes its name from arts patron Antonie Brentano, believed to have been Beethoven’s mysterious “Immortal Beloved.”
Program:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, String Quartet No. 20 in D Major, K. 499
James MacMillan, Memento for string quartet (1994)
James MacMillan, For Sonny for string quartet (2011)
—
Ludwig van Beethoven, String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Op. 130
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by Brianna Suazo | Mar 7, 2023
Doors: 7:00 PM
Showtime: 7:30 PM
Artists:
Peter Oundjian, conductor
Joshua Bell, violin
In his first appearances as 2023 artist-in-residence, the one and only Joshua Bell performs Bruch’s First Violin Concerto. The great 19th century violinist Joseph Joachim, to whom the composer dedicated this masterpiece, considered this concerto to be “the richest, most seductive” of all German violin concertos. Bruch’s Violin Concerto has become one of the most legendary works for the instrument and is an exquisite vehicle for Bell’s showmanship. The second half features Mussorgsky’s instantly recognizable Pictures at an Exhibition, a suite of musical paintings inspired by the sketches of the composer’s close friend Viktor Hartmann. The program opens with Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient Carlos Simon’s Motherboxx Connection, the first movement of his Tales: A Folklore Symphony for orchestra; in Simon’s words the motherboxx is “an all-knowing entity that is aware of the multi-faceted aspects of blackness.”
Program:
Carlos Simon, “Motherboxx Connection” from Tales: A Folklore Symphony for orchestra (2021)
Max Bruch, Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor
—
Modest Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel)
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by Brianna Suazo | Mar 7, 2023
Doors: 6:00 PM
Concert: 6:30 PM
Artists:
François López-Ferrer, conductor
Grace Park, violin
This concert was created with Mozart fans in mind! Guest conductor François López-Ferrer begins with the delightful overture to Mozart’s tongue-in-cheek opera Impresario, followed by his ornate and impressive Third Violin Concerto, performed here by the “fresh, different and exhilarating” (San Francisco Chronicle) violinist Grace Park. The orchestral arrangement of his solemn Adagio and Fugue follows intermission, and the concert culminates with Mozart’s inventive Symphony No. 36, the “Linz,” which he composed in only four days after a surprise request while visiting the Austrian town of the same name.
Program:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, The Impresario Overture, K. 486
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major, K. 216
—
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Adagio and Fugue in C Minor, K. 546
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Symphony No. 36 in C Major, K. 425, “Linz”
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by Brianna Suazo | Mar 7, 2023
Doors: 7:00 PM
Concert: 7:30 PM
Artists:
Members of the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra
The Robert Mann Chamber Music Series continues by highlighting musicians from the Festival’s own ranks. Britten’s Phantasy Quartet begins with a march and proceeds with lively pastoral charm. Poulenc is a composer known for his aesthetic of irrepressible good humor; he called his jaunty but complex Sextet “an homage to the wind instruments I have loved from the moment I began composing.” Brahms’ sophisticated Second String Sextet is rich with nostalgia, but sweeps all sadness away in its warm, bright finale.
Program:
Benjamin Britten, Phantasy Quartet for Oboe and Strings, Op. 2
Francis Poulenc, Sextet in C Major for Piano and Winds, FP 100
—
Johannes Brahms, String Sextet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 36
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by Brianna Suazo | Mar 7, 2023
Doors: 7:00 PM
Concert: 7:30 PM
Artists:
Michael Christie, conductor and Music Director Emeritus
Michelle Cann, piano
“Fate, that fatal force” is the driving theme of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, with one of the most brilliant and virtuosic finales in all of music; Music Director Emeritus Michael Christie returns to conduct this mighty symphony. 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient Michelle Cann performs Ravel’s glittering Piano Concerto in G as well as Florence Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement; The Philadelphia Inquirer declared Cann’s recent performance “exquisite in both the Liszt-like technical sparkle and probing humanity of Price’s writing.”
Program:
Maurice Ravel, Piano Concerto in G Major
Florence Price, Piano Concerto in One Movement
—
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36
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