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
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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36
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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
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Johannes Brahms, String Sextet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 36
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Orebolo, an acoustic trio featuring Rick Mitarotonda (vocals, guitar), Peter Anspach (vocals, guitar), and Jeff Arevalo (upright bass). The band, comprised of members of the emergent Connecticut rock group Goose. The project has built a faithful following nationwide, specifically after a series of virtual festival appearances in 2020, and an acclaimed performance at Lockn’ Presents FRED The Festival in August 2021. Formed during the height of the initial COVID-19 surge, the three band members shared a home and found comfort in both learning new covers and creatively exploring Goose’s deep catalog acoustically – a feeling they hoped to translate to those listening at home.
Despite the distant threat of rain – “the necessary shadow,” as the composer called it – Brahms’ Second Symphony is a sunny and idyllic work beloved for its rambunctious joy and its balance with that hint of cloud. Eun Sun Kim, a conductor of “assured technical command, subtlety and imagination” (New York Times), leads this program, which opens memorably with the “electro-acoustic soundworld” of Mason Bates’ Rhapsody of Steve Jobs. Gramophone calls Johannes Moser “one of the finest among the astonishing gallery of young virtuoso cellists,” and there is no finer showcase of Moser’s musical prowess than Shostakovich’s boisterous and demanding First Cello Concerto.
Program: Mason Bates, The Rhapsody of Steve Jobs (2021)
Dmitri Shostakovich, Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op. 107
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Johannes Brahms, Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73
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The 2023 Robert Mann Chamber Series opens with the esteemed JACK Quartet. Hailed by The New York Times as “our leading new-music foursome,” the JACK Quartet maintains an unwavering commitment to giving voice to underheard composers. In the quartet’s New York Stories program, “Two masters of New York’s downtown heyday, Philip Glass and John Zorn, bring stylistically divergent visions: a rollicking, romantic ride through a maze of patterns in Glass’ epic String Quartet No. 5, and a peek into the catacombs in Manhattan’s Upper West Side from John Zorn who brings medieval mystery to contemporary America. Caleb Burhans leads the listener in a healing ritual of absolution in Contritus, while Caroline Shaw pays homage to the father of the string quartet, Josef Haydn, in her Entr’acte. Morton Feldman finally reminds us of the pattern and structure all around us. New York: a city of Byzantine systems and countless ideas that defies tidy summary, but always fascinates and excites continued exploration.”
Program: Morton Feldman, Structures for String Quartet (1951)
Caleb Burhans, Contritus (2010)
Philip Glass, String Quartet No. 5 (1991)
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Caroline Shaw, Entr’acte (2011)
John Zorn, The Remedy of Fortune for String Quartet (2016)
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