This February will see the launch of the 21st season of the Music in the Mishkan chamber music series presented by Music Director and violinist Randall Weiss. Performances feature Weiss and regularly appearing colleagues, all performing under the collective name The Bridge Players. This season the first and last concerts will feature the piano trio in which Weiss is joined by cellist Victoria Ehrlich and pianist Marilyn Thompson. The second concert of the season will be presented by a string trio in which violist Patricia Whaley will join Weiss and Ehrlich. Program details are as follows:
February 9: The title of the first program will be Russian to the Concert. The major work will be Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 50 trio in A minor. This will be complemented by the Opus 70 (second) piano trio in G minor by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. While Castelnuovo-Tedesco was born in Italy, he was aware of Russian influences, not only in the concertos he composed for violinist Jascha Heifetz and cellist Gregor Piatigorsky but also in his extensive work for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a film composer. The program will open with Thompson accompanying Weiss in a performance of Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 11a romance for violin and piano in F minor. (Opus 11 is the subsequent version for violin and orchestra.)
March 1: Readers may recall that the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) contribution to the two-month Violins of Hope project will be the February 23 installment of chamber music by SFS musicians, which will highlight the music of two Czech composers, both of whom were actively involved in cultural life in Theresienstadt concentration camp, Gideon Klein and Hans Krása. The selections of these composers will be given a second performance at the second Music in the Mishkan program, entitled Czech It Out. The program will begin with Klein’s string trio, followed by the two Krása selections, also composed for string trio, “Tanec” and a coupling of Passacaglia and Fugue movements, both composed shortly before his death in Auschwitz on October 17, 1944. The program will also include the 1939 duo for violin and viola by Hungarian composer László Weiner, who also was a victim of the Holocaust. The final work on the program predates not only World War II but also World War I. Hungarian composer Ernst von Dohnányi’s Opus 10 serenade for string trio in C major was composed in 1902.
April 26: Once again the title of the final program will reflect the composition to be performed during the second half. If the Schumann Fits … will present Robert Schumann’s Opus 63 (first) piano trio in D minor. As in the first concert, this trio will be complemented by a trio from the twentieth century, Arthur Foote’s Opus 65 (second) piano trio in B-flat major. The opening selection will be Alexander Krein’s Opus 16 for piano trio, given the title “Elegy.”
All three of these concerts will take place on a Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. As in the past, the venue will be Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, located at 290 Dolores Street at the northwest corner of 16th Street. Tickets for the general public are $25, but members of Congregation Sha’ar Zahav will be admitted for $20. There is also a discounted rate for the three-concert series of $65 for general admission and $50 for members of the congregation. Tickets may be purchased in advance with a credit card by calling Congregation Sha’ar Zahav at 415-861-6932. They may also be acquired online through a Web page, which supports online purchase of both single tickets and subscriptions. This Web page also allows for additional donations to Sha'ar Zahav. A wine and cheese reception will follow each performance.
No comments:
Post a Comment