Old First Concerts: March, 2021

Cellist Anita Graef (from her Old First Concerts event page)

As is this case for this month, Old First Concerts has scheduled only one performance for next month. This will be a recital by Chicago-based cellist Anita Graef, who will be accompanied at the piano by Louise Chen. She has prepared a program with an imaginatively innovative perspective on music history.

The most “traditional” composition on the program will be Robert Schumann’s Opus 70, a coupling of Adagio and Allegro movements in A-flat major, originally composed for horn and piano. This offering will be preceded by one about a century later composed by the Argentine musician Ángel Villoldo, regarded as one of the pioneers of tango. Graef will play Teagan Faran’s arrangement of Villoldo’s “El Choclo,” still one of the most popular tangos in Argentina. The Schumann offering will then be followed by another tango, “Le Grand Tango” by Astor Piazzolla, composed in 1973. This will be followed by another work composed in the same year, a jazz-influenced sonata for cello and piano by David Baker, which will conclude the program. Graef will begin her program with a solo performance in “Cajón” by Nina Shekhar, currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Music Composition at Princeton University.

As is currently the case, this concert will be live-streamed through YouTube. The specific link to the YouTube streaming will be found on the event page for this concert. The performance will take place at 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 14; and a hyperlink to the program notes will be added to the event page a few hours before the beginning of the concert. There will be no charge for admission, but all are invited to choose an amount to donate through the hyperlink on the event page. As usual, any changes in current plans will be updated through the Web page you are currently reading and the Facebook shadow site for this series of articles.

[added 2/25, 12:15 p.m.: Two concerts have been added to the March schedule with hyperlinks to their respective event pages:

Sunday, March 21, 4 p.m.: Readers may recall that the concert by the Ives Collective, originally scheduled for this past January 24, was cancelled. The group has now set a new date. Artistic Co-Directors violinist Susan Freirer and cellist Stephen Harrison will begin the program with the 1958 (second) duo composed by Bohuslav Martinů. They will then be joined by pianist Gwendolyn Mok for the previously scheduled performance of Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 65 trio in F minor.

Sunday, March 28, 4 p.m.: The annual Junior Bach Festival will proceed as usual with a streamed performance of its Honors Concert.]