An Introduction to Summermusic 2016: The 1st Program

It's obviously summertime, unless you've been afraid to come outside from under your air-conditioned rock, and now that the 4th of July Weekend has passed (before you know it, Labor Day's around the corner), that means it's time for Market Square Concerts' Summermusic 2016.

Which, I quickly point out, consists of three concerts, all three taking place inside at Market Square Church (on the square in downtown Harrisburg with its own garage right next door).

The first is Friday, July 15th at 8:00 – followed by Sunday's concert at 4pm and Tuesday's concert at 6:00pm (yes, that's 6pm)!

This year is also a little different than years past: our performers are part of Curtis On Tour, faculty and students from Philadelphia's famed Curtis Institute of Music going on-the-road that's part of the school's “learn by doing” philosophy.

Their first concert includes Beethoven's Violin Sonata in E-flat, Op. 12 and Mendelssohn's 1st Piano Trio (the one in D Minor) – and in between, two more recent works, the Four Rags by John Novacek for violin and piano and David Ludwig's Swan Song.

Sunday afternoon's concert opens with a string trio by Franz Schubert (D.581), the G Minor Piano Quartet of Mozart and the not-often-heard-(live-or-otherwise) Piano Quintet by Edward Elgar.

And Tuesday evening's concert – which begins at the untraditional time of 6:00 – three American quartets, if you will: Samuel Barber's Quartet (home of the original Adagio for Strings), and the quartet Antonin Dvořák composed while vacationing in Iowa and always known as the “American” Quartet.

But Tuesday's concert opens with the newest work on the series, the 2nd String Quartet by young American composer Jonathan Bailey Holland. Inspired by summers at Cape Cod, it's called “Forged Sanctuaries” and was commissioned by Curtis on Tour and the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival to celebrate 100 years of the National Park Service. This will be it's first performance ever, so it doesn't get much newer than that. I'll tell you more about the composer and his music in a subsequent post.

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The First Program of Summermusic 2016

Friday's performers include faculty members from Curtis, violinist Bella Hristova, cellist Soo Bae, and pianist Natalie Zhu.

Bella Hristova won the 2013 Avery Fisher Career Grant and at the award ceremony, played the “Red Violin Caprices” by John Corigliano, music for solo violin based on his film-score for The Red Violin:
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Natalie Zhu, winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2003, has recorded some Mozart sonatas with Hilary Hahn on the Deutsche Gramophon label. Here is their live performance of Mozart's G Major Sonata, K.301:
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Clearly, it would be easy to focus on the violinist (who will not be performing with us), but listen to the ensemble between pianist and violinist: Natalie Zhu, despite the miking in this performance, is clearly the violinist's equal, not just an accompanist.
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Soo Bae, winner of the Concert Artists Guild International Competition in 2005, has recorded the solo caprices of Alfredo Piatti for Naxos. This is his “Caprice on a Theme from Niobe by Pacini.”
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The program opens with one of Beethoven's earlier works, the Violin Sonata in E-flat the third of a set of three written in 1798 published as Op. 12 and dedicated, curiously, to the composer Antonio Salieri (though more of this in a subsequent post). Here's an incredible recording by the great Russian artists, violinist David Oistrakh and pianist Lev Oborin which, I believe, is from the set recorded in 1962.
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The program concludes with the 1st Piano Trio by Felix Mendelssohn, one of his most popular chamber music works. In this performance – complete with score – we hear a 2004 recording with the Beaux Arts Trio.
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In between, there are two modern works: the Four Rags for Violin & Piano by John Novacek need no explanation – just enjoy! Here's two of them, with violinist Ning Kam and pianist Albert Tiu:
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4th Street Drag

Full Stride Ahead

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I could find no complete audio of David Ludwig's Swan Song though you can hear a two-minute sample from the piece here (you'll need to scroll down to find it, the second selection under “Chamber & Solo”), a work written in 2013 for violin and piano inspired not by the Saint-Saëns chestnut but by the Schwannengesang of Franz Schubert, a collection of his final songs put together posthumously as a song cycle.

To give you an idea of Ludwig's music, here is a performance of his string quartet, Pale Blue Dot, written for the Dover Quartet, performing it here at Curtis in its “digital premiere” prior to its official "terrestrial" (world) premiere in July of 2015:
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You can read more about this work here (scroll down to find the program note supplied by the composer).

Stay tuned for other posts about the two remaining programs and more information about the works the members of Curtis on Tour will be performing.

Dick Strawser