Author: VRS
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Beyond the Concert Hall: Steven Osborne
This is one of the videos in our Beyond the Concert Hall series. Our Beyond the Concert Hall series brings our audiences into the world of musicians and other creative industry professionals through intimate interviews. Beyond the Concert Hall featured interviews are updated here each season. You can watch all our archival interviews here.
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VRS CONCERTS IN THE MONTHS OF MARCH, APRIL AND MAY ARE CANCELLED DUE TO COVID-19
UDATE March 18, 2020 Given the precautionary measures being taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and the projection that social distancing may continue for the next few months, we have decided to cancel the remaining concerts in our 2019-20 Season. The additional cancelled concerts include: Pablo and Sara Ferrández, Beatrice and Ludovica Rana, and…
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PROGRAM NOTES: BENJAMIN GROSVENOR
Jean-Philippe Rameau Gavotte and Variations in A minor The modern pianist seeking to play the Baroque harpsichord repertoire faces many obstacles, starting with the friendly fire of his own trusty Steinway itself, so different in sound from the perky little plucked-string sound box for which this music was originally written. A note on the harpsichord…
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PROGRAM NOTES: SCHUMANN QUARTET
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Quartet in D major K. 499 “Hoffmeister” Mozart’s most accomplished string quartets are generally considered to be the ten he wrote after moving to Vienna in 1781, beginning with the set of six dedicated to Haydn, published in 1785 and ending with the set of three dedicated to the King Friedrich Wilhelm II…
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PROGRAM NOTES: STEVEN OSBORNE AND PAUL LEWIS
Gabriel Fauré Dolly Suite Op. 56 In the 1890s Gabriel Fauré would often compose or revise small pieces for the infant daughter of his mistress Emma Bardac (1862-1934). These affectionate pieces celebrated a birthday, a pet, or a special person in the life of the young Regina-Hélène, known in the family as “Dolly,” and six…
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PROGRAM NOTES: YUJA WANG
Baldassare Galuppi Andante from the Sonata in C major The Venetian musician Baldassare Galuppi was one of the most successful composers of the 18th century. While his prodigious output of vocal music, comprising more than 100 operas, did not survive in the repertoire, interest in his keyboard music was revived in the last half of…
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PROGRAM NOTES: DORIC STRING QUARTET WITH MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN
Jean Sibelius Quartet in D minor Op. 56 Voces Intimae Sibelius’ Quartet in D minor was completed in 1909 and has five movements, symmetrically arranged in an arch form around the lyrical third-movement Adagio, with scherzos on either side separating it from the opening movement and finale. The name Voces Intimae derives from a Latin…
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PROGRAM NOTES: FAUST QUEYRAS MELNIKOV TRIO
Ludwig van Beethoven Kakadu Variations in G major Op. 121a Beethoven’s Kakadu Variations comprise an introduction and 10 variations on a popular theme from the Viennese stage. It has a compositional history that extends over more than two decades, with a first version of the work likely dating from around 1803. By 1816 Beethoven had had…
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PROGRAM NOTES: LUCAS & ARTHUR JUSSEN
Johann Sebastian Bach Three Chorale Preludes (arr. György Kurtág) The chorale, a hymn setting of pious verse in simple note values, was a central element in Lutheran liturgical practice, whether sung in unison by the congregation, in four-part harmony by the choir in a cantata, or artfully arranged into a web of contrapuntal lines on…
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PROGRAM NOTES: GEORGE AND ANDREW LI
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Sonata in D major K. 381 for Piano Duet In the 1760s, when Wolfgang & his sister Nannerl were touring Europe as child prodigies, the keyboard duet was a popular novelty item on their programs, one that offered a fuller range of sound from a single instrument while still allowing each performer…