Sunday, April 6, 2008

Program

Jean Michele Damase Seven Variations for Wind Quintet, Opus. 22 (1951)

Elliott Carter Woodwind Quintet (1948)

Samuel Barber Summer Music for Wind Quintet, Opus 31 (1957)

Vincent Persichetti Pastoral, Opus 21 (1951)

Irving Fine Partita for Wind Quintet

Gyorgi Ligeti Six Bagatelles (1953)

Created in 1994 by five eminent woodwind soloists, WINDSCAPE has won a unique place for itself as a vibrant, ever-evolving group of musical individualists, an “unquintet” which has delighted audiences throughout the US, Canada, and Asia. WINDSCAPE’s innovative programs and accompanying presentations are created to take listeners on a musical and historical world tour–evoking through music and engaging commentary vivid cultural landscapes of distant times and places.As Artists-in-Residence at the Manhattan School of Music, the members of WINDSCAPE are master teachers, imparting not only the secrets of instrumental virtuosity, but also presenting distinctive concerts, hailed for creative energy and musical curiosity.

The current season will take Windscape from coast to coast, with concerts in Portland, OR and at Wolftrap in Vienna, VA. Past seasons include performances at Carnegie Hall with the New York String Orchestra, at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as recitals in Philadelphia, Madison, WI, Charlottesville, VA and Reno, NV, in addition to other cities around the US. Recent highlights include their Kennedy Center debut, tapings for NPR’s “Performance Today” and Minnesota Public Radio’s “St. Paul Sunday,” a performance “Live From Glenn Gould Studio” for CBC-Toronto, and a tour of New Zealand. Windscape has given concerts and masterclasses in Boston, New York, San Francisco, College Park, Des Moines, Omaha, and Winter Park, FL, among other cities. Esteemed chamber musicians with whom they have collaborated include Eugene Istomin, Andre Michel Schub, John Kimura Parker, Jeremy Denk, and Anne Marie McDermott.

The April 6th concert will take place at 4:00 pm at the Wilton Congregational Church, just north of Wilton Center on Route 33. For non-subscribers, tickets will be available at the door one half hour prior to performance for $25 (Seniors pay $20, students $10). For more information on this concert or the Candlelight Concerts series, or to get on our mailing list, phone 203-762-3401. Candlelight Concerts benefit the Wilton Library. We gratefully accept tax deductible contributions from individuals and corporations.

Sunday, January 20, 2008
Program

Dvorak Sextet in A Major, Op. 48
Martinu Sextet
Brahms Sextet in B-flat Major, Op. 18

In the past decade Concertante has acquired a sheen, warmth, and polish only a few ensembles ever achieve. Comprised of a core of six virtuoso string players, the group performs in varied combinations of instrumentalists. As solo performers who have won major national and international music competitions, they have graced the premier stages of the world from New York’s Carnegie Hall to London’s Royal Festival Hall to Shanghai’s Grand Theatre.

Concertante has performed a wide array of repertoire ranging from works by established masters to less commonly performed composers. The ensemble members — Alexis Pia Gerlach, Ara Gregorian, Zvi Plesser, Ittai Shapira, Rachel Shapiro, and Xiao-Dong Wang — all have an interest in furthering the cause of new music. To this end, they have launched a new series entitled One Plus Five, a series of six world premieres by Lowell Liebermann, Tigran Mansurian, Gabriela Frank, Shulamit Ran, Richard Danielpour, and Kevin Puts. To date, Concertante has premiered the works of Josef Bardanashvili, Justine Chen, Tina Davison, Steven R. Gerber, David Ludwig, Jan Radzynski, Sheila Silver, and Oded Zehavi. It has also offered infrequently performed chamber works by such celebrated composers as Enesco, John Adams, Schoenberg, Martinu and Schulhoff. As an ensemble, Concertante has performed across America, gathering rave reviews from such publications as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post, and appearing on Minnesota Public Radio’s St. Paul Sunday. Concertante performs regularly at Merkin Hall in New York City as well as being the Resident Chamber Music Ensemble of the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts in Harrisburg, PA.

The Sunday, January 20th Concertante concert will take place at 4:00 p.m. at the Wilton Congregational Church, just north of Wilton Center on Route 33. For non-subscribers to the series, tickets will be available at the door one-half hour prior to the performance for $25 ($20 for seniors, $10 for students). For more information on this concert or the series, phone 203-762-3401. The Candlelight Concerts series is a non-profit organization which benefits the Wilton Library. We gratefully accept tax deductible contributions from individuals and corporations.

For more information about Concertante, visit their website.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Program:

Charles Wuorinen: Christe of Josquin des Prez
Olivier Messiaen: Petites Esquisses d’Oiseaux
J.S. Bach: Capriccio on the Departure of the Beloved Brother
J. Brahms: Thema mit Variationen (1860)
J. Brahms: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Händel, Op. 24 (1861)

Recognized as an artist of passion and integrity, American pianist Peter Serkin is one of the most thoughtful and individualistic musicians appearing before the public today. Throughout his career he has successfully conveyed the essence of four centuries of musical repertoire and his performances with symphony orchestras, recital appearances, chamber music collaborations, and recordings are respected worldwide.

Peter Serkin’s rich musical heritage extends back several generations. His grandfather was violinist and composer Adolf Busch, and his father, pianist Rudolf Serkin. In 1958, at age eleven, he entered the Curtis Institute of Music and a year later made his debut at the Marlboro Music Festival. Since that time, he has performed with the world’s major symphony orchestras, and has played chamber music with Alexander Schneider, Pablo Casals, Pamela Frank, Yo-Yo Ma, Budapest String Quartet, Guarneri String Quartet, Orion String Quartet, and Tashi.

Ranging from Bach to Berio, Peter Serkin’s recordings reflect his distinctive musical vision. The Ocean that has no West and no East, recently released by Koch Records, contains compositions by Webern, Wolpe, Messiaen, Takemitsu, Knussen, Lieberson and Wuorinen. In June, 2000, BMG released a recording of Serkin performing three Beethoven sonatas. Other recent recordings include the Brahms violin sonatas with Pamela Frank, Dvorak’s Piano Quintet, Op. 81, with the Orion String Quartet, quintets by Henze and Brahms with the Guarneri String Quartet, Bach double and Triple keyboard concerti with András Schiff and Bruno Camino, and Quotation of Dream with Oliver Knussen and the London Sinfonietta, featuring Music of Takemitsu.

Peter Serkin is on the faculties of The Juilliard School, the Curtis Institute of Music, and the Tanglewood Music Center. He lives in Massachusetts,with his wife Regina, and is the father of five children.

The November 25th concert takes place at 4:00 pm at the Wilton Congregational Church, just north of Wilton Center on Route 33. Non-subscribers to the Candlelight series may purchase tickets at the door one-half hour prior to performance for $25 ($20 for seniors, $10 for students). For more information on the series, or to subscribe, call 203-762-3401. The Candlelight Concerts series benefits the Wilton Library.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Program:

Haydn: String Quartet in C Major, Op. 74, No.1
Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13
Bartok: String Quartet No. 5

The Orion String Quartet gained immediate attention in the classical music world when its founding members, each with distinguished solo and chamber music careers, officially formed the ensemble in 1987. The Quartet chose its name from the Orion constellation as a metaphor for the unique personality each musician brings to the group in its collective pursuit of the highest musical ideals.

The members of the Quartet – Daniel Phillips, Todd Phillips, Steven Tenenbom, and Timothy Eddy — maintain a strong dedication to the next generation of musical artists and serve on the faculties of the Mannes College of Music, Curtis Institute of Music, Juilliard School and Queens College, where they teach private lessons, give chamber music classes and offer intensive coaching programs for young professional string quartets. They have also served as faculty members of the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop at Carnegie Hall and the Summer Institute for Advanced Quartet Studies in Aspen. Since 1993, the Orion String Quartet has maintained a summer residency at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

Since its inception, the Orion String Quartet has been consistently praised for the fresh perspective and individuality it brings to performances, offering diverse programs that juxtapose classic works of the standard quartet literature with masterworks by living composers. During the 2007-2008 concert season, the Orion will partner with clarinetist David Krakauer to perform a program featuring David Del Tredici’s new work, Magyar Madness, a work commissioned by Music Accord specifically for the ensemble. This fall, the Orion will also collaborate with Leon Fleischer at Ravinia, and Ida Kavafian and David Soyer in Philadelphia . The Orion will give the world premiere of a Lowell Liebermann string quartet commissioned for the ensemble at the Canandaigua Lake Chamber Music Festival in February, 2008.

The Orion Quartet opens the 60th Candlelight Concerts season on October 28, 2007 at 4:00 pm at the Congregational Church in Wilton, CT (on Route 33, just north of Wilton Center). For non-subscribers, tickets may be purchased at the door for $25 ($20 for seniors, $10 for students). For more information on subscriptions, please phone 203-762-3401. Candlelight Concerts gladly accepts tax deductible individual and corporate donations, and benefits the Wilton Library.

For more information about the Orion String Quartet, visit their website.