Parlance Chamber Concerts : Brentano String Quartet Today 4pm
Brentano String Quartet, Stephen Williamson, Principal Clarinet, NY Philharmonic and Hisn-Yun Huang, Viola in concert at 4PM Sunday October 27, 2013 at Westside Presbyterian Church in Ridgewood, NJ. Music performed will include selections by Beethoven, Mozart and Mendelssohn. Tickets available at ParlanceChamberConcerts.org or at the door. Free parking and childcare are provided.
Our October 27th opener will present the magnificent Brentano String Quartet, whose playing was featured in the acclaimed 2012 film drama A Late Quartet. The New York Times has called their playing “exhilarating…this intensely physical quartet is defined by passion.” The Brentano players will be joined by The New York Philharmonic’s new principal clarinetist, Stephen Williamson, and violist Hsin-Yun Huang in an afternoon of sparkling classics by Beethoven, Mozart, and Mendelssohn.
On November 17, it will be my pleasure to introduce the scintillating young pianist Conrad Tao, one of today’s most multidimensional artists. The only classical musician on Forbes’ 2011 “30 Under 30” list of people changing the world, the Chinese-American pianist is also an award-winning composer who was recently commissioned by the Dallas Symphony to compose a work observing the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, which will be performed in November of 2013. Conrad’s panoramic recital will include Ravel’s haunting, quicksilver dreamscape, Gaspard de la nuit, Mussorgsky’s bravura Pictures at an Exhibition, and his own dream-inspired piece, vestiges.
Our December 15th concert will showcase the artistry of four celebrated performers. Met Soprano Susanna Phillips (starring twice this season, both as Fiordiligi in James Levine’s comeback performances of Cosi fan tutte and as Rosalinde in the Met’s new production of Die Fledermaus) will be joined by the Met’s brilliant principal hornist Erik Ralske, the Emerson String Quartet’s violinist Philip Setzer, and the renowned collaborative pianist Warren Jones. Their program will include songs of Schubert and Strauss, a selection of Christmas favorites, and Brahms’s valiant trio for horn, violin, and piano.
On March 30, PCC will welcome back the extraordinary young cellist Nicholas Canellakis, who will be joined by two equally charismatic virtuosos, violinist Arnaud Sussmann and pianist Alessio Bax. Their far-flung musical journey will range from the hot-blooded gypsy world of Ravel’s Tzigane and Brahms’s Hungarian Dance No. 5, to the refined elegance of Mendelssohn’s D major cello sonata, to the full-throated passion of Anton Arensky’s D minor Piano Trio.
The season will culminate on April 27 with the return of the great Stephanie Blythe. She will collaborate with co-reciter Raymond Menard in William Walton’s gem of Jazz Age musical humor, Façade Entertainments. Inspired by the sophisticated, often subversive poetry of Edith Sitwell, Façade brought overnight success to Walton, as well as a reputation as the enfant terrible of modern English music. I will lead a stellar ensemble of principal players from the Met Orchestra.
Also included on the program will be a group of 1920s instrumental solos, including Erwin Schulhoff’s flapper-tinged Hot Sonata featuring Met saxophonist Lino Gomez; Victor Herbert’s touching ‘Songs’ for cello and piano with the Met’s lyrical principal cellist Jerry Grossman; Darius Milhaud’s bluesy flute Sonatine showcasing Met principal flutist Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson; and a selection of witty xylophone rags performed by Met principal percussionist Gregory Zuber. All of these works will be accompanied by pianist Warren Jones.
