Thrumming to Early Music

Two unusual guitars are featured as the evening begins: Paul Galbraith plays Bach’s Lute Suite No. 1 on an 8-string guitar, and Richard Savino plays a Baroque guitar in Boccherini's Guitar Quartet No. 6. We head into the 20th century with Bartok’s "Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta," in which he scored a divided string orchestra playing against a central percussion group. Then close the evening in a meditative mood: "…Like Water" refers to water’s “various manifestations such as ice, steam, and mist," says its composer, Bun-Ching Lam, who quotes the Chinese saying: "Years flow by like water." Ben Johnston’s "Ponder Nothing" (a set of solo clarinet variations on an old French hymn) reflects the composer’s interest in the no-mind meditation of Zen; the title refers to a line from the hymn: "Ponder nothing earthly minded."
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