Art & Life
Evening Music | May 6, 2010
The evening begins with Felix Mendelssohn's 1812 String Symphony No. 12, in an original-instruments performance by Roy Goodman and The Hanover Band. Ervin Schulhoff's Symphony No. 1 was composed over a century later, in 1925; folkloric references add to its vigor and joyfulness. Duke Ellington was born 105 years ago today, so we pay tribute by offering his "Liberian Suite," a work commissioned for the first centennial of Liberia, and one in which great joy contrasts with ominous gloom.
Our second birthday-boy of the evening is Australian Peter Sculthorpe, whose String Quartet No. 13, "Island Dreaming," features a mezzo-soprano as well as the traditional four string players. Anne Sofie von Otter and the Brodsky Quartet, for whom the work was originally composed, do the honors. Finally, it's back to Bach, as Rachel Podger's violin negotiates the strings in the Sonata No. 5, BWV 1018.
Our second birthday-boy of the evening is Australian Peter Sculthorpe, whose String Quartet No. 13, "Island Dreaming," features a mezzo-soprano as well as the traditional four string players. Anne Sofie von Otter and the Brodsky Quartet, for whom the work was originally composed, do the honors. Finally, it's back to Bach, as Rachel Podger's violin negotiates the strings in the Sonata No. 5, BWV 1018.
