With Simplicity

Evening Music | May 6, 2010
Aaron Copland: “Music that is born complex is not inherently betteror worse than music that is born simple.” Interestingly, a first-movement episode of his Violin Sonata is marked “with simplicity.”
There is nothing simplistic about this engaging work however, as you will hear when violinist Gil Shaham is joined by pianist André Previn in a first-hour performance this evening. You can hear Gil live, along with his sister Orli on piano, as the two present works by Mozart and Prokofiev at Carnegie Hall on November 15th. But you can hear more of Gil later, right here on WNYC, as he joins Andre Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra in the daunting Violin Concerto by Samuel Barber.

No words are necessary to introduce hour two’s feature: Maurizio Pollini as soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5, the “Emperor,” Karl Bohm conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Hour three features the Harp Quintet by our birthday honoree, Sir Arnold Bax (1883). Skaila Kanga joins the English String Quartet as featured harpist in a chamber work beloved of harpists the world over.

Drumming us out, appropriately, is Part IV of Steve Reich’s “Drumming,” a work for tuned drums, marimbas, glockenspiels, voices, whistling, and piccolo. Hear Part I at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on November 13.

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