Chinese New Year
Evening Music | May 6, 2010
It’s the Chinese New Year; so we celebrate with many works from Chinese composers and performers, starting with the traditional “Little Path” from Suiyuan, sung by Ying Huang.
A bit later in our first hour, the Shanghai String Quartet presents eight Chinese folk songs as arranged by Zhou Long: “The Flowing Stream,” “When Will the Acacia Bloom,” and “A Single Bamboo Can Easily Bend” are just three of these evocatively titled offerings.
Olli Mustonen, who is playing solo at the 92nd Street Y on February 16th, brings us Grieg’s A-Minor Piano Concerto this evening, supported by the San Francisco Symphony under Herbert Blomstedt. Another pianist, Maria Luisa Cantos, offers Volume I of Joaquin Nin-Culmell’s Tonadas (he is Nin’s son).
Alban Berg was born this day way back in 1885. “To the memory of an angel” was the dedication he gave to his only violin concerto, which he was composing when he received news of the death of 18-year-old Manon Gropius, Alma Mahler’s daughter from her marriage to the famous architect. Violinist Pinchas Zukerman solos and Pierre Boulez leads the London Symphony. Berg’s Act III Interlude from “Wozzeck” will end our evening.
But don’t go yet. We still have the entire “Children’s Corner” suite by Debussy to treasure, in a memorable performance by Aldo Ciccolini at the piano. And the Ex Novo Ensemble shine as well, in Nino Rota’s Quintet for flute, oboe, viola, cello, and harp. Members of the New York Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble will be playing this very work at Merkin on Sunday, February 20th, just in case you’d like to hear it live as well...
» View today's selected reading from "The Writer's Almanac"
Hosted by Garrison Keillor
A bit later in our first hour, the Shanghai String Quartet presents eight Chinese folk songs as arranged by Zhou Long: “The Flowing Stream,” “When Will the Acacia Bloom,” and “A Single Bamboo Can Easily Bend” are just three of these evocatively titled offerings.
Olli Mustonen, who is playing solo at the 92nd Street Y on February 16th, brings us Grieg’s A-Minor Piano Concerto this evening, supported by the San Francisco Symphony under Herbert Blomstedt. Another pianist, Maria Luisa Cantos, offers Volume I of Joaquin Nin-Culmell’s Tonadas (he is Nin’s son).
Alban Berg was born this day way back in 1885. “To the memory of an angel” was the dedication he gave to his only violin concerto, which he was composing when he received news of the death of 18-year-old Manon Gropius, Alma Mahler’s daughter from her marriage to the famous architect. Violinist Pinchas Zukerman solos and Pierre Boulez leads the London Symphony. Berg’s Act III Interlude from “Wozzeck” will end our evening.
But don’t go yet. We still have the entire “Children’s Corner” suite by Debussy to treasure, in a memorable performance by Aldo Ciccolini at the piano. And the Ex Novo Ensemble shine as well, in Nino Rota’s Quintet for flute, oboe, viola, cello, and harp. Members of the New York Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble will be playing this very work at Merkin on Sunday, February 20th, just in case you’d like to hear it live as well...
» View today's selected reading from "The Writer's Almanac"
Hosted by Garrison Keillor
