By WKTV Staff
St. Cecilia Music Center’s next Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center concert, scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 18 will feature Society co-artistic director Wu Han and five internationally acclaimed chamber musicians performing the works of Brahms and Dvořák — including selections from both Brahms’ and Dvořák’s “Piano for Four Hands” compositions with pianists Wu Han and Michael Brown playing together on one piano.
At the 7:30 p.m. concert Wu Han and Brown will be joined by violinists Chad Hoopes and Paul Huang, violist Matthew Lipman and cellist Dmitri Atapine. Tickets are still available.
The musical and personal friendship between Brahms and Dvořák is the stuff of legend, according to supplied information. Their pairing brings to life the creative energy that reverberated between the German neo-classicist (Brahms) and the champion of Czech folk music (Dvořák), producing a glowing array of classical music’s most essential works.
“Brahms and Dvořák were great friends. Brahms helped bring Dvořák’s music to the forefront in 1878. Brahms, who was seven years older than Dvořák, mentored him and helped him to realize financial gain for his artistic works including some of the selections to be performed at the January 18 SCMC concert,” Wu Han said in supplied material. “Michael Brown and I will play Dvořák’s ‘Selected Slavonic Dances for Piano, Four Hands’, the works that brought Dvořák his first significant sum of money through Brahms efforts in introducing him to the esteemed Berlin publisher Fritz Simrock. We will also perform Brahm’s ‘Selected Hungarian Dances for Piano, Four Hands’, which was inspired by Brahms’ special affection for Gypsy Fiddlers and their music.
“These selections, as well as the two others to be performed — ‘Trio in C minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 101’ by Brahms, and ‘Trio in C minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 101’ by Dvořák were incredibly popular during those times (1868 – 1891).”
For a video introduction of the concert, visit here.
The concert will also likely introduce Brown, a rising star in chamber music circles, to the grand Rapids audience.
“The January 18 concert at SCMC will bring some new faces, introducing us to the next generation of chamber music stars,” Cathy Holbrook, St. Cecilia executive director, said in supplied material. “I’m especially looking forward to the pieces for four-hand piano that Wu Han and newcomer Michael Brown will be performing. It’s not often that you can experience two artists performing on one piano simultaneously in a chamber music performance, which makes this concert very special.”
Concert tickets are $38 and $43, and can be purchased by calling St. Cecilia Music Center at 616-459-2224 or visiting the box office at 24 Ransom Ave. NE. Tickets can also be purchased online at scmc.org .
A pre-concert wine and hors d’oeuvres event for $15 is available and begins at 6:30 p.m. (reservations for the pre-concert reception need to be made by Monday, Jan. 15.)
There will also be a pre-concert talk with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center artists in the Royce Auditorium to discuss the music selection for the evening and any other questions that pertain to the artists themselves. A post-concert party is open to all ticket-holders giving the audience the opportunity to meet the artists and obtain signed CDs of their releases.
The final 2017-18 season performance by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center will take place April 19, with a performance including pianist Gilles Vonsattel, violinists Ida Kavafian and Erin Keefe, violist Yura Lee, cellist Nicholas Canellakis and clarinetist Tommaso Lonquich performing Mozart, Weber and Brahms.
