By WKTV Staff
ken@wktv.org
The classic French music of Saint-Saëns, Fauré and Ravel. The masterful musicians of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The exquisite acoustics of the Royce Auditorium Performance Hall.
Sounds like a perfect night of “French Enchantment”.
St. Cecilia Music Center’s second chamber music series concert if the season, set for Thursday, Jan. 23, will begin and end with early works by Saint-Saëns and Fauré that “recreate the elegant atmosphere of 19-century Parisian salons,” according to supplied material. In between will be Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello, “written soon after World War I, where he used just two string instruments to produce a composition of unique, austere beauty.”
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center artists visiting for the concert will be pianist and co-artistic director Wu Han, violinist Paul Huang, violist Matthew Lipman, and cellist Clive Greensmith.
“We are truly excited about this unique concert, ‘French Enchantment’, with the Chamber Music Society, as they communicate, through music, the beauty of French history and culture,” St Cecilia executive director Cathy Holbrook said in supplied material. “The audience will experience four amazing artists performing French music within our intimate world-class Royce Auditorium Performance Hall.”
“French Enchantment” selections will include: Trio No. 1 in F major for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 18 (written 1863-1864) and composed by Camille Saint-Saëns; Sonata for Violin and Cello (written 1920-1922) and composed by Maurice Ravel; and Quartet No. 1 in C minor for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello, Op. 15 (written 1876-1879; Revised in 1883) and composed by Gabriel Fauré.
Ravel’s work, The Sonata for Violin and Cello, remains one of the most challenging, enigmatic, least-known, and fascinating of Ravel’s compositions.
“I believe that the sonata marks a turning point in my career,” Ravel said of the work. “Bareness is here driven to the extreme: restraint from harmonic charm; more and more emphatic reversion to the spirit of melody.”
The final Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center concert of the season will take place on April 30, with Wu Han and cellist David Finckel both returning to Grand Rapids to perform with violinist Arnaud Sussman and violist Paul Neubauer on a program titled “From Prague to Vienna” and featuring three composers who mentored and inspired each other: Brahms, Dvořák and Suk.
Tickets for the Jan. 23 chamber music concert are $45 and $40 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-online.org. Ticket-holders are invited to a pre-concert artist talk at 7 p.m. prior to the 7:30 p.m. concert.
A post-concert “Meet-the-artist” party, with complimentary wine will also be offered to all ticket-holders giving the audience the opportunity to meet the artists in person and to obtain signed CDs of their releases.
