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| Rolling Hills United Methodist Church, setting for a (non-chamber music) highlight from the first half of the season: Steven Vanhauwaert playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3, with the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, conducted by Charles Dickerson, in the "Second Sundays at Two" series, reviewed here. |
The 2019-2020 South Bay Season of Chamber Music: (2) January-June 2020
DAVID J. BROWN
The first half of this survey, covering September-December 2019, included a potted history of the South Bay’s three chamber music organizations and the four concert series for which they are responsible, so here I will just refer you to that previous posting for the background, and concentrate on the upcoming goodies that we can anticipate from Classical Crossroads Inc., the South Bay Chamber Music Society, and Rolling Hills United Methodist Church.
The SBCMS mounts its full-length programs on mid-month weekends at two venues: Los Angeles Harbor College, Wilmington (Friday evening), and the Pacific Unitarian Church, Montemalaga Drive, Rancho Palos Verdes (Sunday afternoon). Both are free of charge; the SBCMS welcomes donations. The pianist Robert Thies is the Artistic Director.
Classical Crossroads’ two series, the 45-minute “First Fridays at First!~fff” and the 60/80-minute “The Interludes”, both take place (again free of charge, with donations welcome) at First Lutheran Church and School, Torrance, respectively at lunchtime on the first Friday of each month and in the afternoon, typically of the third Saturday. The organist Karla Devine is Artistic Director.
The same “Interludes” programs are also given as “Music by the Sea” at Encinitas Public Library on the Friday evenings preceding the Saturday afternoons at First Lutheran, and then on the immediately following Sunday afternoons in Beverly Hills' historic Greystone Mansion (“Music In The Mansion”)—both these series with admission charges. To avoid confusion, the detailed listings below only reference the “Interludes” performances.
Finally, the one-hour “Second Sundays at Two” recitals, once again free of charge and funded by donations, slot neatly in—just when you’d expect from the series title—at Rolling Hills United Methodist Church, where Charles (Chuck) Dickerson is Director of Music. The pianist Steven Vanhauwaert is Artistic Director for the “Second Sundays at Two” series.
For many of these concerts apart from those mounted by the SBCMS, the repertoire to be performed has not yet been announced; as details become available the list will be updated. For those who cannot wait and in any case would like information about chamber music performances farther afield than the South Bay, Jim Eninger’s weekly Clickable Chamber Music Newsletter for Southern California is an invaluable resource. To receive the Newsletter regularly in your inbox, go to the sign-up page to register.
For many of these concerts apart from those mounted by the SBCMS, the repertoire to be performed has not yet been announced; as details become available the list will be updated. For those who cannot wait and in any case would like information about chamber music performances farther afield than the South Bay, Jim Eninger’s weekly Clickable Chamber Music Newsletter for Southern California is an invaluable resource. To receive the Newsletter regularly in your inbox, go to the sign-up page to register.
January 2020
• First Fridays at First!~fff, 12:15 p.m., January 3:
Duo Apollon (soprano Anastasia Malliaras and guitarist Aaron Haas, both Beverly Hills National Auditions winners from the USC Thornton School of Music) will perform Shenandoah from Jordan Nelson’s Three Sea Shanties; Three of Ravel’s Cinq mélodies populaires grecques (Nos. 1 Chanson de la mariée, 2 Là-bas, vers l’église, and 5 Tout gai!); Nos. 1 Reveilles-vous, 3 Le rossignol, and 4 Marguerite, elle est malade, from Four French Folk Songs by Matyas Seiber; Three folksong arrangements by Britten (I will give my love an apple, The Shooting of his Dear, and Sailor boy), and Schubert’s Ave Maria. This concert was reviewed here.
• Second Sundays at Two, 2 p.m., January 12:
Calder Quartet cellist Eric Byers and Chair of the Colburn Piano Faculty, Fabio Bidini, will be playing Schumann's Fantasiestücke, Op. 73, Stravinsky's Suite Italienne, and David Popper's Fantasy on Little Russian Songs Op. 43. This concert was reviewed here.
• South Bay Chamber Music Society, 8 p.m./3 p.m., January 17/19:
In a tribute to Clara Schumann (1819-1896) for her bicentenary, the Thies Consort (Robert Thies, piano; Jessica Guideri, violin; John Walz, cello; Phoebe Alexander Rosquist, soprano) will perform her Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 17, Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Op. 22, and a group of songs (Liebst du um Schönheit, Op. 12 No. 4, Er ist gekommen Op. 12 No. 2, Ich stand in dunklen träumen Op. 13 No. 1, Warum willst du and're fragen Op. 12 No. 11, Lorelei, and Sie liebten sich beide Op. 13 No. 2). They will end the concert with Brahms’ Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor, Op. 101. This concert was reviewed here.
• The Interludes, 3 p.m., January 18:
The four-hands piano duo So-Mang Jeagal and Hye Won Souh will play the "Grande Scherzo" arranged by Anderson & Roe from the finale to Act One of Mozart's Così fan tutte K.588; ballet music from Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice; two short pieces, Flower We Are, Frail Flowers and Perpetuum Mobile, from György Kurtág's compilation Játékok (Games); Nikolai Kapustin's Variations for piano, Op. 41; Fazil Say's Variations on Paganini's Caprice No.24; Schubert's Fantasia in F minor D. 940; and to conclude, four-hand arrangements of Leonard Bernstein's Candide Overture and "Mambo" from West Side Story.
February 2020
• First Fridays at First!~fff, 12:15 p.m., February 7:
In this recital, flutist Susan Greenberg and harpist Cristina Montes Mateo present a program of "Music Around the World": Adrian Schaposhnikov (Russia): Sonata for Flute and Harp (Minuet, Allegretto); Astor Piazzolla (Argentina): Histoire du Tango for Flute and Harp (Night Club, 1960); Joseph Lauber (Switzerland): Mediaeval Dances (Gaillarde); Gerardo Gombau (Spain): Apunte Bético for harp; Frank Brockett (U.K.): The Mocking Bird, for piccolo; Bernard Andrés (France): Narthex for Flute and Harp.
• Second Sundays at Two, 2 p.m., February 9:
“Stars of Tomorrow” from USC Thornton: This recital will be by the Zelter Quartet (Kyle Gilner and Kevin Tsao, violins; Nao Kubota, viola; Allan Hon, cello), winners of the USC Honors Quartet competition held in early December. USC Thornton Director of Chamber Music Karen Dreyfus collaborates with USC faculty violinist Lina Bahn in the choice of this competition's winning ensemble. The Zelter Quartet will be playing Mozart's String Quartet No. 16 in E-flat Major K. 428, and the first two movements of Bartók's String Quartet No. 2 Op. 17.
• South Bay Chamber Music Society, 8 p.m./3 p.m., February 14/16:
This will be an all-Baroque program of “Bach’s Circle”: Janice Tipton (flute), Allan Vogel (oboe), Elizabeth Baker (violin), Julie Feves (bassoon), Erika Duke Kirkpatrick, (cello), and Patricia Mabee (harpsichord) will play Telemann: Concerto in A minor; J.S. Bach: Trio Sonata from The Musical Offering, BWV 1079; Fasch: Sonata in B-flat; Telemann: Quartet in D minor from Tafelmusik; J.S. Bach: Sonata No. 4 for Violin and Continuo in C minor, BWV 1017; and Vivaldi: Concerto in D major P.201.
• The Interludes, 3 p.m., February 15:
“Voices of Central America”: the Argentinian soprano Camila Lima and Chilean tenor Xavier Prado will bookend their program with the duets "Torero Quiero Sé" from El gato montés by Manuel Penella, and “Nuit d’hyménée” from Gounod's Roméo et Juliette. In between, señora Lima will sing Del cabello más sutil by Fernando Obradors, Tosti's Cantares, La rosa y el sauce by Carlos Guastavino, and the aria "È strano... Sempre libera" from Verdi's La Traviata; señor Prado's solo items will be Tosti's L'ultima canzone, Massenet's Élégie, Non ti scordar di me by Ernesto de Curtis, “Com’e gentil” from Donizetti's Don Pasquale, and “Nessun Dorma” from Puccini's Turandot. Their accompanist will be Douglas Sumi.
March 2020
• First Fridays at First!~fff, 12:15 p.m., March 6:
The piano duo from Portugal—Peruvian-born Rosa Maria Barrantes and Portuguese Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro—met while studying at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. Their program “Souvenirs” will comprise the Waltz and Hesitation Tango from Barber’s Souvenirs Ballet Suite, Op. 26, five of the Portuguese Rustic Melodies by Fernando Lopes-Graça, and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a. This is the first half of a two-part recital concluding on…
• Second Sundays at Two, 2 p.m., March 8:
In this second appearance in one weekend by Rosa Maria Barrantes and Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro, the duo will reprise a celebrated recital they performed in Moscow, consisting of Fauré’s Dolly Suite Op. 56, Poulenc’s Sonata for Piano Duet FP8, and Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite. It will be illustrated with projections of paintings by Renoir, Odilon Redon, Picasso, Chagall, Maurice Denis, and Édouard Manet.
• South Bay Chamber Music Society, 8 p.m./3 p.m., March 13/15:
The Los Angeles Wind Quintet (Claire Brazeau, oboe; Don Foster, clarinet; Martin Owen, horn; + two other wind players TBA), will play selections of “Seasonal Winds” by J. Strauss II (Overture Die Fledermaus); Jennifer Higdon (Autumn Music); Hedwige Chrétien (Wind Quintet); Adam Schoenberg (Winter Music); Copland (Appalachian Spring) Beethoven (Three pieces for Mechanical Organ); Gershwin (Summertime); Barber (Summer Music); and Mendelssohn (A Midsummer Night’s Dream).
• The Interludes, 3 p.m., March 14:
The leading Czech violinist Pavel Šporcl, accompanied by the outstanding Russian pianist Svetlana Smolina, will perform an all-Czech program: Bedřich Smetana’s diptych Z domoviny (From My Homeland) JB 1:118, T 128 (1879-80); Dvořák’s Sonatina in G Major Op. 100, B 183 (1893); Bohuslav Martinů’s Czech Rhapsody, H 307 (1945); Šporcl’s own Bohemian Nostalgia; and the Introduction, Theme and Variations on Stephen Foster's "Old Folks at Home," by Jaroslav Kocian (1883-1950).
April 2020
• First Fridays at First!~fff, 12:15 p.m., April 3:
Piano recital by Steven Vanhauwaert.
• South Bay Chamber Music Society, 8 p.m./3 p.m., April 17/19:
The SBCMS season ends with a recital by Eric Byers (cello) and Kevin Kwan Loucks (piano) comprising Cassadó’s Toccata in the Style of Frescobaldi and Pastorale in the Style of Couperin; David Popper’s Fantasy on Little Russian Songs Op. 43; Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne, Schumann’s Fantasiestücke, Op. 73; and Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Op. 69.
• The Interludes, 3 p.m., April 18:
The Tandru Trio (Yasmina Spiegelberg, clarinet; Javier Iglesias-Martin, cello; Katelyn Vahala, piano) play clarinet trios by Brahms and Zemlinsky.
May 2020
• First Fridays at First!~fff, 12:15 p.m., May 1:
Recital by the Vienna-based Latsos Piano Duo—Anna Fedorova from Russia and Giorgi Latso from Tbilisi, Georgia.
• Second Sundays at Two, 2 p.m., May 10:
Solo recital by the Berlin-based Israeli pianist Einav Yarden.
• The Interludes, 3 p.m., May 16:
Recital by Russian-born Latvian cellist Max Beitan and Santa Barbara-based Italian pianist Jacopo Giacopuzzi.
June 2020
• First Fridays at First!~fff, 12:15 p.m., June 5:
The final concert of this season will be a recital by whoever is the winner of Peninsula Symphony’s 2020 Knox Concerto Competition.
• Second Sundays at Two, 2 p.m., June 14:
In this season finale, the series Artistic Director Steven Vanhauwaert and the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles under Charles Dickerson follow up their highly successful performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor Op. 37 last November with the 250th Birthday Boy's next work in the genre, the Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major Op. 58.
• The Interludes, 3 p.m., June 21:
This season ends with a “Reeds Only” recital by the Syrinx Quintet (Victoria Lee, oboe; Micah Wright, clarinet; Mathieu Girardet, bass clarinet; Patrick Olmos, saxophone; Jeffrey Wasik, bassoon), including works from Bach (excerpts of the Goldberg Variations BWV 988) to Ravel and Villa-Lobos.
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