The 30th year of concerts on historic pianos in Ashburnham continues September 7th with newcomers: Belarusian clarinetist Maksim Shtrykov (playing modern French instruments) will be accompanied by Misuzu Tanaka playing the Collection’s 1871 Streicher, the same model as Johannes Brahms’ studio instrument for his last 25 years, in a program that opens with Robert Schumann’s Fantasiestücke, Op. 73 (1849) and includes Brahms’ Sonatas in F Minor and E-flat Major, Op. 120, Nos. 1 and 2 (1894), and Carl Maria von Weber’s Grand duo concertant in the same key, Op. 48 (1816).
After a week’s hiatus, the Frederick Collection’s 1877 Érard “extra-grand modèle de concert, will be played by NYC-based Geoffrey Burleson, a Saint-Saëns specialist (The first 3 of his projected 5-volume complete traversal of the solo piano music are out on Naxos’ Grand Piano label and are excellent.). He will return on September 21st for his second recital here, offering, in addition to some Saint-Saëns, a Gavotte by Jean-Philippe Rameau (Saint-Saëns edited his complete Pièces de clavecin in 1895.), Maurice Ravel’s Miroirs (1904-5), two works by Franz Liszt, and Saint-Saëns’ transcription of a Scherzo from Georges Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de perles (1863). You can read my review of his first recital in these pages [here].
The following Sunday, September 28th, another newcomer, Canadian-born Amira Acre, who has appeared with several Boston area symphonies, will offer “A Portrait of Franz Liszt” featuring his Six consolations, S. 172 (1849-50) surrounded by two shorter works on the first half, and his Sonata in B Minor, S. 178 (1853; dedicated to Robert Schumann) on the second, playing the Collection’s 1846 Streicher [here].
On October 5th, NYC-based pianist Yi-heng Yang and Belmont-native cellist Kate Haynes return for their second engagement as a duo (You can read my review of their first one, in which Yang played the Tröndlin used today, in these pages [here]; both also appeared with Boston-based violist and Baroque violinist Sarah Darling as the Davidsbund Trio, with Yang again playing the Tröndlin, which I also reviewed [here].). Yang will play a third Streicher, the Collection’s 1868 one [here], and Haynes a cello made in 1999 by Di Cao in Boston, in a program that includes selections from Kinderszenen transcribed for this instrumentation by Franz Grützmacher, Brahms’ Sonatas in E Minor, Op. 38 (1862-65), and in F Major, Op. 99 (1886), and two Intermezzi, Nos. 3 and 4 of his [8] Klavierstücke, Op. 76 (1878).
The season will conclude on October 12th with another returning pianist, Clark University’s and Walnut Hill School’s Sima Kustanovich, making her third appearance with soprano Hardwick-native Darlene Ann Dobisch making her début on the series. Kustanovich will play the Tröndlin in a program of 18th– and 19th– century lieder and arias entitled “Myths, Fairy Tales, & Ghost Stories” and arranged chronologically (with the return of a composer for the concluding number) that features music by Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach (this year’s birthday boy), Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Weber, Gaetano Donizetti, Franz Peter Schubert, Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, and both Schumanns.
All concerts are at 4:00 in the Ashburnham Community Church. More information here.