At 4 in the afternoon this second Sunday in May (9), pianist Emma Tahmiziàn will play the first of Schumann’s 18 Davidsbündler-Tänze, finished in 1837, on a remarkable instrument. A piano made in 1846 by Johann Baptist Streicher, from Vienna, impressed her powerfully and indelibly during her unexpected encounter with it last summer. She resolved to take up the challenge of playing music she knows well on this historic instrument, of whose existence she had been entirely unaware, and whose sonic vocabulary presented her with new, unfamiliar interpretive challenges. In a conversation this week, Ms. Tahmiziàn exclaimed, with simplicity and characteristic spark, “Clara Schumann and Liszt… I’m playing their exact instrument this Sunday!” She says that the elegant Streicher grand summoned forth tone production and dynamic layers that she carries close to her heart, and which she had never before felt she could achieve so fully.
Old But Little-Known Chromatic Club Fullfills Expectations
by Larry Phillips
In its final concert of the season, the 123-year-old Chromatic Club of Boston presented two fine musicians, violinist Annie Rabbat and pianist Raquel Gorgojo, at the College Club on Sunday, May 23. They offered four pieces, sonatas by Mozart and Brahms, a Slavonic Dance by Dvorák, and a delicious bonbon by Fritz Kreisler.
Their music making was characterized by judicious tempos, good ensemble and a firm sense of form. [Click title for full review.]
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