Calendar

On February 15, Van Cliburn gold medalist Jon Nakamatsu - in his only NYC appearance this season – returns to perform chamber music with clarinetist Jon Manasse, cellist Bion Tsang and violinist/Artistic Director Stephanie Chase.

Jon Manasse and Jon Nakamatsu

This program features music by Beethoven, Poulenc and Dvorak that reflects on life and its necessities, friendship, and nationalism.  It will take place at Christ & St. Stephen’s Church, located at 120 West 69th Street in New York City.  The concert will start at 8:15 and is preceded by a talk at 7:30.

BEETHOVEN – Trio for piano, clarinet and cello, Op. 11
POULENC – Sonata for clarinet and piano, FP184
DVORAK – Piano Trio No. 4 “Dumky”

Beethoven’s delightful trio is partly inspired by a popular Viennese song containing the phrase “Before I go to work, I need something to eat.”

Dedicated to his friend Arthur Honegger, a fellow member of Les Six, Poulenc’s Sonata was commissioned by jazz great Benny Goodman, who premiered it (after Poulenc’s sudden death in 1963) with pianist Leonard Bernstein.

The word “Dumky” refers to the dumka, or an epic ballad of a somber nature containing contrasting cheerful sections.  Dvorak’s “Dumky Trio” is among his most beloved chamber music compositions and dates from 1891.Admission at door: $30, $20 student/senior, cash or check only.  Doors open at 7:15 p.m.  Advance tickets are available at Brown Paper Tickets.

For more information, visit the Music of the Spheres Society.

Poet Emily Dickinson

A note from Artistic Director Stephanie Chase: Please join us for a concert that explores new and recently-discovered music composed between 1800 and 2012.

We will feature the premiere of “At last, to be identified!” – with poetry by Emily Dickinson in a new chamber music setting by the American composer Richard Pearson Thomas (born 1957) – along with works by Mendelssohn and Paganini that were first published in 1953 and 2009, respectively. The Piano Trio No. 2 by Camille Saint-Saëns concludes the program and is a work that I “discovered” only last year and want to share with you.

Violinist Stephanie Chase will be joined by cellist James Wilson, pianist Todd Crow, and soprano Hope Hudson.

The concert will take place at Christ & St. Stephen’s Church, located at 120 West 69th Street, New York, NY and will begin at approximately 8:15 pm. Admission is at the door: $30, $15 student/seniors, requested contribution, cash or check only. Please note that the doors open at 7:15 pm.

Pre-concert talk at 7:30 by Stewart Pollens (included in concert admission): Casino Paganini

For more information, please visit www.musicofthespheres.org.

On March 11, 2011 the Music of the Spheres Society will present a chamber music concert featuring works by César Franck and his circle, including music by his teacher Anton Reicha and friends Gabriel Fauré, Ernst Chausson, and Eugène Ysaÿe.

The concert will take place on at Christ & St. Stephen’s Church, which is located near Lincoln Center at 120 West 69th Street in New York City.  The heart of the program features Franck’s compelling Piano Quintet, along with a piano trio (Opus 101, No. 3) by Reicha, short works by Chausson and Fauré, and Ysaÿe’s String Trio.

The String Trio (Le Chimay, which is also the name of a Belgian Trappist ale brewed in that city), was composed in 1927 by Eugène Ysaÿe but never published.  It was discovered in manuscript form only about ten years ago and first performed by the Gaede Trio.  In a review of a 2004 performance, Los Angeles Times music critic Mark Swed wrote that

‘Le Chimay’ might be described as French Expressionism with a bit of Surrealism thrown in. It also might be described as just plain weird. It is full of extravagant string writing, which is to be expected, but not the seemingly incompatible influences of Debussy, Franck and Schoenberg, who get along just fine here.  Agitated melodramatic passages half resolve into intoxicating lyricism. Storm clouds come and go, propelled by unpredictable breezes. Nothing ever settles for long.

Violinist and Artistic Director Stephanie Chase will be joined by violinist Harumi Rhodes, violist Hsin-Yun Huang, ‘cellist Sophie Shao, and pianist William Wolfram.

The concert starts at 8:15 p.m. A pre-concert talk bill be given at 7:30 p.m. by organologist and author Stewart Pollens  and is included in concert admission: “Francois-Xavier Tourte and the Invention of the Modern Violin Bow.”

Admission at door: $30 adult, $15 student/senior requested contribution. Doors open at 7:15 p.m.

Visit www.musicofthespheres.org for more information.

Monday, October 25, 2010 at 8 p.m.

Frederick Loewe Theatre
35 West Fourth Street
New York, NY

This concert is presented by New York University as part of its Distinguished Faculty series.  It is open to the public and admission is free.

The program features the Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 78 by Johannes Brahms, the Sonata for Violin and Piano by Leos Janacek, Four Pieces for Violin and Piano, Op. 7 by Anton Webern and the Sonata No. 9 (“Kreutzer”), Op. 47 by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Stephanie Chase is “one of the violin greats of our era.” — Newhouse Newspapers

“Pianist William Wolfram combined elegance and clarity in his playing, with the virile, propulsive energy and mercurial shifts of mood needed to make this music come to life.” — Jules Langert, San Francisco Classical Voice

For more information about this event, call (212) 998-5424 or visit the NYU calendar at www.events.nyu.edu.  For more information about Stephanie Chase, please visit www.stephaniechase.com.

Music of the Spheres Society
“Sound Travels Through Vienna”
Friday, February 26, 2010 at 8:15 pm

Christ & St. Stephen’s Church
120 West 69th Street (between Broadway and Columbus)
New York, NY 10023

Admission at door: $30, $15 senior/student, requested contribution. Cash or check only.

Krenek: Sonata No. 2 for violin solo (1948)
Kreisler: Caprice Viennois (1910)
Webern: Four Pieces for violin and piano (1910)
Brahms: Sonata for clarinet and piano, Op. 120 in F Minor(1894)
Schubert: Klavierstücke No. 1, D 946 (1828)
Mozart: Sonata in A Major for piano and violin, K305 (1778)

Stephanie Chase, violin
Jon Manasse, clarinet
William Wolfram, piano

Through much of its history, Vienna has served as a music capitol – the Vienna Boys’ Choir dates back to 1498! – and home to many of classical music’s most influential and innovative composers. This concert is a journey through the music of six composers with pivotal ties to this city, starting in the mid-20th century and ending in the 1770′s.

Our listening tour begins with the Sonata No. 2 for Violin Solo, Op. 115 by Ernst Krenek, which he composed shortly after moving to the United States. A student of Franz Shreker – first in Vienna and then in Berlin – Krenek was later influenced by the music of Schoenberg, Webern and Berg, and after about 1933 he composed principally in the 12-tone system.We then travel back a few decades to 1910, where we encounter both the Caprice Viennois by Fritz Kreisler and Four Pieces for violin and piano, Op. 7 by Anton Webern.  Composed a mere sixteen years earlier (1894), the majestic Clarinet Sonata in F Minor, Op. 120 by Johannes Brahms forms the heart of the concert, followed by the mercurial Klavierstücke No. 1 (D 946) by Franz Schubert, which dates from 1828. The journey then ends with the delightful Sonata in A Major, K. 305 for piano and violin, composed in 1778 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

STEPHANIE CHASE played with “elegance, dexterity, rhythmic vitality and great imagination” - Boston Globe

“And there was a heavenly moment when clarinetist JON MANASSE fluttered above the duet like a cherub tumbling in the clouds of a Mannerist painting.”, Milwaukee Journal

“Pianist WILLIAM WOLFRAM combined elegance and clarity in his playing, with the virile, propulsive energy and mercurial shifts of mood needed to make this music come to life.” - San Francisco Classical Voice

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Pre-concert talk at 7:30 p.m. by Styra Avins, included in admission:

“I drink my wine where Beethoven drank his!”: Johannes Brahms in Vienna

Styra Avins is a cellist, musicologist, and the author of Johannes Brahms: Life and Letters (Oxford University Press).

Now in our ninth year, the Music of the Spheres Society is “dedicated to exploring the links between music, philosophy and the sciences” (The New Yorker) through our innovative concerts and and pre-concert talks.

For more information, please visit www.musicofthespheres.org