USCB’s Festival Series continues on Sunday, February 9, at 5 p.m. at the Center for the Arts. Artistic Director Edward Arron has planned a rich, varied program of some of the finest chamber music featuring works by Mozart, Brahms, Turina, and Schumann and is bringing in extraordinary artists for the
performance.
Mozart played the violin and viola and had an intuitive feel for each. He wrote to their strengths in his Duo for Violin and Viola, K.423. The instruments trade brilliant technical passages and voice-like melodies in a work of charm and energy.
Brahms is represented with three solo-piano Intermezzi, Opus 116, from a collection of seven miniatures titled Fantasies. They are concise, simple, personal, inward-looking pieces that project a sense of resignation. Written late in life, they present Brahms’ musical craft and inner thoughts in their most distilled and rarefied form.
Spanish composer Joaquin Turina set about creating a national style of music. His goal was to integrate the style and flair of Andalusian and Gypsy music with conventional Western art-music forms. In this he was spectacularly successful with his Piano Quartet in A Minor, Opus 67, written in 1931. Turina draws on passionate emotional
intensity, driving rhythm, suave and seductive lyricism, and the familiarity of folksong-style tunes to create a vibrant and colorful montage of Spanish sights, sounds, and culture.
The program concludes with Robert Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E-Flat Major, Opus 47, composed in 1842, at the height of his powers. It is weighted toward the piano, Schumann’s instrument, and conceived with the collaboration of his wife, Clara Wieck, one of the 19th century’s greatest pianists. She played the piano part at the premiere. Its four movements cover the emotional gamut from spectral to thunderous. The third movement is especially memorable, featuring one of the most beautiful, poignant melodies in the entire chamber music repertoire.
The music will be brought to life by four outstanding performers: pianist Benjamin Hochman, violinist Arnaud Sussman, violist Max Mandel, and cellist-host Edward Arron. Each of the artists is in the middle of a major international career which has taken him to the most prestigious venues and concert series throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. They have come together to share their insights, formidable techniques, and love of music-making with the Lowcountry.
For a more complete program, please go to www.uscb.edu/festivalseries.
The concert begins at 5 p.m. on Sunday, February 9 at the USCB Center for the Arts on Carteret Street. For advance tickets, call Staci Breton at 843-208-8246, Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tickets are also available at the door and start at $40.
