Pianist Hans Boepple in Carmel Home Concert

by Joe Sekon, D.M.A.
September 18, 2017

     

On Sunday afternoon, September 17, at the elegant home of Lyn and Renee Bronson, an invited audience had the unique pleasure of hearing an intimate recital performed by distinguished Santa Clara University pianist Hans Boepple, who has frequently appeared as a soloist on the Carmel Music Society’s series at Sunset Center in Carmel and as a concerto soloist with the Santa Cruz Symphony. The idyllic setting with views of the Pacific Ocean proved to be perfect for meaty program consisting of the following works: Bach’s Toccata in D Major, BWV 912 (1710), César Franck’s Prelude, Chorale and Fugue (1884), Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in D Major, Op. 23, No. 4 (1903) and Chopin’s Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58 (1844). Read full story →

Archived in these categories: 20th Century, Classical Era, Piano, Romantic Era

Nostalgia and Bells: Sean Chen Opens Steinway Society Season

by Dr. Gary Lemco
September 11, 2017

Pianist Sean Chen inaugurated the 2017-18 season of the Steinway Society the Bay Area Saturday, September 9, with a vigorous and colorful program featuring works that indulged in emotional nostalgia and often sported bells and carillon effects. Mr. Chen, conducting a lecture-recital at Le Petit Trianon Theatre before an enchanted audience, set the tone for the evening, which remained both accessible and musically stupendous. The height of Chen’s personal charisma — already apparent in his gracious, keyboard demonstrations of motifs and connections between the individual works – came in the form of his only encore, a wonderfully inventive improvisation on “Happy Birthday!” for a member of the Steinway staff that managed to align her with such personages as Brunnhilde, Isolde, and Gershwin’s Bess in the course of a jazzy and Lisztian revel that might have made Liberace envious. Read full story →

Archived in these categories: 20th Century, Piano, Romantic Era

Baritone Peter Tuff & Pianist Lucy Faridany in Recital at All Saints Church

by Heidi Van der Veer
August 15, 2017

Pianist Lucy Faridany & Baritone Peter Tuff

Baritone Peter Tuff and pianist Lucy Faridany performed a recital on Wednesday, August 9, 2017, at 7:30 pm at All Saints’ Church in Carmel-by-the-Sea. The program featured Robert Schumann’s song cycle Dichterliebe, and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel. Both Tuff and Faridany are well-known locally for their respective contributions to the performing arts here, and the recital was not the first time Monterey Peninsula audiences have heard them perform together. Their past collaborations here have included recitals of opera, art song, and musical theater selections. Read full story →

Archived in these categories: 20th Century, All Saints' Church, Romantic Era, Vocal

Deutsche Marks — German Virtuosity at Menlo

by Dr. Gary Lemco
July 23, 2017

The Saturday July 22 Concert Program III at [email protected], “German Virtuosity,” transported the Italian violin tradition from Cremona northward, as deftly demonstrated in five elegantly performed works at the Menlo-Atherton’s Center for Performing Arts. Works by Rode, Beethoven, Spohr, David, and Mendelssohn graced a felicitous program that took Beethoven’s last sonata as a point of departure for the violin’s emergence into a burgeoning Romantic tradition in which the instrument would soar in expressive range and scale. Read full story →

Archived in these categories: Chamber music, Classical Era, Romantic Era

Santa Cruz Symphony — Pianist Yuja Wang Returns

by Joe Sekon, D.M.A.
June 26, 2017

  

Faithful supporters of the Santa Cruz Symphony under the direction of Music Director Daniel Stewart were treated to rare, innovative programming, in a special sixth concert of its 2016-2017 season featuring Yuja Wang — certainly one of the most sought after pianists in the world. In her first performance with the Santa Cruz Symphony in February at Civic Center and Mello Center Wang created a sensation performing the Concerto No. 5 by Prokofiev and Concerto No. 2 by Johannes Brahms. Subsequently. it was Yuja Wang who having enjoyed her first Santa Cruz appearances who suggested this special return engagement.  Read full story →

Archived in these categories: Classical Era, Orchestral, Piano, Romantic Era, String quartet