Chamber Concert
Series

Despite being restricted in her musical career by her husband and parents, Amy Beach became the first wholly successful American woman composer and concert pianist. A grand, sweeping work in the Romantic style, her quintet easily stands beside the great works in the genre by Schumann, Brahms, and Dvořák. As preludes to the Beach, fanciful works by Beethoven and Schumann lead to the intense sonic and rhythmic world of Erwin Schulhoff, whose bracing duo for violin and cello rivals those by his contemporaries Ravel and Kodály.

Bridging the Classical and Romantic music eras, the prolific Franz Schubert gave the world an astonishing wealth of compositions during his very short 31 years of life. In this program, CMS celebrates Schubert’s magical genius, barely recognized during his lifetime, with three of his most significant chamber music works: the lighthearted fantasy for Violin and Piano in C major, his splendid piano trio in B-flat major, No. 1, Op. 99, and his greatest piano duet, the Fantasie in F minor, a tragically beautiful farewell written during the final months of his life.

Four-hand piano pieces bring musicians as close as they can get to the ultimate in collegial music-making. The piano trio, with just one additional musician, generates all the excitement and passion of an entire orchestra. Romantics Brahms and Arensky mine the full range of these two genres to bring listeners an evening that begins with the wonder of childhood and ends with Brahms at the height of his dramatic powers.