Norfolk Chamber Music Festival Season Preview and Concert Schedule 2012

This year, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the festival of the Yale School of Music, will offer yet another rich season of music played by the young artists of the Yale Summer School of Music, as well as a weekend series featuring the most renowned international artists associated with the Yale School of Music. It will begin with a weekend of new music from Martin Bresnick’s New Music Workshop on June 29 and 30. Most importantly, it will offer the main local opportunity to enjoy the final season of the great Tokyo String Quartet, as I have mentioned in my review of their appearance earlier this month at the Tannery Pond Concerts. The distinguished Artis Quartet from Vienna and the Keller Quartet, from the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, will also play. Among them, they will offer an especially comprehensive selection of Beethoven’s quartets, along with other classics of the genre. The Tokyo will also join pianist Wei-Wi Yang in Elgar’s magnificent piano quintet. As always the great soloists of Yale School of Music will be on hand: Ani Kavafian, violin, Stephen taylor, oboe, Richard Stoltzman and David Shifrin, clarinet, Frank Morelli, bassoon, Allan Dean, trumpet, and William Purvis, horn, as well as pianists André-Michael Schub and Peter Frankl.

The Norfolk Festival is the proud descendant of the Litchfield County Choral Union, which emerged in the 1890′s from the interest of two generations of the Battells, a wealthy Norfolk family, in Yale University, which brought about both the founding of the Yale School of Music and the Litchfield County Choral Union. Choral and chamber music concerts were originally held in the Battell mansion, and later in the Music Shed, which opened in 1906. Special trains from New York were arranged for the distinguished musicians and the society audience. Ellen Battell Stoeckel, wife of the son of the first professor at Yale Music School, announced her intention to donate her estate to Yale as a music school, and the first classes were held there in 1937.

Friday, July 6, 8:00 pm Franz Josef Haydn String Quartet in f minor, Op 20, No. 5 Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet in c minor, Op 18, No. 4 Beethoven String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op 130/133 Artis Quartet (Vienna)

Saturday, July 7, 8:00 pm Josef Mysliveček Divertimento in F Major for Winds WolfgangAmadeus Mozart Piano Concerto in A Major, K 414 Arnold Schoenberg Ode to Napoleon Johannes Brahms Clarinet Trio in a minor, Op 114 Stephen Taylor (oboe), Richard Stoltzman(clarinet),Robert Blocker (piano), Boris Berman(piano),Artis Quartet, Michael Friedmann (narrator)

Friday, July 13, 8:00 pm Benjamin Britten Phantasy Quartet, Op 2 Kim Scharnberg Icebox Ethos (World Premiere) Anton&#237n Dvo&#345&#225k Piano Trio in f minor, Op 65 Stephen Taylor (oboe), Scott Hartman (trombone), Ani Kavafian(violin),Peter Schuhmayer(violin), Herbert Kefer (viola), Ole Akahoshi(cello),Hannah Collins (cello), Othmar Muller (cello), Michael Compitello (percussion), Andr&#233-Michel Schub (piano)

Saturday, July 14, 8:00 pm Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet in F Major, Op 18, No. 1 Alban Berg String Quartet, Op 3 Beethoven String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op 74 Artis Quartet (Vienna)

Friday, July 20, 8:00 pm Robert Schumann Fantasiestücke (Fantasy Pieces), Op 73 Richard Strauss Andante in C Major for Horn and Piano Strauss Alphorn for Soprano, Horn and Piano, Op 29 Anton&#237n Dvo&#345&#225k Love Songs, Op 83 Johannes Brahms Two Songs for Alto, Viola and Piano, Op 91 Brahms Piano Trio in C Major, Op 87 Janna Baty (soprano), William Purvis (French horn), Peter Frankl(piano),Martin Beaver (violin), Kazuhide Isomura (viola), Clive Greensmith(viola)

Saturday, July 21, 8:00 pm Anton Webern Five Movements for String Quartet, Op 5 Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet in C Major, Op 59, No. 3 Beethoven String Quartet in c-sharp minor, Op 131 Tokyo String Quartet

Friday, July 27, 8:00 pm Franz Josef Haydn String Quartet in g minor, Op 74, No. 3, “Rider” Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet in G Major, Op 18, No. 2 Edward Elgar Piano Quintet in a minor, Op 84 Tokyo String Quartet, Wei-Yi Yang (piano)

Saturday, July 28, 8:00 pm George Frideric Handel Water Music Suite for Trumpet Antonio Vivaldi Concerto for Bassoon in e minor, RV 484 Johann Sebastian Bach Keyboard Concerto in D Major, BWV 1054 Vivaldi Concerto for Bassoon in a minor, RV 497 Handel Music for the Royal Fireworks Frank Morelli (bassoon), Allan Dean (trumpet), Wei Yi-Yang (piano), Syoko Aki (violin), Fellows of the Norfolk Festival

Friday, August 3, 8:00 pm Jean Françaix 11 Variations on a Theme of Haydn Benjamin Britten Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings Britten Lachrymae, Reflections on a Song of Dowland Françaix Le diable boiteux (The Devil upon Two Sticks) Ransom Wilson (condcutor), Dann Coakwell (tenor), Dashon Burton (baritone), William Purvis (French horn), Maura Valenti (harp), Joan Panetti (piano), Ettore Causa (viola), Fellows of the Norfolk Festival

Saturday, August 4, 8:00 pm Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet in a minor, Op 132 Johannes Brahms Clarinet Quintet in b minor, Op 115 David Shifrin (clarinet), Tokyo String Quartet

Friday, August 10, 8:00 pm Max Reger Serenade in G Major, Op 95 Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet in e minor, Op 59, No. 2 Claude Debussy Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp Paul Schoenfield Six Chasidic Songs for Flute and Piano Carol Wincenc (flute), June Han (harp), Joan Panetti (piano), András Keller (violin), Ettore Causa (viola), Fellows of the Norfolk Festival

Saturday, August 11, 8:00 pm Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet in A Major, Op 18, No. 5 Beethoven String Quartet in f minor, Op 95 Beethoven String Quartet in F Major, Op 135 Keller Quartet