Saturday, April 26, 2008

Lunchtime Schubert

On Tuesday, April 29, at 12:00 I will be performing in recital in Oxford, Ohio. The recital is this season's last concert for the "Midday Music in Oxford" series, managed by Jack Daugherty.

The program is dedicated entirely to the music of Schubert. I will be playing just one piece with violin. Oh, but what a piece it is: Violinist Gerry Itzkoff (a Cincinnati Symphony member) and myself will be put to the test in Schubert's C major Fantasia. It is one of the more massive late works by Schubert, brimming over in transcendent beauty and requiring heaps of virtuosity from the performers.

Gerry and I have been working on and performing this piece for about four years. It has taken us both a long time to come to terms with this beast of a piece, but I think we're finally conquering it technically and musically. If you'd like to hear the result, please come to the recital:

12:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 29
Oxford Presbyterian Church, 101 N. Main Street in Oxford, OH.

The rest of the program includes another work for piano and violin (the D major sonata), and a song by Schubert (Sei mir gegrust) that is used in the Fantasia. The other performers are soprano Alma Jean Smith and pianist Avedis Manoogian.

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