This week’s Chamber Music Society program brings you works of two composers who are musical household names, Mendelssohn and Beethoven, and a major work by a composer of lesser renown, Johann Hummel.
The works by Mendelssohn and Beethoven are unusual in that they are not often performed, especially side by side, and both emanate from their composers’ later periods.
Hummel was a contemporary of Beethoven, Haydn, Mendelssohn and Schubert who, like most major pianists of his time, composed music for his own performances. This performance of his Septet is anchored by the technical wizardry of the young Italian pianist Alessio Bax, an artist of the Chamber Music Society.
Program details:
Mendelssohn: Andante sostenuto and Variations in E major for String Quartet, Op. 81, No. 1
— Escher String Quartet.
Beethoven: An die ferne Geliebte for Voice and Piano, Op. 98
— Randall Scarlata, baritone; Gilbert Kalish, piano.
Hummel: Septet in D minor for Flute, Oboe, Horn, Viola, Cello, Bass, and Piano, Op. 74
— Tara Helen O'Connor, flute; Stephen Taylor, oboe; Radovan Vlatkovic, horn; Paul Neubauer, viola; Nicholas Canellakis, cello; Kurt Muroki, contrabass; Alessio Bax, piano.