Think you know Chicago?

Tell us where this photo was taken and win a free Rush Hour t-shirt!

Email Tara at tara@rushhour.org by Thursday, August 2 with the location (please be as specific as possible).

The winner will be randomly drawn from the correct answers submitted via email and at the Ensemble gift table. The winner will be announced on the blog on Friday, August 3, and also contacted by phone or email. The t-shirt will be available for pick-up at the next concert.

Where do you wear your Rush Hour t-shirt in Chicago? Take a picture in your Rush Hour t-shirt and we’ll feature it here and at the Ensemble gift shop at the concert.

Email tara@rushhour.org with your picture, or drop it off on an upcoming Tuesday at Ensemble.

Thoughts from the Artistic Director: Bach & Poetry

It is my pleasure again this year to curate another concert with Stephen Young of The Poetry Foundation around the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. As Bach followed his Two-Part Inventions with fifteen Three-Part Inventions, or Sinfonias, as they are often called, it seemed logical to follow our Rush Hour ‘06 collaboration in the same way. Thus, today, we have three poets and three pianists and the great genius of Bach. In 1723, Bach named this endeavor an “Honest Method” and he wrote it for students and amateurs of the clavichord (the current day piano’s grandfather).

Ah, indeed, Bach writes the perfect course book, and we pianists are his lucky, lifelong students. Bach remains the great musical architect, the wellspring of ideas, the master puzzler (I think he would have loved Sudoku!). He sets out a theme for you and then turns it upside-down, inside-out, forward and backward – all the while setting it against exquisite and complex counterpoint. With all the mathematical and computational skills counterpoint requires, were he alive today, I think Bach might be an artful software programmer or be best friends with Bill Gates.

Lastly, Bach is the teacher of good citizenship between the hands, fingers and the heart. Each has roles to play in order to articulate the intrinsic beauty and expression embedded within his complex Apollonian structures, with which Bach teaches control, patience, and politeness, and, most of all, invites the ear to simply listen. Bach challenges and pushes the physical envelope, but he never disappoints and is always nourishing, always making sense through his intricacies and imagination. He is most musicians’ daily companion.

And how does he rouse the muse in a poet’s soul? Below are Stephen Young’s thoughts:

Poetry piano e forte

The teacher J. S. Bach would have sympathized with these lines from “Piano Lesson” by former Poet Laureate Billy Collins:

I am learning to play
“It Might As Well Be Spring”
but my left hand would rather be jingling
the change in the darkness of my pocket
or taking a nap on an armrest.
I have to drag him into the music
like a difficult and neglected child.
This is the revenge of the one who never gets
to hold the pen or wave good-bye,
and now, who never gets to play the melody ….

The Two- and Three-Part Inventions were composed to help students like Collins learn that the right and left hands can play two or more distinct themes simultaneously, thus yielding a more nuanced, more complete whole.

Although a “poetry lesson” may not require nimble fingers and hours of repetition, writers do practice, and the best ones have been composing for two hands or multiple voices for several millennia. The great lyric poet Sappho rails against the goddess of love while yet petitioning her in “Hymn to Aphrodite.” Keats explores his attraction to and fear of death in “Ode to a Nightingale.” “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant, / Success in Circuit lies,” advises Emily Dickinson. More recently, Wallace Stevens offers “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” and Adrienne Rich affirms the blunt truth “There Is No One Story and One Story Only.”

If one can find different, often contrasting voices within a single poem, the ever-enlarging territory known as poetry might seem like a noisy bazaar of different styles and moods and methods. There are formalists and neo-formalists, lyrical versifiers and narrative poets, dramatic monologists and interior monologists. Oulipists make poems by mathematical formulas, and L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets write pieces that undermine the relationship between the word and the thing it signifies, while hip hoppers draw energy from the raw rhythms of language. And, of course, countless poets continue to record Wordsworth’s “still, sad music of humanity.”

Billy Collins used to keep his piano in the same room as his computer. He once told an interviewer that he spends “lots of time going back and forth from one keyboard to the other. If one isn’t working, the other might.”

These “Inventions on Inventions” will showcase some of the variety in the universe of poetry. No matter how different, poems speak to one another and this evening’s poems will all speak to Bach’s Three-Part Inventions—each in their own way.

7/24 – Third Coast Percussion

For those of you who came to our concert last Tuesday dreading contemporary music and anticipating four and something minutes of silence at a piano (or anything else John Cage concocted, for that matter), we think it’s safe to proclaim that the Third Coast Percussion Quartet won over everyone with their great performances of some pretty spectacular compositions.

In an innovative program featuring works by Steve Reich, Tobias Broström, John Cage, and quartet member David Skidmore, Third Coast created hypnotic and invigorating soundscapes with marimbas, coffee tins, a conch shell, and a stage-full of percussive instruments. Afterwards, as if winning over 385 people’s hearts wasn’t enough, the guys of Third Coast were so nice that they welcomed audience members to go on stage and see (and play!) their instruments up close.

Please check out our podcast interview with the guys from Third Coast, as well as a brief rehearsal clip on our audio page if you are interested in hearing the conch shell in action again. Also, please take a look at what music journalist Marc Geelhoed wrote about Third Coast and Rush Hour on his blog. Thank you all for supporting Rush Hour!

Coffee, anyone?

We weren’t kidding about all the instruments – imagine all the sounds a composer and percussion quartet can elicit!

Long-time Rush Hour guest Helen and friend. We’ll see you both next week!

Third Coast Percussion Quartet in action.

Guests checking out the instruments on stage after the concert.

Third Coast member Robert Dillon showing Rush Hour Artistic Director Deborah Sobol the “lion’s roar” technique. A “lion’s roar” sound is achieved by using a wet towel to pull on a wooden stick attached to the surface of a drum, and it really does sound like a lion’s roar!

The Very Rev. Joy Rogers revealed to us she was a timpani player in high school during her Rush Hour Q&A, so we had to capture her returning to her roots as a percussionist!

Third Coast member Owen Clayton Condon chatting with Rush Hour board member Dr. Jim Frederiksen.

Rush Hour Spotlight – Q&A with The Very Rev. Joy Rogers

Rush Hour is thrilled to spotlight The Very Rev. Joy Rogers, who is the newest addition to the historic St. James Cathedral. From timpani player to critical care nurse, Joy is now the St. James’ provost and can be spotted every week at Rush Hour Concerts, donning her trademark sparkly hat.

Rush Hour: Welcome to Rush Hour Concerts, Rev. Dr. Joy (please let us know how you’d like to be addressed – Rev. Dr. Joy, Rev. Joy, Joy?)! How have you been enjoying Chicago and the St. James community?

Joy: I am happy to have people call me Joy. In my previous parishes, the young people called me Mother Joy, or Mother Rogers. It made sense in a church where the men were called Father. If you are writing an address, I am now The Very Rev. Joy Rogers. I find that fun, since I am often not so reverent. I love being back in Chicago, and I am very much enjoying the people of St. James. They are an incredibly diverse and talented and interesting congregation.

RH: We see you every week at Rush Hour Concerts – thanks so much for being there for us! Hopefully you have been enjoying these concert events?

Joy: I have been enjoying the Rush Hour concerts a lot. The company is fun, the music is extraordinary, the format is so accessible, and any clergy person must love seeing their church fill up with hundreds of folk on a Tuesday afternoon.

RH: So many people have commented on the beauty of St. James, the history behind it, and its peaceful quietness. Why do you think St. James is so ideally suited for a concert series like Rush Hour, which was designed for urban lifestyles and a cross-generational audience?

Joy: As an urban church, St. James has always had a ministry to people with urban lifestyles and the church is always called to minister across the generations. Rush Hour Concerts evolved as a ministry of St. James to the greater community – a way of giving back that emerged out of the talents, the passions, the resources, the vision of the Cathedral and its people. The physical space of the cathedral, its beauty and its peace, carry its own power for holiness, even to people who are not worshippers.

I think that music moves people at a deeply spiritual level. The space enhances that. The Episcopal faith tradition believes that the fruits of artistry and beauty carry us to the presence of God – Rush Hour Concerts are a vehicle that is sufficient in itself. The church does not need to convert or preach or proselytize when it invites people into this kind of experience – it is glad that souls are nourished and human lives enriched by the offerings.

RH: Do you have any favorite pieces, special composers or instruments? Maybe we can pitch some program ideas to Debbie as she plans for next season…

Joy: When I go to the symphony, my favorite musicians to watch are the percussionists. They are so busy and have so many interesting ‘instruments’. I played the tympani in my high school orchestra lots of years ago.

RH: What compelled you to transition from a career as a critical care nurse to study theology?

Joy: I became a nurse because, at the time, the Episcopal Church wasn’t ready for women as priests. Some things are consistent in the vocations – a passion about the well-being of people, and a conviction that healing is always about body, mind and spirit. I learned in the critical care arena about death, and how there are harder things to fear. I learned as a nurse that healing often hurts, and that we need caregivers in every part of our lives who will encourage us, sometimes adamantly, to move forward rather than allow us to stay stuck in our pain. The theological adventure gave me new tools to reflect upon human experience, to struggle with the meaning of life and death, with good and evil, with sin and suffering, and with God. I think I am a better priest because I was a good nurse.

RH: Tell us a bit about your work as trustee of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, where you earned your Masters of Divinity in Parish Ministry and a Doctor of Ministry in Preaching.

Joy: I love having the opportunity to serve the seminary that was such a crucial part of my formation as a Christian and as a priest. It keeps me connected with the intellectual aspects of Christianity, with the real challenges of a faith based educational institution in changing times, and with those who are preparing for vocations like mine.

Like clergy and lay leaders in parishes or cathedrals, we worry about money and how to raise it and how to spend it faithfully. We are charged with the tedious details about budgets and buildings. And mostly, trustees are called to give voice to an institution’s vision and mission. My service as a trustee is a lot like the work that members of our Cathedral chapter do.

RH: St. James has a wonderful youth outreach program – Summer in the City at the Cathedral (a summer camp for kids) – as well as a dynamic Sunday education program for kids from pre-school through junior high. What is your vision for reaching out to the younger generations in today’s fast-paced society? Do you think music can enhance the Cathedral’s activism in reaching a more diverse audience group and bridging communities?

Joy: Music is already a major force in attracting people to the Cathedral. A conversation about music and children at the cathedral has begun. The cathedral knows that music can be a powerful vehicle to teach faith to young and old alike. It is looking at what programs for teens might become, within the parish and beyond, embracing the sense of mystery and holiness that are part of its context, and exploring the musical possibilities that will touch this younger generation.

Think you know Chicago?

Tell us where this picture was taken to win your own
Rush Hour t-shirt!

Email Hannah at hannah@rushhour.org by Thursday, July 26 with the location (please be as specific as possible).

The winner will be randomly drawn from the correct answers submitted via email and at the Ensemble gift table. The winner will be announced on the blog on Friday, July 27, and also contacted by phone or email. The t-shirt will be available for pick-up at the next concert.

Where do you wear your Rush Hour t-shirt in Chicago? Take a picture in your Rush Hour t-shirt and we’ll feature it here and at the Ensemble gift shop at the concert.

Email hannah@rushhour.org with your picture, or drop it off on an upcoming Tuesday at Ensemble.

Rush Hour on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight

We’re very excited to announce that WTTW (Channel 11 in Chicago) is going to re-run their 2006 “Artbeat” segment on Rush Hour on Chicago Tonight.

Filmed at our July 25, 2006 Rush Hour concert, this short (under five minute) segment features music from violinist Yuan-Qing Yu and pianist Deborah Sobol, as well as portions of an interview with Artistic Director Deborah Sobol about Rush Hour’s mission and philosophy.

It will be airing Monday, July 23 between 7 – 8 p.m., then re-airing again Tuesday, July 24 between 1:30 – 2:30 a.m. and 4:30 – 5:30 a.m.

Please set your VCRs or TiVOs and check us out on TV!

7/17 – A Summer Schubertiade

Thanks to everyone who came to Rush Hour’s piano four hand concert, featuring the music of Schubert performed by pianists James Giles and Deborah Sobol! From a military march to miniature Viennese waltzes and dances, the concert concluded with a masterpiece of the piano four hand genre: Schubert’s Fantasia in F minor.

Pianists James Giles and Deborah Sobol, taking a break from rehearsing Schubert. Hear them discuss piano four hands in a special Schubert podcast!

Rush Hour Artistic Director and James Giles, during the final dress rehearsal.

One piano + four hands = a lot of technical adjustments and a huge, full sound!

Sporting Rush Hour’s special t-shirt, St. James’ very own Henry Leach is culturally curious!

Crowd gathering around Rush Hour’s gift shop ENSEMBLE.

 James Giles during his post-concert CD signing.

 

Behind the Scenes with the Managing Director: Breaking Boundaries

Time, admission, education, culture, age, pre-conceived notions, listening experience: as you’ll read below, these are just a few of the boundaries that we are working to break down at Rush Hour each week.

Common boundaries and barriers that people have shared with me about coming to Rush Hour appear below, paired with Rush Hour’s approach to addressing them.

Please share your thoughts with us about barriers to attending classical music concerts – and what you think of our approach to breaking them down – in the comments.

– Julie Hutchison, Managing Director

1. I don’t have time.
Known as “Great Music for Busy Lives,” Rush Hour was designed with your busy lifestyle in mind. With a thirty-minute reception and thirty-minute concert offered at a convenient after-work time, you can get a burst of culture and refreshment in an hour or less every Tuesday throughout the summer.

2. I can’t afford to go to concerts.
Rush Hour is FREE. We work to fundraise year-round so that the Rush Hour experience is accessible to everyone. We hope you will take advantage of one of the best values in the city each week during the summer!

3. A free concert? That must mean it’s not very good.
Actually, some of the best musicians from Chicago (from the Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera, and Music of the Baroque, to name a few) and around the world perform at Rush Hour. Rush Hour’s artists are committed to the mission and philosophy of Rush Hour and work to make every concert sensational.

4. I’ll be too hungry/thirsty to listen.
Our pre-concert reception offers sweet and savory bites and refreshing drinks every week from 5:15 to 5:45 p.m. to tide you over from the end of your workday through the concert. After the concert, you can head out for drinks or dinner. (We highly recommend our community sponsors Argo Tea, who offers 10% off by mentioning Rush Hour, and Bijan’s Bistro, who offers 20% off with a coupon from the day’s program).

5a. I don’t know enough about classical music… I’m afraid I won’t enjoy it.
- OR –
5b. I attend concerts all the time – this sounds like it might be “dumbed-down” to try to appeal to new people.

Rush Hour was designed to be accessible and relevant to all audiences – new and experienced listeners alike. We strive to provide useful information that enrich your listening experience, regardless of your classical music experience level. We’ve heard from:

• seasoned concertgoers who make time in their weekly schedule for Rush Hour, telling us they learn something new each week;
• attendees who haven’t had much experience with classical music for two to three decades (since their college years), for whom Rush Hour lets them pick up their classical music listening journey;
• twenty- and thirty-something audience members who discover that Rush Hour is so fun and welcoming that – much to their surprise – they’re hooked and coming back each week.

Enrichment materials are available here, on our website and blog; in our weekly email alerts; and in our program booklets available at the concert. The musicians also share their insights and discuss the music before the concert, at the pre-concert reception; on stage, during the performance; and after the concert.

6. Chamber music? That sounds boring…
We’re not entirely sure how chamber music acquired its “stuffy and boring” reputation among some people, but we do know that sentiment is out there. We invite you to read Artistic Director Deborah Sobol’s excellent explanation of chamber music and come experience the intimacy, vibrancy, and excitement of live music at Rush Hour.

7. I’m not sure if I’m going to like the music.
RH offers many opportunities for discovery. We’re confident that you will find something to like about the concert. If not, please keep in mind that it’s only a 30-minute concert, and it’s free. While Rush Hour offers the same format throughout the summer, each week is a completely new and different experience. We hope you will be adventurous and try listening to music outside of your usual tastes, whether it’s a different pairing of instruments, a different style, or classical music in general.

8. People are noisy and disrespectful at free concerts. I want to be able to relax and really listen.
People frequently remark about how engaged Rush Hour’s audience is, commenting that they can “hear a pin drop” during the concert. You will leave refreshed, relaxed, inspired, and ready for the rest of your evening.

9. I won’t fit in with the audience at Rush Hour.

People of wildly different ages and backgrounds meet each other each week at the pre-concert reception, fostering a sense of community. Someone who is new to classical music sits next to someone who has been listening to classical music for decades during the concert. Regardless of your age, culture, or listening experience level, you will play an important role in the powerful shared listening experience.

10. I’m not religious / I am of a different faith, and the concert takes place in a cathedral. I’m not sure if I am welcome.
Though Rush Hour takes place at and is presented in partnership with St. James Cathedral, it is a completely secular event and everyone is welcome. There are no special customs that you need to follow – please simply come and be yourself.

Thoughts from the Artistic Director: Welcoming Third Coast Percussion

It is my great pleasure to welcome Third Coast Percussion and to introduce these talented individuals to the Rush Hour family. Below is my Q&A with three members of Third Coast – Peter Martin, Robert Dillon and Owen Clayton Condon. Please don’t hesitate to write or call us if you have any additional inquiries – and please take a look at the Third Coast recent feature in Time Out Chicago and their website. I hope to see you all at Tuesday’s concert!

Third Coast is an exciting and fresh group that has quickly established a strong commitment to the highest performance standards for new music as well as bridging the gap between today’s culture and the world of classical music. In addition to championing works by John Cage and Steve Reich, Third Coast has commissioned and premiered pieces by many of today’s leading up-and-coming composers, all the while performing in diverse venues, from concert halls to theaters and clubs.

1. What motivated you to form this ensemble?

Peter Martin: We were all great friends and students at Northwestern University together. We had performed a lot of percussion ensemble repertoire at NU during our schooling and wanted to create a professional ensemble to bring the music to a wider audience. We basically just loved the repertoire, and wanted to play more of it and expose more people to it.

Robert Dillon: The group was also initially formed to do outreach and chamber music performances as part of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. I think our own positive experiences playing in percussion ensemble while students at Northwestern, plus the absence of a professional percussion group in Chicago, inspired us to form the group and then carry it beyond the Civic Orchestra.

2. Where did you get the name “Third Coast”?

PM: When you think of major cities and areas of the U.S., you think of the East Coast and New York, and the West Coast and Los Angeles. These places are also known as major artistic hubs of the U.S. The name “Third Coast” is really an homage to Chicago and its cultural and artistic diversity that rivals that of any other place in the country or the world.

RD: We’d heard the term ‘third coast’ in the names of other Chicago institutions, and we liked the way it represented the serious cultural center that Chicago is — in a league with the other 2 coasts, but with a personality of its own.

3. What are some unique challenges/benefits of a percussion quartet?

Owen Clayton Condon: Lack of vocals and foreign or exotic sound qualities can be challenging for inexperienced listeners. Benefits include a vast array of color variations, unique performance visuals, and everyone loves a drummer.

RD: Logistical challenges are the greatest – every performance and rehearsal requires significant amounts of extra time (and sometimes physical labor) to setup and tear down, and some spaces can’t accommodate our needs. The balancing benefits are the added visual element inherent in percussion performance, and the stylistic and timbral variety such an ensemble can create.

PM: The idiom of percussion is so vast. We have thousands upon thousands of instruments at our disposal as well as a huge amount of musical traditions to draw upon from. Percussion is found in every culture across the world. That gives our ensemble a huge amount of inspiration for our own unique repertoire and style.

The challenge of an ensemble like ours is that, in western classical music of the European tradition, our repertoire is quite limited in comparison to, say, a string quartet. The classical percussion quartet is a 20th century innovation. The earliest composed repertoire we have to draw from is from the 1930s. While this can be somewhat of a challenge, it’s also an incentive to work closely with living composers in the development of new repertoire. Also, without a large tradition to compare ourselves to, we have a lot more freedom in developing our own voice as an ensemble, and play a significant role in the development of the genre of the percussion ensemble in general.

4. Tell us a little bit about your audience base.

RD: We try to pull from the rockers who want to get a little intellectual and the intellectuals who want to rock.

PM: We’re all classically-trained musicians and that is what our music is generally billed as, so our audiences tend to be more of the contemporary classical music scene. However, the music we play is accessible and enjoyable to all audiences. We pride ourselves in being very diverse and eclectic as possible as an ensemble and make it a point to do concerts at a wide variety of venues – from the more traditional concert halls to art galleries and clubs. Anyone who sees a show of ours really enjoys it, no matter what musical preferences they come from. Our fan base seems to be widening all the time.

OCC: A crossbreed of new music concertites, indie experimental barflies, and pals…

5. Third Coast has commissioned many new works for percussion quartet. What is your philosophy behind this process? How does the process of commissioning pieces work?

PM: We try to seek out younger composers (around our age) that share similar musical interests as ourselves. Sometimes, we find these composers individually. For instance, we recently premiered a piece by the composer Derek Jacoby who Rob Dillon had worked with a few years back at the Tanglewood Music Festival. Other times, we send out a massive call to composers across the country and, as a group, sit down and listen to a lot of music by various composers and pick and choose who we think would best write us a really great piece for our ensemble.

In general, we’ve found young composers to be very eager to work with us; they’re just as excited about writing music for us as we are to receive it. For them, they get a great ensemble to play their music, and for us, we get a composer to write a great piece for our ensemble to play. It’s always a win-win situation for everyone involved and we’ve had nothing but great experiences in the past.

RD: We also try to find composers whose music we really enjoy and respect, and then ‘inspire’ them by asking them to write us a good piece that will still work with our logistical limitations (i.e., no 10 minute pieces that take an hour to set up). Part of bringing the percussion ensemble out from academia into the ‘real world’ is dealing with the logistical issues, so that it will be practical for a group to perform in a variety of venues, travel with the necessary instruments, etc.

7. Do you have any stories about performing in local clubs? What motivated you to start performing there?

OCC: Concert halls grow more stale with each 32nd note…

RD: In an effort to expand our audience base beyond the usual concert hall crowd, we wanted a different kind of venue. I think it’s nice when the audience feels like they can relax – they can listen carefully if they want or they can go stand in the back and have a beer and talk to their friends. As an added plus, we’ve found these sort of places are perfectly set up for the load-in and load-out that we have to do before and after each show.

PM: Showing up at a club for the first time before a gig is always interesting. We’ve also had times where, in the middle of pieces, some of us are jumping off stage, running to the other side, and jumping back on to get to another instrument all in the span of a few seconds. It keeps us on our toes.

Performing in different types of venues is always with the goal of bringing our music to new audiences, as well as putting our regular audiences in different atmospheres. It’s more than just the sound; it’s the general feeling and vibe of the venue. We pride ourselves in breaking down some of these barriers that are associated with classical music. We play great music really well, and we want to bring our music to as wide an audience as possible. I really think that the future of classical music rests in finding more alternative venues.

8. What do you envision for the future of Third Coast Percussion? What are your goals for it?

OCC: I’d be nice to play on Conan… we’ll probably have to start with Carson Daly though…

RD: The more this group can be our full-time ‘gig,’ the happier I think we’ll all be. I think there’s a fairly untrodden path here that we’re free to carve for ourselves, which is both exciting and terrifying. Experimenting with playing as a ‘percussion rock band’ is something we’re hoping to dig into more, as well as much more commissioning of today’s composers for the concert hall and education and outreach.

PM: World domination.

9. Can you recommend any percussion recordings or recordings of Reich, Cage, Broström, (or even Skidmore!), etc.?

OCC: I own the boldly appraised box set of Reich…. Yay – it was a gift.

RD: Cheap plug: Our CD ‘Ritual Music,’ is available at the concert as well as from our website. There are a few other great percussion ensembles out there today with recordings of their own, which you’d most likely find on the internet rather than in your local record store. Nexus, Amadinda, Kroumata and So Percussion are a few of the big ones.

PM: One of my “top ten, stuck on a deserted island” records would have to be the recording of Steve Reich’s “Music for 18 Musicians” on Nonesuch Records (1998). The Pat Metheny recording of Reich’s “Electric Counterpoint” is also something that is always on a playlist on my iPod. Cage’s “Third Construction” is one of the finest pieces for percussion ensemble out there. There are dozens of recordings of the piece, but some of the best are those by the Nexus Ensemble (Canada), the Amadinda Percussion Group (Hungary), and the Talujon Percussion Quartet (USA). You might not find these recordings in your local Borders, but check Amazon.com – they’ll be there.

Thoughts from the Artistic Director: Recommended Listening & Reading

As promised in my last week’s post, I’ve compiled a list of recordings and a few books that I find treasurable.  These Schubert pieces for piano four hand are among the greats of the genre, and the books on Schubert and the piano provide terrific insight into piano music, Schubert’s final years during which he created the Fantasia on yesterday’s concert, and a delightful story of A Little Schubert, complete with illustrations and arrangements of Schubert’s waltzes for piano. I hope you all enjoy!

Books:

A Little Schubert – story and pictures by M. B. Goffstein

Schubert: The Final Years  – by John Reed

Music for the Piano – by James Friskin & Irwin Freundlich

Recordings:

Sonata in C Major, Op. 140 (“Grand Duo”), D. 812 – with Radu Lupu and Daniel Barenboim

Rondo in A Major, Op. 107, D. 951 – with Clare Aebersold and Ralph Neiweem

Variations in A-flat Major on an Original Theme, Op. 35, D. 813 – with  Benjamin Britten and Sviatoslav Richter

Andantino Varié in B Minor on French Motifs, Op. 84, No. 1, D. 823 – with Artur Schnabel and Karl Ulrich Schnabel

Lebensstürme (Storms of Life), Characteristic Allegro in A Minor, Op. 144, D. 947 – Alfred Brendel  and Evelyn Crochet

Fantasia in F Minor, Op. 103, D. 940 – with  Murray Perahia and Radu Lupu