The first concert in the Taylor Music Center's Emerson Hall will feature the Musicians of Ma'alwyck, Thursday, Feb. 22 at 8 p.m., in a performance of chamber music rarities, including the Berwald Septet for strings and winds.
“The inaugural concert, ‘Music for Seven,' is an ideal mix of adventuresome but audience-friendly programming with an additional educational component,” says Professor of Music Hilary Tann. “The beautiful and intimate concert/rehearsal space is ideal for these purposes.”
Musicians of Ma'alwyck is a flexible-size chamber music ensemble in residence at the Schuyler Mansion, a New York State Historic Site, and at Schenectady County Community College. Directed by violinist Ann-Marie Barker Schwartz, it performs throughout the Capital Region and Upstate New York.
The Union concert repertory includes works for seven players in a variety of configurations by Berwald, Mozart, Richard Strauss, Aaron Jay Kernis and Carl Nielsen. The program's centerpiece is the “1828 Septet” of Swedish composer and orthopedic surgeon Berwald. Scored for clarinet, bassoon, French horn, violin, viola, violoncello and bass, “the almost forgotten masterpiece mimics the style of Schubert, while adding a satisfying personal (and perhaps Scandinavian) touch to the form,” Tann notes.
Another highlight, Tann says, “is the brilliant reduction of the Strauss tone poem, ‘Till Eulenspiegel,' for five instruments.” The concert will open with the jazzy “Mozart en Route or a Little Traveling Music” by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kernis, inspired by a letter Wolfgang wrote to his father, Leopold, describing a particularly rough carriage ride.
Joining the ensemble for the Emerson Hall concert are clarinetist Michael Cirigliano, bassoonist Stephen Walt, hornist Victor Sungarian and bassist Bradley Aikman.
The concert is free to the Union community. For all others, tickets are $18 (adults), $12 (seniors) and $6 (non-Union students). Reservations are strongly recommended. For more information, visit http://www.musiciansofmaalwyck.org/home.html or contact Tann at tannh@union.edu or ext. 6566.
Thanks to an IEF grant, four of the Musicians of Ma'alwyck will return to campus March 9 to record student compositions for Tann's class.