[ad_1]
SISTER BAY, Wisconsin (WFRV) Two more programs are underway as Door Countys Midsummers Music continues to expand in terms of concert rates and venues.
According to press releases: Entitled Creative Crisis, the first concert series will take place from July 2 to Thursday, July 6.
The works of three classical composers who had great difficulty with the creative crises that ultimately guided their styles of composition will be explored.
To illustrate the aura of concerts, Midsummers Music quotes John F. Kennedy: When written in Chinese, the word crisis is made up of two characters, one representing danger and the other representing opportunity.
+ By the time Ludwig van Beethoven had received the approval of the nobility with works like the Serenade for flute, violin and viola, his deafness was becoming painfully evident. He wrote the Heiligenstadt Testament, a heartbreaking document in which he rants against the infirmity and cruelty it imposes on someone of his extraordinary talent. This program from Midsummers Music presents his Symphony No.2 in D major, Opus 36 for violin, cello and piano, marking an important creative embarkation which coincided with his progressive hearing deterioration.
+ Johann Baptist Vanhal lived in Vienna at the same time as Beethoven. By the mid-1770s he had written over 70 symphonies, but times and tastes were changing and he in turn chose to change his style of composition. Abandoning largely the symphonic form, he wrote more than 100 string quartets and 48 masses, as well as numerous concertos. Trio for violin, viola and bass, its Divertimento in G major, W.Vlb: 13, was written to charm the Viennese of the time and is of a lively and dancing character throughout.
+ The Russian Sergei Lyapunov wrote his only chamber music composition Sextet in B flat minor, opus 63 for piano, two violins, viola, cello and bass at the age of 46. It is extremely rare that a composer writes only one work in a genre and that work is one of his best. Lyapunov had a distinguished career as a virtuoso pianist and conductor, and he was extremely interested in Russian folklore. Like Vahnal in Vienna, times and tastes in Russia were changing and a new school of Russian music illustrated by Stravinsky emerged. Lyapunov chose not to pursue the new style and continued to promote the use of Russian folklore and more traditional forms of music found in Brahms and Schumann.
The Creative Crisis program will be presented on July 2 at 7 p.m. at the Kress Pavilion in Egg Harbor; July 3 at 7 p.m. at Hope United Church of Christ in Sturgeon Bay; and July 6 at 7 p.m. at the Door Community Auditorium in Fish Creek.
Midsummers Music musicians include David Perry and Ann Palen, violins, Allyson Fleck, viola, James Waldo, cello, Drew Banzhaf, bass, and Jeffrey Panko, piano.
***
Entitled Kreutzer Connotations, the next concert series will take place July 9-11.
+ The program includes Ludwig van Beethovens Kreutzer Sonata, one of the most famous Danza violin sonatas of Panama by African-American composer William Grant Still, and the world premiere of Transit by Midsummers Musics 2021 Composer-in-Residence Will Healy, with the famous soprano Mikaela Bennett.
Performances will take place July 9 at 7 p.m. at the Kress Pavilion in Egg Harbor; July 10 at 7 p.m. at the Old Gibraltar Town Hall in Fish Creek; and July 11 at 4 p.m. at the Woodwalk Gallery in Egg Harbor.
Besides Mikaela Bennett, musicians include David Perry and Ann Palen, violins, Allyson Fleck, viola, and James Waldo, cello.
Bennett is a graduate of The Juilliard School and is celebrated as a singer and actress for her work on stage and in the concert hall. She recently appeared as a featured soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel playing Wayne Shorter’s Aurora. In 2019, Bennet won a Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists, made her Lyric Opera Chicago debut playing Maria in West Side Story, played the title role in Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein IIs Cinderella at MUNY, returned at the BBC Proms with the John Wilson Orchestra performing music from the Warner Bros. movie studio, and sang the role of Mary Wintergreen in George Gershwins’ MasterVoices production Let Em Eat Cake at Carnegie Hall.
Bennett made his professional debut as Penelope in The Golden Apple at City Center Encores! She is originally the role of Norma in the new off-Broadway musical Renascence and the title role of Acquanetta in a new opera by Michael Gordon and directed by Daniel Fish.
Bennett made her BBC Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall in London with Maria in the John Wilson Orchestras production of West Side Story, and she made her New York Philharmonic debut under Leonard Slatkin and the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nzet -Sguin. Mikaela performed as a featured soloist in Bernstein on Broadway at the Kennedy Center under the direction of Rob Fisher. She has collaborated on several occasions with conductor Ted Sperling, most recently at Carnegie Hall performing Gershwin and as a soprano soloist in George Frideric Hndels Israel in Egypt with Orchestra of St Lukes. She has appeared with the San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas for the world premiere of Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind.
***
Coffee Talks, free informal presentations on musical topics by musicians and friends of Midsummers Music will resume from July 3 at 10 a.m. with Jacob Beranek presenting American Classical Music Since 1941: A Sampling of 80 Years of Art at SWY231 in Sturgeon Bay . Will Healy, Midsummers 2021 Composer-in-Residence, will speak at the Kress Pavilion in Egg Harbor at 10 a.m. on July 10, and 2021 Composer-in-Residence Paul Frucht will present Writing Music for Our Time at SWY231 at 10 a.m. July 17.
Reservations for all concerts and Coffee Talks must be made at least 24 hours in advance. Before planning or purchasing tickets, spectators should review the COVID-19 Midsummers Policy on the midsummersmuisic.com website.
Midsummers Music was co-founded in 1990 by Jim and Jean Berkenstock, longtime summer residents of Door County and principal orchestral players of the Lyric Opera in Chicago.
[ad_2]
picture credit