Current 2010 Performance Schedule
BICENTENNIALS ON THE BLUFF: Celebrating the 200th Birthdays of Frederic Chopin and Robert Schumann This season's three concerts will be devoted to music by two of the most popular and beloved classical composers, Frederic Chopin and Robert Schumann, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of their births. Romantic favorites will be featured, along with rarely-performed gems. Members of the Mary Pappert School of Music (MPSM) faculty, led by David Allen Wehr, holder of the Jack W. Geltz Distinguished Piano Chair and Artistic Director of the series, will join special guest artists and members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. All concerts on Sundays at 3p in PNC Recital Hall, and will be preceded by talks by Dr. Benjamin Binder at 2:15p.
Sunday, September 19 at 3pm
Bicentennials on the Bluff: Program I
PNC Recital Hall, Duquense University
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The opening concert explores the imaginative and joyful way Schumann approaches chamber ensembles, highlighted by the Piano Quintet, the first masterpiece written for the combination of piano and string quartet, and the Piano Quartet, its lesser-known but equally beautiful sibling. The Fantasy-Pieces for Clarinet and Piano and the Adagio and Allegro for French Horn and Piano are deservedly repertory staples, most often played in arrangements, but heard here in Schumann's original instrumentations.
- Fantasy Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, op. 73
- Piano Quartet, op. 47
- Adagio and Allegro for French Horn and Piano, op. 70
- Piano Quintet, op. 44
- MPSM Faculty:
- David Allen Wehr, piano, Jack W. Geltz Distinguished Piano Chair
- Charles Stegeman, violin, Associate Professor and Chair of Strings
- Rachel Stegeman, violin, Adjunct Professor
- Marylene Gingras-Roy, viola, Adjunct Professor, member PSO
- Joen Vasquez, viola, Adjunct Professor, Assistant Principal PSO
- Adam Liu, cello, Adjunct Professor, Assistant Principal PSO
- Ron Samuels, clarinet, Adjunct Professor, member PSO
- Zachary Smith, French horn, Adjunct Professor, Assistant Principal PSO
Pre-concert talk at 2:15p: Dr. Benjamin Binder, Assistant Professor of Musicianship. $10 suggested donation. For more information visit www.duq.edu/bicentennials.
Sunday, October 17 at 3pm
Elbin Auditorium, West Liberty University
West Liberty (Wheeling), West Virginia
- Fantasy: Solo Piano Recital
- Schumann: Fantasy, op. 17
- Chopin: Fantasy, op. 49
- Chopin: Two Nocturnes, op. 62
- Chopin: Two Polonaises, op. 40
Free admission; for more information, visit www.westliberty.edu/music.
Sunday, October 24 at 3pm
Bicentennials on the Bluff: Program II
PNC Recital Hall, Duquense University
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The fantasies by Chopin and Schumann are actually highly organized and emotionally satisfying structures that are cornerstones of the Romantic piano literature. In his nocturnes and polonaises, Chopin was able to portray larger-than-life feelings of passion, drama and patriotism in smaller lyrical and dance forms, with the especially popular "Military Polonaise" expressing Chopin's pride in his Polish homeland.
- David Allen Wehr, piano, Jack W. Geltz Distinguished Piano Chair
- Fantasy: Solo Piano Recital
- Schumann: Fantasy, op. 17
- Chopin: Fantasy, op. 49
- Chopin: Two Nocturnes, op. 62
- Chopin: Two Polonaises, op. 40
Pre-concert talk at 2:15p: Dr. Benjamin Binder, Assistant Professor of Musicianship. $10 suggested donation. For more information visit www.duq.edu/bicentennials.
Monday, November 1 at 7pm
Bicentennials at Chatham
Chatham College
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Music of Chopin and Schumann performed by Anne Martindale Williams, Principal Cellist, Pittsburgh Symphony and David Allen Wehr. For more information, visit www.chatham.edu.
Sunday, November 7 at 3pm
Bicentennials on the Bluff: Program III
PNC Recital Hall, Duquense University
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Chopin and Schumann each wrote only a single work for two pianos, both rarely heard: Chopin, a rondo written when he was eighteen, Schumann, an Andante and Variations heard here in its original, extremely unusual scoring with two cellos and French horn. Schumann was fascinated by the newly invented pedal piano (a piano with a pedal board similar to an organ) and composed some inspired music for it. The instrument became extinct almost immediately, but Debussy's masterly transcription for two pianos of the Canonic Etudes, which breathes the calm spirit of Bach, has allowed the work to remain on the fringes of the repertoire. Two better-known treasures composed near the end of Chopin's life feature guest pianist Cynthia Raim in the Polonaise-Fantasy and PSO Principal Cellist Anne Martindale Williams and David Allen Wehr in the Sonata for Cello and Piano, Chopin's only mature work of chamber music.
- Hidden Treasures
- Chopin: Rondo for Two Pianos, op. 73
- Chopin: Sonata for Cello and Piano, op. 65
- Chopin: Polonaise-Fantasy for Piano, op. 61
- Schumann: Six Canonic Etudes for Pedal Piano, op. 56 (transcribed for two pianos by Debussy)
- Schumann: Andante and Variations for Two Pianos, Two Cellos and French Horn, op. 46
- Special Guest Artists:
- Cynthia Raim, piano, International Concert Artist, Winner, Three Rivers National Piano Competition
- Anne Martindale Williams, cello, Principal PSO
- David Premo, cello, Associate Principal PSO
- MPSM Faculty:
- David Allen Wehr, piano, Jack W. Geltz Distinguished Piano Chair
- Zachary Smith, French horn, Adjunct Professor, Assistant Principal PSO
Pre-concert talk at 2:15p: Dr. Benjamin Binder, Assistant Professor of Musicianship. $10 suggested donation. For more information visit www.duq.edu/bicentennials.
December 2010 through March 2011
David Allen Wehr will be on sabbatical
Check on this site after January 1, 2011, for the late spring and summer concert schedules!