Van Cliburn gold medalist Yekwon Sun Woo.Photo: Carolyn Cruz
Great Barrington — It’s trout season in Berkshire – at least in the chamber music world. Schubert’s Trout Quintet seems to be all the rage in 2023. However, this time of year is also fundraising season, and Encounters with Music (CEWM) will be hosting events on Sundays. , June 11 at 4pm at the Mahiwe Performing Arts Center. (See special ticket packages below.)
Sunday’s program consists of two pioneering piano quintets by masters of the genre, Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert. Along with Van Cliburn Gold Medalist Yekwon Sonu, the line-up of prominent string players are two of the most beloved and oft-performed chamber works: Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E flat major and Schubert’s Quintet. Play A major (“The Trout”). in the repertoire.
Robert Schumann embodies the spirit of Romanticism for being one of the main ancestors of Romanticism. His exuberant E-flat major quintet, considered an early standard work for piano and string quartet, includes Brahms, Dvorak, Sibelius, Bartók, Martinu, Elgar, Franck and Borodin to name a few. Nearly every Romantic-era composer who could have followed his lead. , Carter, and literally dozens of others to this day. This seminal work showcases Schumann’s unique harmonic language and distinctive style as a keyboardist and composer, as well as his body of work.
The boring part of this piece is… nowhere to be found. Sure, it’s partly because we’re so familiar with it, but we’re so familiar with it because of Schumann’s habit of writing unforgettable music. It was over in no time, and before I knew it, 30 minutes had passed.
Sonu will undoubtedly smash this song down with overwhelming pianistic chops, but the scherzo of the third movement is a moment of virtuosity. Photo of Felix Mendelssohn reading the song at her premiere as the ill Clara Schumann falls ill at the eleventh hour. Amazing.
Just a few weeks ago, I wrote about Aston Magna’s Trout-themed program, revealing a little-known fact about Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet. (He omitted the crucial last line of Christian Shuwald’s poem “Die Forelle” and changed its meaning. A shame.)
In addition to Sonu on piano, violinists Giora Schmidt and Helena Bailly will join, along with cellist Yehuda Hanani, double bass Jeremy McCoy, and an as yet unnamed violist.
Describing Yekwon Sunwoo as a prestigious contest winner is not enough. The Washington Post wrote, “Sonu’s program did not give the slightest hint of the realm of showpieces represented by music competitions…Sonu added orchestral breadth to this work, not necessarily in terms of volume, but in the variety of colors. and captured the era by creating a sculptural world of sound using all three pedals.” The vast but intimate scale of the opera. “
The News Gazette said, “Clearly a great talent, Sonu plays with the most subtle sensibilities and, when the music calls for those skills, with tremendous power and dizzying speed. Sunwoo is a keyboard poet and has a distinctly romantic sensibility…”
Pianist Yekwon Sonu and friends perform Schubert’s “Trout” quintet at the “Approach to Music” gala concert on Sunday, June 11, at 4pm at the Mahawe Performing Arts Center. and Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E flat major. Mahiwe tickets can be purchased here. Priority Patron Gala packages are available here. Subscriber dinner reservations are available here.
If you’re lucky, they’ll even serve trout patties.
