Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival - Summer Series at the Power House!
See you there
- 2013-06-11 20:30:00
- 2013-06-15 20:30:00
- 2013-06-22 20:30:00
- 2013-06-29 20:30:00
Presented by: Gesa Power House Theatre
The Gesa Power House Theatre is proud to once again host the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival summer series, with four outstanding concerts throughout the month of June!
Tuesday, June 11, 7:30 p.m. — $20
Czech this out! The 2013 Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival opens with the World Premiere of composer Ching-chu Hu’s String Sextet.
Tonight, we feast and we dance! Opening night of the 2013 Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival at the Gesa Power House Theater will crackle with the lively Bohemian dance rhythms of the Dvorak Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81. Czech dances, such as the Dumka and Furiant, loom large in this audience favorite.
Also on the program is Beethoven's delightful "Harp" string quartet, Op. 74. The work, from the same period as the "Emperor" Concerto, belies none of the circumstances of Beethoven's existence in 1809: encroaching deafness, Napoleon's siege of Vienna, and attending economic woes. Beethoven, ever crafty, negotiated his way through the maze as a freelance composer.
This season marks the sixth year of the WWCMF tradition of opening the Festival Series with a specially commissioned work. It is fitting that it is a work for six players. Our featured composer is Ching-chu Hu, whose new String Sextet was commissioned for the 2013 Festival and has its World Premiere tonight!
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Saturday, June 15, 7:30 p.m. — $20
Will the real Kreutzer please stand up?
Festival Series II presents one of the towering masterpieces for violin and piano, the Sonata in A Major, Op. 47, by Beethoven, a work more familiarly known by its nickname, the Kreutzer Sonata.
Rudolphe Kreutzer was a preeminent violinist in Paris in the early ninteenth century, and this work has almost nothing to do with him. Today, Kreutzer is known to violinists and Jack Benny as the author of a set of 42 studies designed to improve technique. To wider audiences, he is known only as the namesake for this incredible piece by Beethoven. Though Beethoven sent a copy to Kreutzer, the violinist never played the piece and declared it to be unintelligible.
Augmenting the legacy of this sonata are works by Tolstoy and Leos Janacek, both bearing the same title. You will find these Slavic spin-offs elsewhere during the 2013 Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival (namely, at jimgermanbar on June 25! See the Special Event listing for more information). Tonight, violinist Andrew Jennings and pianist Oksana Ezhokina bring Beethoven’s heroic score to life.
Also on the program is the debut of vocal chamber music at WWCMF. Soprano Jennifer Goltz-Taylor joins WWCMF for the first time in the brooding Seven Songs, Op. 127, by Dmitri Shostakovich. This work, originally commissioned by Mstislav Rostropovich, represents a Who’s Who of twentieth century Soviet music. It was conceived as a vehicle for the power quartet of soprano Galina Vishnevskaya (wife of Rostropovich), Rostropovich, violinist David Oistrakh, and Shostokovich himself. Shostakovich, to ill to perform at the premiere, was replaced by his close associate, Mieczyslaw Weinberg. The music is as deeply personal a statement as we have from this prolific composer. Rounding out the evening is a very charming work by German-American composer Charles Martin Loeffler.
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Saturday, June 22, 7:30 p.m. — $20
First Time?
Perhaps this is your first time attending a concert where the works — even the composers — are unknown to you.
The composers Heitor Villa-Lobos, Joan Tower, Friedrich Hermann and Anton Arensky fall outside of the canon of the ubiquitous “dead white guys” whose music dominates classical programming. To my knowledge, none of them ever sported a wig, and if he did, the wig would certainly not be powdered. How, then, could they compose great classical music, you ask? There’s only one way to find out!
Festival Series III explores exceptional music by composers you don’t encounter every day. From the Brazilian folk influence of Villa-Lobos’ “Jet Whistle” for flute and cello, to the Russian liturgical influence of Arensky’s tribute to his idol, Tchaikovsky, each work on this program will surprise and delight. Petroushskates, by living American composer, Joan Tower, takes two sources for its inspiration; the Shrovetide Fair of Stravinsky’s ballet masterpiece, Petroushka, and the flowing continuous line of a figure skater’s blade on the ice. Perhaps another influence on this work is the instrumental force known as a “Pierrot Ensemble,” after the seminal work Pierrot Lunaire, by Arnold Schönberg. In every case, these works deserve our attention, and we guarantee that you will always remember your first time.
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Saturday, June 29, 7:30 p.m. — $20
Go Big or Go Home!
Well, in this case, we’ll do both, going big, then going home. Festival Series IV marks the conclusion of the Sixth Annual Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival, and we are going out with a bang.
This program will shake the rafters of the Gesa Power House Theater, and ring on in your memory long after the WWCMF musicians leave the stage. The Concerto for violin, piano and string quartet in D, by French composer Ernest Chausson, is a masterpiece of the late ninteenth Century, demanding virtuosity from all six players. The concerto, as seen through the lens of the ninteenth Century, usually means a piece for soloist and large orchestra. Chausson, however, looks inward, pairing down the ensemble to its essentials. With pre-impressionistic shadings dominating the interior passages, this work nevertheless explodes to a joyous conclusion. As the French musical indication goes, “Laissé Vibrer!”— Let it Ring!
Tchaikovsky, for his part, gives us one of the string repertoire’s great showpieces. Souvenir de Florence is so named because Tchaikovsky composed one of the work’s principal themes while on an extended stay in Florence, Italy, where he composed his opera The Queen of Spades. This work features two violins, two violas, and two cellos. At times, the piece is made of three duos, or a pair of trios, or a soloist with an accompanying quintet, or once in a great while, an expectant silence from all six. The 2013 Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival will conclude in rapturous melody, giving you a souvenir of your own.
Tickets to the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival range from $8 to $20 and are available at wwcmf.org.
Dynamic, Delicious Dinner Theatre
Before The IV Tenors blows the roof off the Power House with their bombastic vocal talents, let us knock the socks off your taste buds with Dynamic, Delicious Dinner Theatre in the Electric Lounge!
Join us in the Electric Lounge for dinner prior to performances of The IV Tenors on Friday, May 31st, Saturday, June 1st, and Friday, June 7th. Let the Weinhard Cafe's delectable four-course kick off your evening, then enjoy the Tenors on a full stomach! Add "Dynamic, Delicious Dinner Theatre" to your cart during checkout!
You'll enjoy the opportunity to mix and mingle with all four of the fabulous Tenors, up close and personal in the intimate setting of our Electric Lounge. Your meal is perfectly paired with local wines and one glass is included!
You may even get a private behind-the-scenes tour of the Theatre... don't miss out on this experience!
Dynamic, Delicious Dinner Theatre
Doors open for our dinner theatre guests at 5:15 pm - Curtain at 7:30 pm
Cost - $35
