daily festival recaps
- Music@Menlo Wraps Up Spectacular Sixth Season (August 08)
- Voices of Our Time (August 07)
- "without whom we would be mute" (August 06)
- Just Another Day at Music@Menlo (August 05)
- Private Music Made Public (August 04)
- Modernist Marathon (August 03)
- The Musical Imagination (August 03)
- Delicious Dissonance (August 01)
- What Ithaka Means (August 01)
- Romantic Cadence (July 30)
- Brahms the Progressive (July 30)
- "Vissi d'arte..." (July 29)
- "...and all the world is fresh and bright again." (July 27)
- Festive Day, Romantic Evening (July 27)
- Open House (July 25)
- "Origins of Modern String Playing" and Today's Rising Stars (July 25)
- Classical Bookends (July 23)
- Lesser Gives More (July 22)
- Fame is the Spur (July 22)
- Yes! (and Bird! and Bach!) (July 20)
- Baroque Heroics (July 19)
- Towards Bach (July 18)
- A Grand Beginning (July 17)
Festive Day, Romantic Evening
Posted: July 27
Saturday marked Music@Menlo’s annual Open House. The day began with a Q&A Coffee with the Artistic Directors, followed by a series of open rehearsals, which, this season, delighted record numbers of festival audiences. Clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Derek Han enjoyed Music@Menlo’s first standing-room-only open rehearsal, as they prepared Schumann’s Opus 73 Fantasy Pieces for the season’s third concert program. Those vigilant listeners who arrived at Menlo School early enough on Saturday morning also enjoyed a sneak preview of Sunday’s Carte Blanche Concert, a performance of the Schubert Piano Trios by pianist Wu Han, violinist Philip Setzer, and cellist David Finckel.
Saturday’s Cafe Conversation offered audiences a unique treat: 2008 Visual Artist Doug Glovaski offered a rare glimpse inside the artist’s studio, giving a fascinating demonstration of his own creative process. The afternoon also featured the summer’s first Koret Young Performers Concert, where the Chamber Music Institute’s younger students gave impressive renditions of Haydn, Beethoven, and Dvorak. Listeners need not wait long to hear the Young Performers in action again: the next KYPC takes place Sunday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. (Martin Family Hall, Menlo School, FREE).
At the tail end of this hubbub of festival activities came the day’s marquee event: the season’s second Encounter, “Nostalgia is Not Enough: What is Romantic?” led by Music@Menlo favorite Michael Steinberg. Over previous seasons, festival audiences have learned to look forward to Michael’s singular brand of insight, wit, and poignancy in discussing music and the arts, and Saturday evening did not disappoint. With the help of an array of images, a charming selection of poetry, and, not least of all, International Program pianist Qing Jiang (whose riveting performance of Schumann’s Opus 17 Fantasy ended the evening’s first half), Michael expertly prepared audiences for the next exciting leg of the festival season’s journey: an enthralling sojourn through the Romantic period.