Concert Program I

THE SEASONS

Composers across the centuries have created music to reflect upon and interpret the world around us. Music@Menlo’s 2010 season-opening program celebrates music’s transmutative power with landmark works by two of history’s most unbridled compositional imaginations—works that use vastly contrasting languages but share a common inspiration. Antonio Vivaldi’s timeless The Four Seasons, one of Western music’s most beloved masterpieces, renders the magic of the seasons in sparkling Italianate virtuosity. American maverick George Crumb creates a mesmerizing kaleidoscope of sound from two amplified pianos and percussion in his ethereal Music for a Summer Evening, composed more than 250 years later. The luster of Vivaldi’s Baroque orchestra and the chimerical soundscape of Music for a Summer Evening showcase the marvelous acoustics of Music@Menlo’s newest concert venue, the Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton.

Following this performance, join Music@Menlo festival musicians and Artistic Directors David Finckel and Wu Han over drinks and French bistro fare at Left Bank Brasserie. Learn more »

PROGRAM

Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741)
The Four Seasons (1723)

George Crumb (b. 1929)
Music for a Summer Evening (Makrokosmos III) (1974)

Friday, July 23

8:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Tickets: $60/$50 adult; $30/$20 student

ARTISTS

Inon Barnatan, harpsichord
Gilbert Kalish, piano
Wu Han, piano
Daniel Ching, violin
Ani Kavafian, violin
Erin Keefe, violin
Philip Setzer, violin
Ian Swensen, violin
Sandy Yamamoto, violin
John Largess, viola
Joshua Gindele, cello
Scott Pingel, bass
Christopher Froh, percussion
Ayano Kataoka, percussion

Image: Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527–1593). Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Oil on canvas, 76 × 63 cm. Photos: Jean-Gilles Berizzi. Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY