"What Makes It Great"

[susanwen]

Tonight is the first of four programs of Rob Kapilow talking about Beethoven. Tonight's program is about the First Symphony, with a talk followed by a performance, at the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum in Washington. Is anybody from this group going? I have tickets to the whole series, and I'll be there tonight.
Susan Wenger

[susanwen]

Tonight's program was excellent, and I am looking forward to the rest of the series. Kapilow is a showman, and his talks are aways animated and entertaining, as well as informative. Tonight he described several ways that Beethoven stayed within tradition and broke with traditional music of his time, illustrating his talk with snatches of music played by the Peabody Chamber Orchestra, and then they played the First Symphony in its entirety, after he had pointed out several passages to listen for and explaining what the audience in Beethoven's time would have known and expected, and why they would be surprised by some of Beethoven's twists. It was thoroughly enjoyable.
- Susan

[Michael]

Glad you enjoyed it, Susan. Rob Kapilow's talks are fascinating. He is a showman right enough, but his enthusiasm is infectious. A lot of them can be found on Youtube.

[susanwen]

Upcoming concerts in the series are (all in Washington, DC):
December 4 at 6 PM: Piano Sonata No. 23, "Appassionata:" Yuliya Gorenman, piano.

March 4 at 6 PM: Cello Sonat No. 3, Zuill Bailey, cello

April 29 at 6 PM: Violin Concerto, Keng-Wyen Tseng, violin

These concerts will all be preceded by the "What Makes it Great?" talk by Rob Kapilow describing features of the pieces to be played. They cost only $18 each, from Washington Performing Arts Society at http://www.wpas.org

[Joy]

It is so interesting when there is a talk before the performance. Here in Phoenix we have Jeffrey Siegel and he's a pianist who performs the classics and usually does several performances a year. This year he is performing Beethoven and Liszt and will be doing lectures before each performance. He also does a Q and A with the audience as well so it's a very informative evening and I will be going to a few of his concerts as well.