Liszt, Brahms, and Particle Physics. This Season at The Barns at Wolf Trap: Part I

Today's post is from Lee Anne Myslewski, Administrative Director, Wolf Trap Opera & Classical Programming.

So, maybe you’re looking for something different to do on a Friday night. Maybe you were a band or orchestra geek in high school. Maybe you like to sit at the piano and play to wash the stress of the day away. How about a concert experience where earplugs are not required, one that will leave you humming along with a tune, even if there aren’t any words to go with it?

Here are the bits that I’m most excited about for this season’s Discovery Series:

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Friday, October 12, 2012
This group’s rotating lineup includes some of the most virtuosic players in the country, many of whom are based out of NYC. They set aside big orchestral repertoire and concertos for this evening of playing passionate musical miniatures. The pianist Jeremy Denk (a frequent collaborator of Joshua Bell’s…you can also read his amazing writing at Think Denk) provides the backbone in this evening which includes Brahms’ beautiful Horn Trio, Bruch pieces for violin and clarinet, and the wildly romantic Dohnányi sextet.

Ingrid Fliter, piano
Friday, November 2, 2012
A passionate Argentinian pianist who is amazingly refined: she walks that line between restraint and emotional excess in an exciting and dangerous way. She’ll be playing Haydn, and I’m so excited to hear the ways in which she’ll balances the exacting structure of his works with her innate musical fire. (She’s one of two Gilmore Award winners on the season this year – keep your eyes peeled for the other!)

JACK Quartet
Derek Bermel, clarinet
Friday, January 11, 2013
JACK is an edgy string quartet from Brooklyn who specializes in crazy difficult repertoire: think Xenakis string quartets and De Machaut baroque repertoire played with equal temperament. They’re risk-takers, and have paired up with composer/clarinetist Derek Bermel to perform a Wolf Trap Foundation World Premiere - A Short History of the Universe (as related by Nima Arkani-Hamed) (Google that name if you’re not familiar with particle physics or the Higgs-Boson.) If you’re looking to have an existential evening of music, or to hear something that no one else has ever heard before, I’d suggest that this evening is the one for you.

Steven Isserlis, cello
Kirill Gerstein, piano
Friday, January 25, 2013
Mr. Isserlis is a titan in chamber music, and while he’s most well-known for championing lesser-known composers and accessibility for younger audiences, he has done everything - and done it well. CDs, concerti, premieres, historical performance practice, children’s books on musical subjects… he’s a true Renaissance man. He was even honoured (note the English spelling) as a Commander of the British Empire in 1998. Mr. Gerstein is a Russian pianist known for technical brilliance and exciting, muscular performances. He and Mr. Isserlis will be tearing through some Liszt, Bartók, and Brahms during their program – good, meaty stuff!