10/11 Chamber Arts Series & Schubertiade Announced

By UMS

The 48th Annual UMS Chamber Arts Series presents some of today’s leading chamber musicians performing both traditional and contemporary repertoire:

Schubert Cycle Concert 1

Takács Quartet

Jeffrey Kahane, piano

Thursday, October 14 | 8 pm
Rackham Auditorium

The always superlative Takács Quartet has become an Ann Arbor favorite over the past decade, consistently delivering performances that live well beyond the last note played in the concert hall. In the 10/11 season, they perform a three-concert cycle of Schubert’s quartets and quintets, with the first performance launching the Chamber Arts Series. Commenting on their latest Schubert recording for Hyperion, Gramophone magazine noted, “The Takács have the ability to make you believe that there’s no other possible way the music should go, and the strength to overturn preconceptions that comes with only the greatest performers.” This first concert features pianist Jeffrey Kahane, and balances two Schubert string quartets with the young American composer Daniel Kellogg’s Variations on “Death and the Maiden.”

Program
Schubert                    String Quartet in E-flat Major, D. 87
Schubert                    Piano Sonata in B-flat Major, D. 960 (Op. Post.)
Daniel Kellogg         Variations on a Theme from “Death and the Maiden”
Schubert                    String Quartet in d minor, D. 810

Jerusalem Quartet

Thursday, October 21 | 8 pm
Rackham Auditorium

“Superlatives are inadequate in describing just how this playing was from one of the young, yet great, quartets of our time.” (The Strad) Returning after its widely acclaimed UMS visit in 2007, the Jerusalem Quartet was formed in 1993, when its members were still teenagers, within the framework of the Young Musicians’ Group under the auspices of the Jerusalem Music Centre and the America Israel Cultural Foundation. “Musical electricity may be unfathomable, but one thing is for sure — they have it.” (The Strad)

Program
Mendelssohn          Quartet in e minor, Op. 44, No. 2
Mark Kopytman       String Quartet No. 3 (1969)
Brahms                     Quartet in c minor, Op. 51, No. 1

The Historic Concert

ONCE.MORE Festival:

A 50^th Anniversary Moment

Tuesday, November 2 | 8 pm
Rackham Auditorium

The ONCE Group was a collection of musicians, visual artists, architects, and film-makers who wished to create an environment in which artists could explore and share techniques and ideas in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The group hosted the ONCE Festival six times in Ann Arbor in the early 1960s; one of the enduring outcomes of this group is the Ann Arbor Film Festival. The organizers of the ONCE festival were five composition students of U-M composition professor Ross Lee Finney, whose sabbatical in Europe resulted in a revolution of sorts among his students, who began using electronics in their compositions. This concert represents the historic works presented during Ann Arbor’s ONCE Festival some 50 years ago; a second concert, presented two days later (and not on the Chamber Arts Series), will look at more recent works by the same composers. This special collaboration with the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance will provide a look into Ann Arbor’s progressive role in the development of avant-garde music.

Program
Roger Reynolds                                   Mosaic for Flute and Piano (1962)
Robert Ashley                                       in memoriam…Crazy Horse (1963)
Gordon Mumma                                   Large Size Mograph (1962)
Donald Scavarda                                 Group for Piano (1959)
Robert Ashley                                       in memoriam…Esteban Gomez (1963)
Donald Scavarda                                 FilmSCORE for Two Pianists (1962)
Donald Scavarda                                 GREYS, A FilmSCORE (silent version) (1963)
Scavarda/Mumma                               GREYS, A FilmSCORE (with sound) (1963)
Gordon Mumma                                  Sinfonia (1958-60)
Donald Scavarda                                 Matrix for Clarinetist (1962)
Roger Reynolds                                   A Portrait of Vanzetti (1962-63)

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin

New Century Chamber Orchestra

Friday, February 4 | 8 pm
Rackham Auditorium

Electrifying performances, fearless interpretations, and musical depth have established the violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg as one of the leading violinists of our time. She was born in Rome and immigrated to the United States at the age of eight to study at The Curtis Institute of Music, beginning her professional career in 1981 when she became the youngest person ever to win the Walter W. Naumburg International Violin Competition. For the past two years, she has served as music director of San Francisco’s New Century Chamber Orchestra, which makes its UMS debut with a program that includes Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, a tango-inspired version that complements the Vivaldi and Philip Glass “Four Seasons” on the Choral Union Series.

Program
Wolf/arr.                    Drew Italian Serenade (1887)
Bartók/Willner          Romanian Folk Dances
Piazzolla                   Four Seasons of Buenos Aires (1964-70)
Tchaikovsky             Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48

Concertante and Rafał Blechacz, piano

Sunday, February 13 | 4 pm
Rackham Auditorium

Comprised of a core of six virtuoso string players, Concertante performs in varied combinations of instrumentalists with a sheen, warmth, and polish that are the hallmark of superb chamber music groups. For this concert, they are joined the Polish pianist Rafał Blechacz, who performs in recital on the Choral Union Series two nights earlier, for a chamber arrangement of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1, written when the composer was only 20 years old. Blechacz is widely regarded as a supreme interpreter of Chopin’s works, sweeping all five first prizes at the 2005 International Chopin Competition when he was just 20, the first Pole to achieve the honor since Krystian Zimerman in 1975.

Program
Elgar                      Serenade for Strings in e minor, Op. 20
Schoenberg        Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4
Chopin                  Piano Concerto No. 1 in e minor, Op. 11

Scharoun Ensemble Berlin

Chamber Musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic

Wednesday, March 9 | 8 pm
Rackham Auditorium

In 1983, members of the Berlin Philharmonic founded the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin, named after the architect who designed the marvelous concert hall where the Berlin Philharmonic performs at home. The eight musicians of the Scharoun Ensemble express an artistic commitment to both the heritage of the past and the challenges of the present. The ensemble comprises the standard octet instrumentation — clarinet, horn, bassoon, two violins, viola, cello, and double bass —allowing them to perform some of the great chamber music literature of Schubert, Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms, in addition to 20^th-century classical modernist works and contemporary music.

Program
Schubert                     Octet in F Major, D. 803
Additional works to be announced.

Tetzlaff Quartet

Saturday, April 9| 8 pm
Rackham Auditorium

The terrific German violinist Christian Tetzlaff, who most recently appeared with as soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, in addition to solo recital appearances at both St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church and Hill Auditorium, brings his chamber ensemble, the Tetzlaff Quartet. The group was founded in 1994 by Tetzlaff and his sister, Tanja, along with two musicians with a mutual devotion to chamber music whom they met at a chamber music festival in Switzerland. Despite reduced availability, they make a commitment to perform each year as a quartet, drawing accolades from critics and casual listeners alike.

Program
Haydn                        Quartet in g minor, Op. 20, No. 3
Mendelssohn           Quartet in a minor, Op. 13
Sibelius                     Quartet in d minor, Op. 56 ”Voces Intimae” (1909)

Schubertiade Series

The always superlative Takács Quartet has become an Ann Arbor favorite over the past decade, consistently delivering performances that live well beyond the last note played in the concert hall.  In the 10/11 season, they perform a three-concert cycle of Schubert’s quartets and quintets (Thursday, October 14; Sunday, February 20; and Friday, April 8). 

Schubert Cycle Concert 2

Takács Quartet

Sunday, February 20| 4 pm
Rackham Auditorium

Program
Schubert                String Quartet in B-flat Major, D. 112
Schubert                String Quartet in a minor, D. 804
Schubert                String Quartet in G Major, D. 887

Schubert Cycle Concert 3

Takács Quartet

Jeffrey Kahane, piano

Paul Katz, cello

John Feeney, double bass

Friday, April 8 | 8 pm
Rackham Auditorium

Program
Schubert                Piano Quintet in A Major, D. 667 (“Trout”)
Schubert                Cello Quintet in C Major, D. 956

Tickets for the 7-concert series range from $124-$256. Subscription renewal packets and brochures will be mailed in early May.

An additional option that includes all three Schubert concerts by the Takács Quartet (nine concerts total) ranges from $170-$340.

Tickets to individual events on the series go on sale on Monday, August 23 (via www.ums.org) and Wednesday, August 25 (in person and by phone).

Which events in the season are you most anticipating? Let us know in the comments area below.