My Own Chamber Music Fest 11/7/12
November 7, 2012
Last Sunday November 4th, I had 2 chamber music concerts, one at LACMA Sunday Live, and another one for LA Phil’s Committee group. At LACMA, we played trios for flute, cello, and piano by Kuhlau, Martinu, and Kapustin, and duo for cello and piano by Mendelssohn. This program covers a wide range of musical styles, Classical (Kuhlau was a a contemporary of Beethoven), Romantic (Mendelssohn was born in 1809, Chopin and Schumann was born in 1810, and Liszt in 1811), 20th century music (Martinu was born in 1890 in Czech), and here comes Kapustin, whose music is jazz-classic synthesis, was born in Russia in 1937. It was a first time for me to perform at LACMA Sunday Live, and I was glad to ply for the big audience. This well established concert series has been organized by an artistic director, Bill Vestel, a broadcast host, Dennis Bade, and a broadcast engineer, Peter Sutheim. The audience was very enthusiastic, and it was really fun to perform. After LACMA Sunday Live, David, my husband, and I went to LA Phil’s Committee concert in west side. The host of the concert owns an amazing house with a great music room surrounded by many contemporary arts. This house is a museum! I am not joking. Even in the bathroom, there would be some arts decorated on the wall. We performed a trio for violin, cello, and piano by Clara Schumann which we will perform in January as a part of LA Phil Chamber Music Concert in Disney Hall. I really like this piece. I can sense Clara’s beautiful spirit. You may not know Clara Schumann. She was one of the best pianists in her generation, and a wife of Robert Schumann. Back then, there was not much opportunity for women to be a composer, but she composed and performed her own pieces. She was known to be a better pianist than Robert, and she promoted his music after Robert passed away. She collaborated with Mendelssohn, Brahms, and Joachim. Whenever I think about those composers who were living at the same time, collaborating, influencing and inspiring each other, that idea gives me an excitement. Franz Liszt once commented how great Clara was as a pianist.
My Chamber Music Fest continues to next Monday 12th at Occidental College in Bird Studio at 12:45pm with Brahms Piano Quintet, one of the greatest chamber music written in Romantic Period. It is free! We will play Brahms one more time in Disney Hall for LA Phil’s subscribers on 11/17.