Home > FREE EVENTS > First Monday at Jordan Hall

• SHARE
• Outlook
• ICAL
• PRINT
• Tell A Friend
• Feedback

• RSS

• Official Website

First Monday at Jordan Hall

Presented by New England Conservatory at NEC's Jordan Hall

December 7, 2009

Be the first to submit a review/comment!
Add Review/Comment

NEC faculty have always enjoyed playing chamber music together, but it was cellist Laurence Lesser—then Conservatory President—who transformed these occasional musical evenings into a stellar, regularly occurring series. Over the past 25 years, chamber music buffs have come to look forward to the six free concerts held on the first Mondays of October, November, December, March, April, and May. They know they can count on fascinating repertory that ranges from Bach and Brahms to Bartók and beyond. They know they can hear the concerts in one of the great halls of the world. And they know they can expect illuminating performances by some of the world's greatest artists—NEC faculty, alumni, students and friends, who donate their services in exchange for the opportunity to experience together music that is among the most transcendent expressions of human culture. This year, to celebrate the 25th Anniversary, Lesser has programmed a season of composer anniversaries that promises to be particularly festive. Among the composers to be featured will be Franz Josef Haydn, Grazyna Bacewicz, Giovanni Pergolesi, and Hugo Wolf. Performers range from NEC's Boston Symphony faculty members to the resident Borromeo Quartet to recent graduates. Tonight's concert celebrates music for keyboards in all their variety and history. To open, the distinguished organist and keyboardist Peter Sykes '78 will perform two works for the intimate-voiced clavichord: J.S. Bach's Prelude in C-Major, BWV 846 and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach's Fantasia in a minor, Falck 23. Sykes will move on to the somewhat more assertive harpsichord for Francois Couperin's Neuvième Concert, entitled "Ritratto dell'amore" featuring Fenwick Smith, flute and Carol Ou, cello. The 19th Century piano comes to the fore in Brahms's Trio in C Major, Op. 87 with Lucy Chapman, violin; Paul Katz, cello; and Victor Rosenbaum, piano. Finally, the contemporary piano, set in an electronic context, is featured in Karlheinz Stockhausen's Kontakte with Stephen Drury, piano; Robert Schulz '92 M.M., '94 G.D., percussion; and surround sound electronic tracks. Laurence Lesser occupies the Walter W. Naumburg Chair in Music.