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NEC's First Monday at Jordan Hall

Presented by New England Conservatory at NEC's Jordan Hall

March 1, 2010

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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. On tonight's program, we feature George Enescu, who had great fame in his lifetime as a violin virtuoso but was always more drawn to composition. A Romanian national hero, the teacher of Yehudi Menuhin, and considered by some famous colleagues in his time as "the greatest musician alive," he wrote folk-influenced music bathed in French Impressionist colors (the composer spent most of his career in Paris). The opening piece Cantabile e Presto was written as a "competition piece" for the Conservatoire in Paris. It will be performed by Paula Robison, flute and Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, piano. Enescu's Piano Quintet is a work of his maturity, and was only given its premiere in 1964, nine years after the composer's death. Reviewer Jed Distler has wondered "where this passionate, big-boned masterpiece has been hiding since it was written in 1940? It has everything: long, surging melodies; ravishing harmonies best described as "red meat Fauré"; delicate counterpoint that suddenly explodes into orchestral ecstasy; sustained string lines decorated by magical keyboard flourishes." Donald Weilerstein, Kristopher Tong, violins; Dimitri Murrath '08 A.D., viola; Yeesun Kim, cello; Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, piano are the performers. Completing the program is the Beethoven Serenade, featuring Robison on flute; Nicholas Kitchen, violin; Mai Motobuchi, viola. Laurence Lesser occupies the Walter W. Naumburg Chair in Music. Donald Weilerstein occupies the Dorothy Richard Starling Violin Chair. Paula Robison occupies the Donna Hieken Flute Chair.