Friends Of Music Announce

2005-06 Concerts

Newtown Friends of Music, who sponsor classical concerts of “exquisite music – superbly performed,” have announced the performances to take place at Edmond Town Hall for the 2005-06 season.

All performances are on Sunday afternoons and begin at 3 pm. Informal receptions, including in the price of tickets, in the town hall’s front lobby allow audience members to meet and mingle with the musicians who have just entertained them.

The new season will open on October 16 with Talich String Quartet. Members are Jan Talich and Petr Macacek on violin, violist Vladimir Bukac and cellist Petr Prause.

The Talich Quartet, internationally recognized as one of Europe’s finest ensembles, was founded in 1964 by Jan Talich, Sr, who named it for his uncle Vaclav Talich, conductor of the Czech Philharmonic. During the 1990s, a new generation replaced the founding members. The quartet continues in the tradition of its predecessors through its involvement in a wide range of performance and recording activities.

Particularly noted for its interpretations of the Czech composers (Smetana, Dvorak, Martinu, Janacek), the Talich Quartet has been heralded as a “national treasure,” and has won accolades for its subtle and elegant interpretations. Le Monde wrote: “The Talich Quartet was sublime.”

The group’s performance in Newtown will include Beethoven’s Quartet in D Major, Op 18, #3, Janacek’s Quartet #1, “Kreutzer Sonata,” and Smetana’s Quartet #1 in E minor, “From My Life.”

The season will continue on November 13 with Paris Piano Trio performing works of Haydn, Schumann and Schubert.

Spectacular piano trio performances by these three great French musicians – violinist Regis Pasquier, cellist Roland Pidoux and pianist Jean-Claude Pennetier – have won acclaim throughout Europe and North America.

“They perform with polish, vigor and an exemplary sense of style,” said The Washington Post and “Their playing was superb” said The Los Angeles Times.

Following a holiday break, the NFoM season will resume with a performance by the pianist Katia Skanavi on February 12. She was a winner of the Maria Callas Competition in 1994 and was a finalist in the 1997 Van Cliburn Competition.

“Everything she did was a joy, and exactly the same can be said for her dashing performance of the Rachmaninoff-Paganini Rhapsody. It had marvelous momentum that dazzled,” wrote The Dallas Morning News.

In March, Cavani String Quartet will not only continue the concert season its members will also present the first School Outreach Program of the year. The quartet offered the closing concert of the 2003-04 concert and was very warmly received by the Newtown audience.

“Watching the Cavani String Quartet connect with the audience last Sunday was in itself a joy to experience,” June April wrote for The Newtown Bee.

The quartet will be in Newtown on March 12 and has planned a program of works by Mozart, Merry Peckham and Beethoven. The following morning members Annie Fullard (violin), Mari Sato (violin), Kirsten Docter (viola) and Merry Peckham (cello) will visit Reed Intermediate School for a program with some of the school’s music students. The musicians have stated time and again that going into schools is one of their primary missions.

The final concert for 2005-06 will be on April 9. A performance by Biava Quartet, praised already as “an ensemble of unusual communicative powers” with a “sensitivity beyond its years,” will be highlighted by an appearance by the clarinetist Pavel Vinnitsky.

Biava Quartet was the winner of the 2003 Naumburg Chamber Music Award, and has quickly established itself as one of the top young American quartets today. Now at Yale University, its members are teaching assistants to the Tokyo Quartet.

The quartet will perform, with Mr Vannistky, the Brahms Clarinet Quintet. The concert will also include works of Haydn (String Quartet in G minor, Op 74 No 3, “The Rider”) and Ravel (String Quartet in F Major).

For full program notes, season details or information about NFoM, visit NewtownFriendsOfMusic.org. To order tickets call 426-6470, or use the printable order form available online.