Re-Imaginings…
Great Music by Great Composers Inspired by Other Great Composers
Saturday, October 15, 8 pm and Sunday, October 16, 3 pm
Music by Bach, Stravinsky, and Schnittke
- Cynthia Baehr-Williams, artistic director and violin
- Roy Malan, violin
- Chad Kaltinger, viola
- Vanessa Ruotola, cello
- Michael McGushin, piano
Resting at the summit of baroque composition, Bach’s Goldberg Variations is regarded as the pinnacle of his work for keyboard. Sitkovetsky’s string arrangement of the Variations casts a fresh light on this work by using the rich and familial timbres of violin, viola, and cello.
Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne for Violin and Piano is an arrangement of several movements from his Pulcinella ballet, which was based on themes of the eighteenth century composer Giovanni Pergolesi. The charm of Pergolesi’s melodies and the piquant flavor of Stravinsky’s rewriting makes the Suite Italienne one of his most enjoyable works for violin and piano.
Alfred Schnittke, like many great composers, was deeply inspired and influenced by the music of J.S. Bach. In his Piano Quintet (written in memory of his wife) Schnittke uses the B A C H theme in the second movement, which he calls “an unearthly waltz.”
