PRESS RELEASE: Close Encounters With Music Announces Its 33rd Season
Close Encounters With Music’s 2024-2025 Season sparkles and vibrates with brilliant performers and thought-provoking themes October through June in Great Barrington, Massachusetts
Chamber Music in Great Barrington! Early Melodrama and the ever-fascinating Brahms/Schumann triangle; Tango and Caribbean dance suites with the Latin Soul of The Dalí String Quartet; Tchaikovsky by Vivace Chamber Orchestra; an on-stage Parisian Salon; and so much more!
Great Barrington, MA—Embarking on its 33rd year of presenting outstanding chamber music with lively commentary, Close Encounters With Music presents a season that sizzles and sparkles with the widest swath of genres, styles, composers and instruments—and of course, the great performers who share their brilliant artistry, including pianists Adam Golka, Max Levinson, Michael Chertock and Cliburn Competition laureate Alexander Shtarkman; violinists, Xiao-Dong Wang, Itamar Zorman, Helena Baillie and Grace Park; clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein; Metropolitan Opera soprano Danielle Talamantes, The Dali String Quartet and distinguished cellist Colin Carr, who joins Yehuda Hanani in a traversal of the sublime Six Unaccompanied Bach Suites.
Artistic director Yehuda Hanani is welcoming audience members new to the Berkshires as well as long-time residents to join for intimate programs with outsize talent, in the beautiful landmark Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center “to regain a sense of Community through the inspiring and healing effects of the best music ever penned—from over 300 years ago to almost yesterday, with the ink just drying”!
Just a few of this season’s themes are explorations of the divergent paths of Russian ex-pats Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff—one a master of nostalgia, the other a trailblazer whose work set off riots; and “A Tale of Two Salons” inviting us to drop in to the Paris gatherings of Marcel Proust and Winnaretta Singer, heiress to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune, and their composer friends: Fauré, Ravel, Reynaldo Hahn, Eric Satie.
Featured works include the bewitching Robert Schuman Piano Quartet No. 1, Beethoven and Mendelssohn string quartets, Stravinsky’s landmark “Rite of Spring,” and the Brahms Clarinet Trio. And a new work of music is born—the world premiere of CEWM’s 25th commissioned chamber work—by Berkshire composer Seth Grosshandler—is scheduled for the concluding program of the season “L’Amour Toujours” on June 8.
All audience members are invited to an “Afterglow” reception following each concert to meet the performers and one another!
In addition to offering live in-person concerts, curated online performances will be available to accommodate geographically remote listeners and virtual followers.
Ticket Information
Season subscriptions are available at cewm.org: Regular $280 and Early Bird $250 for the series of 7 concerts, plus a select-your-own option. Single Tickets, $55 (Orchestra and Mezzanine), $30 (Balcony) and $15 for students, are available through the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center or by calling 413-528-0100.
“CEWM patrons have learned that sooner or later they’ll be blindsided by a performance so sublime it will defy explanation.”
— The Berkshire Edge
(For Calendar listings, see below.)
2024-25 SEASON
Drama and Melodrama – The Schumanns
Sunday, October 20th 2024 4PM
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
The ever-fascinating and intimate triangle – Robert and Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms – will be brought to new light with seldom-heard works that highlight the musical cross-references and spiritual bond that united them. Predating accompaniment to silent film by decades, Robert’s melodrama, Schön Hedwig is a forerunner to soap-opera sentimentality with a happy ending. His Piano Quartet in E-flat Major (premiered with Clara as pianist), marries Romantic lyricism with baroque counterpoint and sonic flamboyance in one of the masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire. Also featured are Clara Schumann’s piano concerto composed with a daring slow movement, a love duet between the piano and a single cello, as well as her Three Romances for Violin and Piano. Brahms’ greatest set of piano variations Op. 9, written after Schumann was committed to an asylum, spells out the name CLARA in its theme, in a work tender, boisterous and touched with heartfelt brilliance.
Adam Golka, piano; Itamar Zorman, violin; Helena Baille, viola, Yehuda Hanani, cello; Michael Wise, narrator.
Vivace Chamber Orchestra: Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Boccherini, Barber
Sunday, December 15th 2024, 4PM
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
Composed by Tchaikovsky to counter a bout of insomnia and melancholy, Serenade for Strings immediately cheered him up, and he reported “feeling well, invigorated and content” – as gratified listeners have over the years. Few composers have possessed the ability to reflect emotions within their music as well as Tchaikovsky, and the Serenade channels solemnity and joy (an homage to Mozart, a memorable joy) into one perfect package. Barber’s iconic Adagio, “full of pathos and cathartic passion, rarely leaves a dry eye” (it was played at the funerals of Albert Einstein and Princess Grace of Monaco…). Holberg Suite (subtitled “suite in the olden style” – 1884), one of Grieg’s most beloved works, offers chorale-like harmonies, joyous and lilting rhythms, and hints of a rural fiddle player. Boccherini’s Baroque-era Cello Concerto, rewritten in a Romantic vein, is a virtuosic delight. The Vivace Chamber Orchestra is comprised of fourteen top-tier soloists who gather for periodic tours.
Vivace Chamber Orchestra; Yehuda Hanani, cello
6 Unaccompanied Bach Suites for Cello with Colin Carr & Yehuda Hanani
Sunday, February 23, 2025 4 PM
Saint James Place, Great Barrington
Two leading Bach interpreters embark on a journey while traversing his Six Suites, the apogee of the cello repertoire. Filled with mystery and beauty, blasted through with rapture, every note is a bold statement. Music that first flowed from the composer’s quill in the early 1700’s, it belongs to no specific time or place. At the same time as it floats in the heavenly spheres, it provides plenty of earthly pleasures – courtly music, riffs, Celtic jigs, the merriment of a tavern musician, and glimpses of modern minimalism. The title “Unaccompanied” is a bit of a misnomer: a single cellist takes on numerous voices, making the music drama for three or four characters played by the actor! If angels danced, this is the music that would no doubt accompany them on their gramophone.
Colin Carr, cello; Yehuda Hanani, cello
“…Colin Carr – supreme technique and ebullience” – Boston Musical Intelligencer
“In this era of the cello, Hanani is among the best. His Bach was absorbing imaginative, beautiful in all respects” – San Francisco Examiner
“Rite of Spring” – Rachmaninoff/Stravinsky
Sunday, March 23, 2025 4 PM
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
Two monumental works, two Russian ex-pats of the same aristocratic background – and two divergent extremes. One a master of nostalgia and a formidable pianist, follows in the footsteps of Chopin. The other, a trailblazer, scandalizer and collaborator of Picasso delights in breaking old molds – though harking back to traditional Russian folk material – and ushers in a new age in music, conceptually aligned with Cubism. Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring shocked tout-Paris and sparked riots (scenes from the film Coco Chanel will be shown). Rachmaninoff’s Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano was written after a course of hypnotherapy for “composers block,” out of which emerged a work of virtuosity and grandeur, with his characteristic flourishes and a Russian Belle Époque sensibility. “Terrifyingly difficult” for the piano, it is a virtual piano concerto – not to downplay the soulful melodic role of the cello.
Michael Chertock, piano: Yehuda Hanani, cello
Classical Roots, Latin Soul – The Dalí String Quartet
Sunday, April 27, 2025 4 PM
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
Alongside Beethoven’s Quartet No. 1 Op. 18 and Mendelssohn’s Op. 80 Quartet, this program is infused with striking Latin repertoire: Sonia Morales-Matos’ Divertimento Caribeño No. 3 (dance suites of Caribbean merengue sandwiched around a Cuban bolero) and Astor Pizzolla’s Tango Ballet, a work that paints pictures through rhythms and melodies. The Dalí Quartet is Chamber Music of America’s 2024 Ensemble of the Year and the 2019 recipient of the Atlanta Symphony’s esteemed Aspire Award for accomplished African American and Latino Musicians, among other awards. Beethoven’s first of his 16 string quartets contains thematic scaffolding and inspirations from Mozart and Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Mendelssohn’s Quartet No. 6 in F minor was written in homage to his sister Fanny, shortly after her death and just before his.
Dalí String Quartet:
Ari Isaacman-Beck, violin; Carlos Rubio, violin; Adriana Linares, viola; Jesus Morales, cello.
Annual Luncheon Musicale Benefit
Sunday, May 4, 2025 12PM
At a Private Club in Lenox, Mass.
Celebrate the Salon in the Gilded Age elegance at a private Berkshires club. The scintillating atmosphere of the 19th century institution helped promote artists, painters and musicians as the intelligentsia gathered to exchange ideas, enhanced by gaiety and ambience. Savor a superb lunch and support Close Encounters With Music. La vie est belle!
Reserve the date! Tickets will go on sale in March.
A Tale of Two Salons – Winnaretta Singer and Marcel Proust
Sunday, May 18, 2025 4 PM
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
the daughter of sewing machine industrialist Isaac Merritt Singer, Winnaretta Singer, Princess de Polignac, was a force of nature, hosting everyone from Leion Bakst to Jean Cocteau and Jean Giraudoux to Prokofiev, Madame Jean Lanvin, Siegfried Wagner, Arthur Rubenstein, Arnold Schoenberg, and Edith Wharton in her Paris salon. more importantly, she was responsible for developing a new genre: “Great music for a small space by up-and-coming composers” in the words of Sylvia Kahane, her biographer, who will join for the four-hand piano “Bagatelle” by Winnaretta’s husband, Edmond de Polignac. Works either commissioned by her, dedicated to her, or that were performed in her mansion on Rue Henri-Martin, will be featured in our on-stage “salon”: Ravel’s Pavane pour un enfant défunte, Stravinsky’s Piano Sonata 1924, the sizzling César Franck Piano Quintet and songs by Fauré, Polenc and Reynaldo Hahn. She also befriended Marcel Proust and his lover Hahn, who reciprocated with an evening at their Pairs salon, inspiring a chapter in Swann’s Way. A rich tapestry in search of time, place and personages.
Alexander Schtarkman, piano; Sylvia Kahane, piano; William Ferguson, tenor; Xiao-Dong Wang, violin; Helena Baillie, viol; Yehuda Hanani, cello
Gala Concert: L’Amour Toujours and A World Premiere
Sunday, June 8, 2025 4 PM
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
It’s all about love: A new work for clarinet trio by composer Seth Grosshandler that celebrates young love, courtship and serendipity of meeting one’s intended receives its inaugural performance. Signature love arias from favorite operas and Broadway sung by Metropolitan Opera soprano Danielle Talamantes and Kerry Wilkerson. Schubert’s Shepherd on the Rock (“My sweetheart dwells so far from me, I long hotly to be with her over there) is a tour de force meshing clarinet and soprano. Resolved to retire, in 1891 Brahms encountered the clarinet playing of Richard Mühlfeld and was inspired by a fresh muse to compose once again. A scholar and close friend of Brahms praised the Clarinet Trio, writing that “It is as though the instruments were in love with each other”. An all-star ensemble that shares the stage with artistic director, Yehuda Hanani, includes clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein (“…treats his instrument as his personal voice, dazzling in its spectrum of colors, agility and range” – Washington Post) returning to CEWM after several seasons. So concludes Season 33 of Close Encounters With Music – bookended by the immortal Brahms, by inspiration and friendship.
Max Levinson, piano; Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet; Danielle Talamantes, soprano; Kerry Wilkerson, baritone; Yehuda Hanani, cello
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC stands at the intersection of music, art, and the vast richness of various cultural traditions. Entertaining, erudite, lively commentary puts the composers and their times in perspective to enrich and enlighten your concert experience. Join our community of friends and patrons as we continue our tradition of bringing together sublime chamber music, distinguished performers and musical commentary, all in convivial settings. Share the excitement of world premiere performances and meet some of the most original and influential figures in contemporary classical music, as well as up-and-coming stars of tomorrow. And to accommodate our newly expanded virtual followers, we are also offering a virtual pass to a curated online selection of performances.
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC supports the renaissance of the Southern Berkshires by presenting six concerts this season at the landmark Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. Situated in the heart of Great Barrington’s historic district, the Mahaiwe offers modern comfort in the nostalgic atmosphere of a 100-year-old theater. A seventh performance is held at the acoustically superb Saint James Place. Join the growing number of culture enthusiasts who converge from the Berkshires, Hudson Valley, Northwest Connecticut, New York City and Boston for each Close Encounters event! Contributing Benefactors and Endowers are invited to a special gala dinner following the June concert (see Ticket Order form).
2024/2025 Current Season
Sunday, October 20, 4 PM, The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
Drama and Melodrama – The Schumanns
Sunday, December 15, 4 PM, The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
Vivace Chamber Orchestra: Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Boccherini, Barber
Sunday, February 23, 4 PM, Saint James Place
6 Unaccompanied Bach Suites for Cello with Colin Carr & Yehuda Hanani
Sunday, March 23, 4 PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
“Rite of Spring” – Rachmaninoff/Stravinsky
Sunday, April 27, 4 PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
Classical Roots, Latin Soul – The Dalí String Quartet
Sunday, May 18, 4 PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
A Tale of Two Salons – Winnaretta Singer and Marcel Proust
Sunday, June 8, 4 PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
L’Amour Toujours and a World Premiere
“Great music played with great heart… There’s a palpable mystique about Close Encounters concerts. The evening never failed to fascinate!…” –The Berkshire Eagle
“The Berkshires are home to distinguished cultural events, but none so brilliant, perhaps, as the chamber music series Close Encounters With Music.” —Berkshire Record
“…A stunning, majestic resolution, a brilliant ending to an unforgettable encounter with music. Bravi!” —The Berkshire Edge
“RESCUING NEGLECTED COMPOSERS: Mr. Hanani’s rich tone and thoughtful phrasing made a powerful case for it [Eduard Franck Sonata for Cello and Piano] in a performance that had a convincing subtext: The 19th-century cello repertoire is not so vast that cellists (or their admirers) should neglect works this opulently lyrical….Soulful, fiery performance of Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 2.”—New York Times
“STUNNER CLOSES SEASON! Though Hanani, Stephen Prutsman and Dawn Upshaw all performed with that rare combination of mutual understanding and technical finesse which makes for the most satisfying chamber music, Hanani deserves special recognition for his astute program choices.”—Albany Times Union
“The program provided stellar performances…played with passion and pathos…”—Arizona Republic
“…To experience the finest music ever written, presented by leading musicians of the day, in the inviting atmosphere of the Berkshires, is the best of all possible worlds. . . The quality of Lincoln Center with an intimacy that exceeds it….”
—Yehuda Hanani, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
HOW TO REACH US
Close Encounters With Music
Post Office Box 34
Great Barrington, MA 01230
Web: cewm.org
e-mail: [email protected]
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