Sewing machine heiress takes Paris by storm, befriends cultural luminaries, and inspires (and supports!) new works by Ravel, Debussy, De Falla, Milhaud, Boulanger, Chabrier, Reynaldo Hahn, and Stravinsky
The daughter of sewing machine industrialist Isaac Merritt Singer, Winnaretta Singer-Polignac was a force of nature, hosting everyone from Leon Bakst to Jean Cocteau and Jean Giraudoux to Prokofiev, Madame Jean Lanvin, Siegfried Wagner, Arthur Rubinstein, 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 Kahan, 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 this 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, Poulenc and Reynaldo Hahn. Winnaretta also befriended Marcel Proust and his lover Hahn, who reciprocated with an evening at their Paris salon, inspiring a chapter in Swann’s Way. The program is a rich tapestry in search of a certain time, place and fascinating personages.
A tantalizing Berkshire connection to the tale of the Princess is that her father Isaac Merritt Singer’s business partner was Edward Clark, a wealthy lawyer who took charge of the manufacturing end of the business, turning it into a major success. The rest is history as Clark’s grandson Robert Sterling Clark and his wife Francine founded the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown to house their personal art collection, much of it acquired on their trips to France.
Artists: Alexander Shtarkman, piano; Sylvia Kahan, piano; William Ferguson, tenor; Xiao-Dong Wang, violin; Grace Park, violin; Helena Baillie, viola; Yehuda Hanani, cello
TICKET INFORMATION
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
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Close Encounters With Music
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NEXT UP
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 the 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.”
Artists: Max Levinson, piano; Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet; Danielle Talamantes, soprano; Kerry Wilkerson, baritone; Yehuda Hanani, cello
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 4, 12 PM – Private Club, Lenox MA
Luncheon Musicale
Sunday, May 18, 4 PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
“A Tale of Two Salons” – Winaretta Singer and Marcel Proust
Sunday, June 8, 4PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
L’Amour Toujours and a World Premiere
