Three perfect afternoons. While you sip coffee and savor decadent desserts, your gifted host, curator and pianist Orli Shaham guides you on a journey exploring how composers influenced each other and changed the course of chamber music.
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This series consists of 3 performances.
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Clara Schumann’s Legacy
November 06, 2022
One of the most distinguished pianists of the 19th century, Clara Schumann exerted a powerful influence over her contemporaries during the course of her formidable 61-year career. The program surveys three composers her artistry affected—her husband, the important Romantic composer Robert; the famous violinist Joseph Joachim; and the gifted Swedish violinist and composer Amanda Maier. The concert opens with Clara Schumann’s lush and poignant Three Romances, dedicated to Joachim, her frequent chamber music partner.
California Connections
February 12, 2023
California has been blessed with an abundance of great composers. The film industry has magnetized many European emigres to resettle in the Golden State. Composers Miklós Rósza (Hungary) and Alexandre Tansman (Poland) were both Jewish and escaped Europe as the Second World War was brewing. They both benefitted from work in Hollywood. John Williams and Danny Elfman are both prolific film composers. Los Angeles-born Viet Cuong, who now resides in Orange County, is Pacific Symphony’s composer-in-residence.
Tales from Italy
April 30, 2023
Inspired by the charm and beauty of Italy, each work on this program reveals a different perspective on the “Bel Paese” (“beautiful county”). Stravinsky and Musgrave both provide expressive, poetic and lyrical story-telling based on colorful commedia dell’arte characters. Tchaikovsky was based in Rome when he wrote his Piano Trio in A minor, which he dedicated to Nikolai Rubinstein, his close friend and mentor.
