MARLBORO — Since 1951, Marlboro Music has played a leadership role in the development of chamber music worldwide, and in enriching the artistry and changing the lives of generations of exceptional musicians.
For seven weeks each summer, concert artists of widely varied ages and backgrounds come together as one closely knit musical family with the unique gift of unlimited time to study in great depth works from the vast chamber music repertoire.
Co-artistic directors Richard Goode and Mitsuko Uchida are among the artists who have returned this month to share their insights with their junior colleagues. Goode will be heard twice on the next-to-last weekend of concerts, which will offer three different programs.
Week four performances are Friday, Aug. 2, at 8:30 p.m. in the intimate Marlboro College Dining Hall, and Saturday, Aug. 3, at 8:30 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 4, at 2:30 p.m. in Persons Auditorium.
Friday's program includes the Bach aria Seele, deine Spezereien with soprano Sarah Shafer, flutist Marina Piccinini, cellist Peter Myers, and organist Lydia Brown.
The program also offers Britten folk songs with tenor Spencer Lang and guitarist Sean Shibe.
Saturday's program opens with the Mozart Quintet in E-flat, K. 452, for piano and woodwinds with Goode and Katherine Needleman, principal oboe of the Baltimore Symphony; Tibi Cziger, clarinetist of the Israel Chamber Project; Brad Balliett, acting principal bassoon of the Hartford Symphony; and noted European-based horn player Radovan Vlatkovic.
Composing the second half will be Hindemith's rarely-heard Die Serenaden with Shafer, Needleman, violist Hsin-Yun Huang, and cellist Brook Speltz; and Mozart's String Quintet in D major, K. 593 with violinist Itamar Zorman, violist Ayane Kozasa, and cellist Peter Myers joining former Mendelssohn Quartet violinist Ida Levin and violist Hsin-Yun Huang, two other former participants returning in mentor roles.
The Sunday audience will hear Gounod's “Petite Symphonie” for flute and woodwind octet with a stellar group of musicians including principals from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the Dallas and San Francisco symphonies.
Resident Composer Krzysztof Penderecki's string trio will be performed by Levin, violist Megan Griffin, and cellist Gabriel Cabezas. The program ends with Goode performing the Brahms Piano Quartet in C minor with violinist David McCarroll, violist Rebecca Albers, and cellist Nathan Vickery.