MARLBORO — With three concerts offered on the penultimate weekend of concerts at Marlboro Music, 37 of the 75 resident artists – some of the world's most established artists and most exceptional young professionals - will be heard in works by Bartok, Beethoven, Dvorak, Haydn, Schubert, Strauss and Tchaikovsky.
The performances of works, many of which are core chamber music repertoire, chosen by the musicians themselves, are likely to yield new discoveries for the audiences as well as the players since they will have had the benefit of from 13 hours (Dvorak Serenade in D Minor, Op. 44) to 42 hours over six weeks (Bartok String Quartet No. 4) – an average of 24 hours for the eight major works to be heard.
With many performances, around the country, presented after one or two rehearsals. Marlboro offers the rare opportunity of exploring more than 200 works in-depth each summer, with unlimited rehearsal time, and with less than 20 percent of those works being performed at the weekend concerts.
For many of the artists, even those with many years of experience, they are often playing works that they have never done or just read informally with Marlboro's extended rehearsal process offering the chance for a dynamic exchange of ideas.
On Friday, Aug. 8 at 8:30 p.m., in the intimate Marlboro College Dining Hall, Marlboro Music says “thank you” to its neighbors, presenting the annual Town Concert with all proceeds going to local organizations. Beneficiaries will be the Marlboro Alliance, Volunteer Fire Department, Rescue and the Marlboro Historical Society. Tickets are $ 26.50 and $ 37.50.
The program opens with the Beethoven Quintet for Piano and Winds in E flat, Op. 16 and also includes the Bartok String Quartet No. 2 and Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence for String Sextet, Op. 70. Joining some remarkable young professional musicians will be Cleveland Orchestra Principal Horn Richard King; violinist Carmit Zori, a former artistic director of Bargemusic and founder of the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society; and Guarneri Quartet cellist Peter Wiley.
Richard Strauss's Metamorphosen is heard on Saturday, Aug. 9, at 8:30 p.m., in the realization – by Rudolf Leopold made from Strauss' initial sketch for the work as a string septet found in 1990 -- 45 years after its composition. Aside from retaining the original septet's closing modulation, Leopold's seven-string realization is faithful to the 23-string version in every particular except of course texture and density. The ensemble includes violinist Viviane Hagner and Mendelssohn Quartet founding cellist Marcy Rosen.
Also to be heard will be the Schubert Piano Trio in B flat Major, D. 898 with pianist Kuok-Wai Lio, Hagner, and Wiley.
Woodwinds play a major role in the Sunday, Aug. 10 concert at 2:30 p.m., which opens with the Haydn Flute Trio in D with Cleveland Orchestra Principal Flute Joshua Smith, cellist Ahrim Kim and Marlboro regular Cynthia Raim. There is also the delightful Dvorak Serenade in D Minor, Op. 44 for winds, cello and double bass; Marlboro co-founder, violinist and composer Adolf Busch's Romanze, Op. 53d for clarinet (the Pittsburgh Symphony's Michael Rusinek), two viols and two celli; and the Bartok String Quartet No. 4.
With Juilliard Quartet first violinist Joseph Lin playing second violin for the first time, he and his younger colleagues – Luosha Fang, violin, Molly Carr, viola and Deborah Pae, cello – have been exploring the work for six weeks.