PUTNEY — Yellow Barn's 48th summer season continues with a full weekend of events, from three concerts to Saturday's master class and pre-concert discussion, to lunch and open rehearsals with musicians on campus at the Greenwood School.
The weekend opens on Thursday, July 13, at 8 p.m. in the Big Barn. The evening begins with Franz Joseph Haydn's Piano Trio in E-flat Major, followed by Max Reger's String Sextet in F Major.
The musical landscape blossoms from Furrer to Schnittke, finally concluding with Johannes Brahms' Zwei Gesänge (Two Songs), in which the first song is a lullaby and the second is an aching response to divorce. Soprano Melanie Henley-Heyn performs the Brahms, with Roger Tapping, violist of the Juilliard String Quartet and pianist Peter Frankl.
Friday night's concert (July 14 at 8 p.m.) opens with George Crumb's Federico's Little Songs for Children, settings of a group of children's songs by Federico García Lorca for soprano, flutes, and harp.
The remainder of the first half is a tribute to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Ludwig van Beethoven's Seven Variations on Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen from The Magic Flute, followed by Mozart's String Quintet in E-flat Major, K. 614.
The program continues with Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Piano Trio. An Austrian-born composer and conductor, Korngold was a child prodigy who immigrated to the U.S. in 1934. In addition to his success as a classical music composer, he became one of the founders of film music, writing the scores for 16 Hollywood classics.
The program concludes with Donnacha Dennehy's Glamour Sleeper, a piece inspired by urban spaces, for amplified instruments and electronics.
Before the Saturday night concert, Yellow Barn's discussion series at 7 p.m. in the Putney Public Library introduces the evening's program through the lens of Schumann's passionate Florestan and contemplative Eusebius, the two sides of the composer's personality that characterize so much of his music.
Artists and teachers Nicholas Mann, Violaine Melançon, and Natasha Brofsky share their insights and lead a discussion with Artistic Director Seth Knopp.
At 8 p.m., the Saturday's program begins with Franz Schubert's little-known String Quartet in B-flat Major, followed by Gérard Pesson's “Récréations Françaises,” a piece full of unusual sounds and shadows for three wind and three string instruments.
Franco Donatoni's Alamari, for viola, cello, and double bass, and the concert culminates with Robert Schumann's Piano Trio in G Minor, with Frankl making his final appearance of the 2017 festival.
Earlier on Saturday, audiences join Yellow Barn musicians in their work outside the concert hall. The day begins at 10:30 a.m., with Laurence Lesser's cello master class, and then moves to the campus for Yellow Barn's annual open house.
Audiences are invited to join the musicians for lunch and open rehearsals in Yellow Barn's artist studios at the Greenwood School. Lunch (with Humble Kitchen chef James Smith) costs $10. There is no admission fee for the rehearsals.