MARLBORO — On the next to last weekend of Marlboro Music's 68th season, 33 of its 75 resident artists will be heard in three diverse programs: Friday, Aug. 3, at 8 p.m. in the Marlboro College Dining Hall; and Saturday, Aug. 4, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, Aug. 5, at 2:30 p.m. in the College's Persons Auditorium.
Tickets and further information can be obtained at marlboromusic.org or by calling 802-254-2394. Concerts continue through Aug. 12.
Each season, the noted Vermont retreat schedules a special Friday performance to express appreciation to the surrounding community, with all proceeds benefiting local organizations.
This year's Friday program offers Mendelssohn's String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 13 with Cherubini Quartet cellist Christoph Richter being joined by violinists Stephen Tavani and Amy Lee and violist Zhanbo Zheng, and former Juilliard Quartet first violinist Joseph Lin performing Mozart's great E-flat Divertimento, K. 563, with violist En-Chi Cheng and cellist Brannon Cho.
Rounding out the program is the Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 for soprano and eight cellos with Lauren Pearl Eberwein, the Guarneri Quartet's Peter Wiley, and seven younger colleagues. It is only the second time in Marlboro history that the work has been performed; the last time was in 1958 with soprano Benita Valente, who now returns each summer to work with the young singers.
Two of chamber music's most treasured works-the Brahms Horn Trio and Beethoven's String Quartet in F Major, Op. 135 - will be heard on Saturday, together with the first Marlboro performance of Peter Warlock's The Curlew, a song cycle based on poems by W.B. Yeats for the unusual instrumentation of flute, English horn, and string quartet.
Recognized as one of Warlock's finest works, it will be performed by tenor Miles Mykkanen; Cleveland Orchestra Principal Flute Joshua Smith; Emily Beare, english horn; violinists Lin and David McCarroll; St. Louis Symphony Principal Violist Beth Guterman Chu; and cellist Sayaka Selina.
Artists in the Beethoven will be violinists Robyn Bollinger and Stephen Waarts, violist Zoë Martin-Doike, and Mendelssohn Quartet founding cellist Marcy Rosen. Performing the Brahms will be pianist Juho Puhjonen, violinist Christine Lim, and Richard King, principal horn of the Cleveland Orchestra.
Sunday's concert will present major works by Brahms and Schubert - the B Major Piano Trio of Brahms and Schubert's Rosamunde Quartet - with a vocal work likely to be added.
The approximately 250 works explored each summer at Marlboro are suggested by the participating artists themselves with less than 20 percent being heard in public performance. Each of the works on Sunday's program will have received at least five weeks of rehearsal.
To be heard in the Brahms will be pianist Andrew Hsu, violinist Abigail Fayette, and Wiley. In typical Marlboro fashion, the younger musician in the Schubert, Lim, will play first violin, with Lin in the second violin chair and violist Wenting Kang and cellist Alice Yoo rounding out the ensemble.