PUTNEY — This weekend, Yellow Barn's 53rd summer festival continues with three evening concerts and a viola masterclass on Saturday morning.
On Thursday, July 14, Yellow Barn welcomes soprano Lucy Shelton back to the Big Barn for two solos for voice from John Cage's Songbooks -“songs” that provide a series of instructions to the performer, who has freedom of interpretation.
Also on the program is George Benjamin's Upon Silence for mezzo-soprano and string ensemble, with text by William Butler Yeats. Additional works include TÅru Takemitsu's Rain Spell and Kaija Saariaho's Terrestre (Of the Earth), as well as Rachmaninoff's Suite No. 2 for Two Pianos.
Friday, July 15 offers two works by Brahms: Theme and Variations in D Minor for solo piano and String Sextet in B-flat Major (with violinist Donald Weilerstein and cellist Natasha Brofsky).
The evening also includes György Kurtág's Signs, Games, and Messages for string trio (with violist Nicholas Mann) and Doloroso for solo viola, as well as two songs by the Polish composer Karol Szymanowski for mezzo-soprano and piano, Love Songs of Hafiz and Hafiz's Tomb.
On July 16, Saturday night, Yellow Barn continues its tradition of honoring its founder David Wells on his birthday with a performance of solo Bach suites shared by multiple cellists on stage.
George Enescu's Piano Quartet in D Minor, ErnÅ‘ Dohnányi's Violin Sonata, and Haydn's String Quartet in G Minor, Op.20 No. 3 (with Nicholas Mann and cellist Jean-Michel Fonteneau) are also included on the program.
Vocal music comes in as well, with Alban Berg's Seven Early Songs for mezzo-soprano and piano, with text by Carl Hauptmann, Nikolaus Lenau, Theodor Storm, Rainer Maria Rilke, Johannes Schlaf, Otto Erich Hartleben, and Paul Hohenberg.
These songs were composed between 1900 and 1908, when Berg was just 15 to 23 years old, enthralled by Hugo Wolf, late Bruckner, Mahler, and Debussy.
In addition to its evening concerts, Yellow Barn presents a series of Saturday morning master classes. Leading this Saturday's master class is violist Kim Kashkashian. Master classes take place from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Big Barn.