Curtain for Exciting 36th Season with Many Firsts and Favorites to Rise July 31st in Wellfleet
The countdown is on for the 36th season of the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival—with just three weeks to go to its opening on Friday, July 31stin Wellfleet. The debut will be followed by an additional dozen concerts, including a Gala event, over a four-week period, at seven dispersed venues across the Cape.
“We are eagerly anticipating this exciting new season, our ninth as artistic directors,” said Jon Nakamatsu and Jon Manasse. “We are looking forward to the returns of several exceptional ensembles – including the Emerson, Borromeo, and Jupiter String Quartets – as well as the debuts of leading individual musicians, such as rising violin star Yevgeny Kutik, and prominent groups, among them the popular Imani Winds, the renowned American Brass Quintet, and the meteoric Danish String Quartet.”
The artistic directors also announced that, for the first time in their tenure, the Festival will be hosting a quartet in residence for an entire week: the Jupiter String Quartet, a perennial favorite, will present three concerts in three different venues as both an ensemble and as individuals in partnership with two pianists, Mr. Nakamatsu and Brian Zeger, a former Festival artistic director.
Another first, the artistic directors noted, will be the inclusion of titles for all programs, as a means to “convey the distinctive content and spirit of each concert.” They emphasized that, as in previous seasons, the 36th will feature a diversity of programs, crossing centuries, continents, and styles of music—and culminating in the stirring “Grand Finale,” featuring “performances by a stellar ensemble of two monumental pieces,” Stravinsky’s ‘The Soldier’s Tale’ and Dohnányi’s Sextet, Opus 37.
Midway through the Festival, the artistic directors – performing as the Manasse/Nakamatsu Duo – will present a Chatham concert in celebration of Deborah Geithner, a devoted Festival friend and Board member, as well as an accomplished pianist, who passed away during the 2014 season.
Concerts will be performed in venues from Provincetown to Cotuit, to assure maximum accessibility to audiences throughout Cape Cod:
Provincetown Art Association and Museum: 460 Commercial Street
Wellfleet: First Congregational Church: 200 Main Street
Orleans: United Methodist Church: 73 Main Street
Chatham: First Congregational Church: 650 Main Street (at the Rotary)
Dennis Union Church: 713 Main Street (Route 6A)
Cotuit Center for the Arts: 4404 Falmouth Road (Route 28)
South Yarmouth: Cultural Center of Cape Cod: 307 Old Main Street
All regular concerts will begin at 7:30 p.m. The August 2 Festival Gala in South Yarmouth will start at 6 p.m., and the August 24 picnic at Wellfleet Preservation Hall will begin at 5 p.m.
The complete Festival schedule is as follows:
Friday, July 31: ‘The Rising Star’: First Congregational Church, Wellfleet, 7:30 p.m. Yevgeny Kutik, violin; Spencer Myer, piano.
Program: Mendelssohn: Sonata in F Major for Violin and Piano (1838)
Prokofiev: Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Opus 80
Debussy: Beau Soir (1887-88) [transcribed for the violin by Jascha Heifetz]
Stravinsky: Divertimento from the ballet The Fairy’s Kiss [version for violin and piano by Stravinsky/Dushkin]
Ravel: Tzigane
Sunday, August 2: ‘The Cape Gala’: Cultural Center of Cape Cod, South Yarmouth, 6 p.m. Manasse/Nakamatsu Duo (Jon Manasse, clarinet; Jon Nakamatsu, piano); Julian Schwarz, cello; Marika Bournaki, piano.
Program: Messager: Solo de Concours for Clarinet and Piano (1899)
Schumann: Adagio and Allegro for Cello and Piano, Opus 70
Boccherini: Sonata No. 6 in A Major for Cello and Piano, G. 4
Tchaikovsky: Pezzo capriccioso, Opus 62
Brahms: Trio in A Minor for Piano, Clarinet and Cello, Opus 114; fourth movement: Allegro
Monday, August 3: ‘Dance!’ Provincetown Art Association and Museum, 7:30 p.m. Imani Winds (Valerie Coleman, flute; Toyin Spellman-Diaz, oboe; Mariam Adam, clarinet; Jeff Scott, horn; Monica Ellis, bassoon).
Program: Valerie Coleman: Red Clay and Mississippi Delta (“Jazz Scherzo”) (2010)
Villa-Lobos: Quinteto em forma de chôros, W231 (1928)
Paquito D’Rivera: Kites over Havana (arranged by Valerie Coleman) (2010)
Astor Piazolla: Contrabajissimo (arranged by Jeff Scott)
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade (arranged by Jonathan Russell)
(Traditional): Two Klezmer Dances (arranged by Gene Kavadio):
Khosidl
Freylekh
Thursday, August 6: ‘The Emerson Returns with Nakamatsu’: First Congregational Church, Wellfleet, 7:30 p.m. Jon Nakamatsu, piano; Emerson String Quartet (Eugene Drucker, violin; Philip Setzer, violin; Lawrence Dutton, viola; Paul Watkins, cello).
Program: Haydn: String Quartet in G Major; Opus 76, No. 1, Hob. III.75
Dvorak: String Quartet in F Major, Opus 96 (“American”)
Schumann: Quintet in E-flat Major for Piano and Strings, Opus 44
Monday, August 10: ‘Denmark in Dennis, The Art of Fugue’: Dennis Union Church, 7:30 p.m. Danish String Quartet (Frederik Ǿland, violin; Rune Tonsgaard Sǿrensen, violin; Asbjǿrn Nǿrgaard, viola; Fredrik Schǿyen Sjölin, cello).
Program: Mendelssohn: Capriccio and Fugue from Four Pieces for String Quartet, Opus 81
Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 9 in E-flat Major, Opus 117
A. Schnittke: String Quartet No. 3 (1983)
Beethoven: Grosse Fuge, Opus 133
Tuesday, August 11: ‘Boston on the Cape’: Cotuit Center for the Arts, 7:30 p.m. The Boston Trio (Irina Muresanu, violin; Astrid Schween, cello; Heng-Jin Park, piano)
Program: Fauré: Trio in D Minor for Violin, Cello and Piano, Opus 120
John Musto: Piano Trio
Arensky: Trio No. 1 in D Minor for Violin, Cello and Piano, Opus 32
Wednesday, August 12: ‘The Duo Celebrates Deborah’: First Congregational Church, Chatham, 7:30 p.m. Manasse/Nakamatsu Duo (Jon Manasse, clarinet; Jon Nakamatsu, piano).
Program: Messager: Solo de concours for Clarinet and Piano (1899)
Debussy: Première Rhapsodie for Clarinet and Piano (1909-10)
Schubert: Four Impromptus for Piano, Opus 90 (D. 899)
Brahms: Sonata in E-flat Major for Clarinet and Piano, Opus 120, No. 2
Goodwin: Four Views for Clarinet and Piano (2012) [commissioned by Van Doren by DANSR Inc. and dedicated to the Manasse/Nakamatsu Duo]
Tuesday, August 18: ‘The Jupiter Residency I’: Cotuit Center for the Arts, 7:30 p.m. Jon Nakamatsu, piano; Jupiter String Quartet (Nelson Lee, violin, Meg Freivogel, violin; Liz Freivogel, viola; Daniel McDonough, cello).
Program: Beethoven: String Quartet in F Major, Opus 18, No. 1
Brahms: Sonata No. 1 in E Minor for Piano and Cello, Opus 38
Dohnányi: Quintet No. 1 in C Minor for Piano and String Quartet, Opus 1
Wednesday, August 19: The Elizabeth G. Beinecke Concert; ‘The Jupiter Residency II’: United Methodist Church, Orleans, 7:30 p.m. Jupiter String Quartet (Nelson Lee, violin, Meg Freivogel, violin; Liz Freivogel, viola; Daniel McDonough, cello).
Program: Haydn: String Quartet in B-flat Major, Opus 76, No. 4 (“Sunrise”)
Hodkinson: String Quartet No. 7 (2014)
Beethoven: String Quartet in C Major, Opus 59, No. 3 (“Razumovsky”)
Friday, August 21: ‘The Jupiter Residency III’: First Congregational Church, Wellfleet, 7:30 p.m. Brian Zeger, piano; Jupiter String Quartet (Nelson Lee, violin, Meg Freivogel, violin; Liz Freivogel, viola; Daniel McDonough, cello).
Program: Schubert: Notturno (Adagio) in E-flat Major, Opus 148 (D. 897)
Bartok: String Quartet No. 4
Brahms: Quartet in C Minor for Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello, Opus 60
Tuesday, August 25: ‘Amazing Brass’: Cotuit Center for the Arts, 7:30 p.m. American Brass Quintet (Kevin Cobb, trumpet; Louis Hanzlik, trumpet; Eric Reed, horn; Michael Powell, trombone; John D. Rojak, bass trombone).
Program: Thomas Morley: Elizabethan Ayres (edited by Raymond Mase)
Ludwig Maurer: Five Pieces
David Sampson: Chesapeake (2010)
Stephen Foster: Suite from The Social Orchestra (edited by Raymond Mase)
Josquin Des Prés: Chansons (edited by Raymond Mase)
Joan Tower: Copperwave (2006)
Wednesday, August 26: The J. Francesca C. Rullman Concert; ‘Borromeo’s 25th’: First Congregational Church, Chatham, 7:30 p.m. Borromeo String Quartet (Nicholas Kitchen, violin; Kristopher Tong, violin; Mai Motobuchi, viola; Yeesun Kim, cello).
Program: Beethoven: String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 132
Schubert: Quartet No. 14 in D Minor, D. 810 (“Death and the Maiden”)
Friday, August 28: ‘Grand Finale’: First Congregational Church, Wellfleet, 7:30 p.m. Nicholas Kitchen, violin; Mai Motobuchi, viola; Yeesun Kim, cello; Tony Falanga, bass; Jon Manasse, clarinet; Eric Reed, horn; Cynde Iverson, bassoon; Kevin Cobb, trumpet; John D. Rojak, trombone; Ted Atkatz, percussion; Jon Nakamatsu, piano; Daniel Okrent, narrator; Nick Delbanco, the Soldier; Wendy Doniger, the Devil.
Program: Stravinsky: L’histoire du Soldat Suite (The Soldier’s Tale) (1920)
Dohnányi: Sextet in C Major for Piano, Clarinet, Horn and String Trio, Opus 37
Unless otherwise specified (in italics), ticket prices for all concerts are as follows:
$38 general admission; $15 for college students (with ID); FREE for attendees 18 and under. General admission to three or more concerts: $36 per ticket. Emerson String Quartet concert: $55 (whether individually purchased or as part of the three-concert package).
Tickets to August 2 Gala: Sponsor: $175; Patron: $225.
Special first-time ticket buyer’s price: Details available by calling Festival office.
Admission to August 24 Pot Luck Picnic: Free, but requires RSVP to reserve a place and agree on food to bring.