This subscription option features Sunday dates.
The Smithsonian Chamber Music Society celebrates its 38th season with another marvelously eclectic repast from the Elizabethan period to the late 19th century in this six-concert series. Featured ensembles are as follows: The Smithsonian Chamber Players, Esterhazy Machine, and the Castle Trio. This concert series is also offered on Saturday dates.
One hour prior to each program Kenneth Slowik, SCMS artistic director, continues his popular pre-concert lectures, shedding light on the lives and times of the featured composers and their glorious music.
In November, Juilliard Historical Performance graduate program leader Robert Mealy joins Kenneth Slowik to conclude their survey, begun last season, of Johann Sebastian Bach's six sonatas for harpsichord and violin. They also celebrate Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's 300th birthday, performing two of his empfindsamer Stil ("sensitive style") duos. In early December, the members of the Esterhazy Machine (Steven Dann, Myron Lutzke, and Slowik) with flautist Sandra Miller, present a diverse program of Haydn trios illustrating that composer’s ever-fertile genius. A Schubertiade in January brings back Mark Fewer and John Feeney who join Dann, Lutzke, and Slowik in two of Schubert’s best-loved works. The Castle Trio tests the acoustics of the American History Museum’s new Music Hall’s acoustics in March with a complete reading of Beethoven’s Op. 1 piano trios. Two weeks later, Vera Beths, Cynthia Roberts, and Max Mandel join Dann and Slowik for Beethoven’s two viola quintets in C: the pellucid C Major, Op. 29, and the dark C Minor, Op. 104, Beethoven’s own transcription of his Op. 1, No. 1 trio. The season concludes in mid-May with music from Shakespeare’s time. The program is built around the sensuous sounds of the broken consort, which includes a woodwind, two bowed stringed instruments, the gut-strung lute, and the wire-strung cittern and bandora.
To learn more about the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society, click here.
CONCERT SCHEDULE
Sun., Nov. 23
J.S. Bach: Sonatas in E Major, BWV 1016; and A Major, BWV 1015
CPE Bach: CPE Bachs Empfindungen, Wq 80
Robert Mealy, violin; Kenneth Slowik, harpsichord and fortepiano
Location: Smithsonian Castle Commons
Sun., Dec. 7
Joseph Haydn and Andreas Lidl: Trios featuring the flute and the baryton
Sandra Miller, flauto traverso; Steven Dann, viola; Myron Lutzke, violoncello; Kenneth Slowik, baryton and fortepiano
Location: Smithsonian Castle Commons
Sun., Jan. 11
Schubert: Trio in B-flat Major, D 898
Schubert: Quintet in A Major, D. 667 (the “Trout”)
Mark Fewer, violin; Steven Dann, viola; Myron Lutzke, violoncello; John Feeney, bass; Kenneth Slowik, fortepiano
Location: Warner Bros. Theater, American History Museum
Sun., March 29
Beethoven: The Three Trios of Op. 1
Marilyn McDonald, violin; Kenneth Slowik, violoncello; Lambert Orkis, fortepiano
Location: Warner Bros. Theater, American History Museum
Sun., April 12
Beethoven: Quintet in C Major, Op. 29
Beethoven: Quintet in C Minor, Op. 104
Vera Beths and Cynthia Roberts, violins; Steven Dann and Max Mandel, violas; Kenneth Slowik, violoncello
Location: Warner Bros. Theater, American History Museum
Sun., May 17
English Music from Shakespeare’s Time
Christopher Krueger, Renaissance flute; Kenneth Slowik, treble viol; Catherine Slowik, bass viol; Lucas Harris, lute; David Walker, cittern; Daniel Swenberg, bandora
Location: Music Hall, American History Museum
Sunday Series (6 concerts): CODE: BPN8
Program, location, and artists are subject to change.
