CONCERT / LECTURE SERIES:
OCTOBER 14  MICHAEL BARRETT

Michael Barrett

BEETHOVEN'S SHADOW - LECTURE I
Exploring the Connection Between Beethoven and Schumann
House Museum Music Room
Sunday, 4:00pm                                          
Michael Barrett, lecturer; William Sharp, baritone

Beethoven and the German Song Cycle
Beethoven's song cycle "An Die Ferne Geliebte" (To the Distant Beloved) is regarded as the first great German song cycle, paving the way for Schubert, Schumann, Hugo Wolf and others. Michael Barrett plumbs the depths of Beethoven's cycle with a close look at its impact on Robert Schumann. Schumann quoted the Beethoven work in his Piano Fantasy, and Second Symphony, but not in his own song cycles. What was Schumann’s debt to Beethoven in this new genre? Baritone William Sharp, with Mr. Barrett at the piano, performed both “An Die Ferne Geliebte” and Schumann’s “Liederkreis”, Op. 39.

NOVEMBER 11 PAUL HERSH

Paul Hersh

BEETHOVEN'S SHADOW - LECTURE II
Beethoven's Final Piano Sonata, Opus 111
Sunday, 4:00pm
House Museum Music Room

Paul Hersh, lecturer and pianist

Beethoven’s Final Sonata
San Francisco Conservatory of Music professor Paul Hersh explores the literary legacy and musical structure of Beethoven’s final piano sonata, Op. 111. Thomas Mann’s observations of this great work in Doctor Faustus provide a pathway toward the inner meaning of this sonata. Considered unfathomable for much of the 19th century, Op. 111 set a level of depth and transcendence which composers have been aspiring to ever since.  The lecture concluded with a performance of the sonata by Mr. Hersh.

NOVEMBER 18 PAUL EPSTEIN

Paul Epstein

BEETHOVEN'S SHADOW - CONCERT/LECTURE III
Exploring Beethoven's Symphonic Shadows
Sunday, 4:00pm
House Museum Music Room

Paul Epstein, lecturer

"A symphony must be like the world.  It must contain everything." --Gustav Mahler

It was Beethoven who first took the symphony to the "global" level, with the historical and revolutionary panorama of the Third (“Eroica”); the absolute musical unity of the Fifth; and the Ninth’s embodiment of nothing less than the whole of humanity and the world.  This lecture explored those tremendous works and traced their overwhelming influence on such diverse composers as Schubert, Brahms, Wagner, Debussy and Ives.

The Music Room theatrical lighting was a generous gift from Adela and Lawrence Elow.
The Music Room piano, a Steinway Concert Grand, was the generous gift of Susan and John Freund.
The Fall 2007 Indoors season was made possible, in part, through funding from Floy and Amos Kaminski.
"Beethoven's Shadow" was made possible, in part, through funding from the Rudyard and Emanuella Reimss Memorial Fund of the Westchester Community Foundation.

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