Friday, January 16, 2009

Chamberfest: CPE Bach

Last night I had the pleasure of hearing Libby's Chamberfest performance of CPE Bach's Concerto in A minor, H.432, Wq.170. Catchy name, right? While this is often heard with a cello soloist, the bassoon had the solo role in last night's performance, and it was spectacular. The bassooninst romanced the audience as he played and danced his bassoon through the piece. The strings, including the harpsichord, all maintained a similar bright timbre through the piece, while the bassoon's comfortable and mellow tones rose up and serenaded us. What a pleasant evening.

An interesting note: The 6 students were each from a different country, with 4 continents represented (another group had an Australian)--I hope I get this right: Turkey, Peru, Canada, Korea, The Ukraine, and the US--and were all united by the music. If only the world...


2 comments:

Laura A said...

Cool! Our physical therapist went to Chamberfest on Monday and was enthusiastic about it, so I looked it up on the Juilliard website calendar and I saw that Hannah Ross played that night. She's a homeschool grad who used to be in Precollege at MSM.

I think I'll take just about any Schumann string quartet ever written, but I listened to the CPE Bach on iTunes and I liked it too. I'll have to take your word on the bassoon, though, as the clip I found was the usual arrangement.

MacBeth Derham said...

The bassoonist was amazing. Now, I do like the sound of the bassoon, but this guy is really exceptional. We did not stay for the Schumann since Libby was exhausted, though we did hear some lively Prokofiev. I'm sure Monday night and all the other evenings and afternoons were also excellent. I wish I could have seen it all.

I'll have to ask Libby if she know Hannah. Lots of homeschooled kids at Juilliard, as well as the other major conservatories, it seems.