What a week we have coming up! Two pianists featured on one program, two world premieres, a Mozart piano concerto, and, in a separate program, the celebratory final performance of the current members of the Griffon String Quartet with an inviting reception following.
Our program that opens Friday evening, July 1, at Björklunden in Baileys Harbor, celebrates the return of Jeannie Yu to perform the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 14 in E-flat Major in an arrangement that Mozart himself made for piano and string quartet. But Jeannie will share the piano duties that evening (and in three more performances) with Will Healy, our Composer-in-Residence, who will perform in two of his own works for Clarinet, Violin, and Piano written especially for Midsummer’s Music with funding from the MMG Foundation. Healy will be upholding a long-standing tradition of playing in his own works, much like Mozart himself did and many other composers. In fact, the Mozart Concerto that Jeannie will perform is one that Mozart wrote for himself soon after he arrived in Vienna in 1782 to take up residence for the remaining decade of his life. He needed a virtuoso vehicle to impress the nobility and wealthy residents of his new city hoping for support. He was seeking to prove emphatically that he was both a wiz of a composer but a fantastic keyboard artist as well. By adapting the orchestra part for the Concerto in E-flat for string quartet, Mozart insured opportunities for performance where a full orchestra was not feasible. He was a very practical and resourceful fellow.
Also on the program is another work by Mozart known as the “Kegelstatt” Trio. It is for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano and was actually written for a talented piano student of his, Franziska von Jacquin. Mozart was friends with the Jacquin family and participated in many of their family musical events. For this trio, Mozart was not writing the piano part for himself, but instead played the viola part. The unusual tittle comes from a companion piece for two horns written about the same time on which autograph Mozart inscribe the date and the words, “Written while playing skittles.” Skittles is a form of bowling that Mozart and his friends frequently enjoyed. There is no evidence that Mozart intended the tittle for this Trio, but somehow the name has stuck. Alicia Lee, the brilliant clarinetist on the faculty of UW–Madison, will perform both this work and the two by Healy. She is an incredible artist, and it will be exciting to hear her interacting with David Perry, Allyson Fleck, Jeannie Yu, and composer Healy.
- Friday, July 1, 7:00 pm, Björklund, Baileys Harbor
- Saturday, July 2, 7:00 pm, Kress Pavilion, Egg Harbor
- Sunday, July 3, 3:00 pm, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Sister Bay
- Tuesday, July 5 7:00 pm, Hope United Church of Christ, Sturgeon Bay
This will be a weekend full of thrills and enough fireworks to help celebrate the holidays in an exciting way. Please join us by calling 920-854-7088 or by visiting www.midsummersmusic.com. We look forward to celebrating with you.
Happy Holidays,
Jim Berkenstock,
Artistic Director