World Premiere and More at Bridgehampton Music Festival
Attention Music Lovers! The Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival is right around the corner, with a series of 11 concerts running from July 26 through August 19. This year’s concerts feature the Festival’s trademark mix of standard repertoire and contemporary music, and will even include the premiere of a new chamber work.
The Festival is also pleased to announce the release of two new recordings on its own new label, BCMF Records. The first disc features Festival performers in premier recordings of American music written especially for the Festival, including pieces by Ned Rorem and Paul Moravec. The second disc features music by Mozart and Spohr. Both CDs will be for sale at all of the Festival concerts, and they can be purchased online as well.
Started in 1984, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival is Long Island’s longest-running classical music festival. This upcoming season will continue the Festival’s tradition of presenting renowned as well as emerging artists performing classic and new music—an exciting blend that has made it one of the most noteworthy summer music festivals in the country. Taking place in one of the most beautiful seaside settings on the East Coast, this year’s Festival features 11 events programmed by founder and Artistic Director Marya Martin—kicking off on July 26 with a free outdoor performance at the Bridgehampton Historical Society by the vibrant string quartet Brooklyn Rider, and continuing with programs of great music ranging from Vivaldi and Bach to Schnittke and Ligeti. And on August 18, the Festival will present the world premiere of Swevens Sonata, a new piece by Paul Brantley.
Joining flutist Martin on the 2012 BCMF artist roster are two colleagues who have been associated with the Festival from the beginning in 1984: renowned violinist Ani Kavafian and cellist Fred Sherry. Also attending is a rotating group of more than 40 players that amount to a who’s who in chamber music, including violinists Stefan Jackiw, Joseph Lin and Arnaud Sussmann; violist Cynthia Phelps and Hsin-Yung Huang; cellists Carter Brey and Edward Arron; pianists Alessio Bax, Gilles Vonsattel and Orion Weiss; and bass-baritone David Pittsinger.
The New Yorker has described the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival’s programs as “a piquant mix of classical and modern works,” and 2012 promises to live up to that description, with chamber music gems by Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms alongside music by Czech composers Dvořák and Martinů on four of the programs. Modern sounds are represented by the music of Gerard Beljon, Colin Jacobsen, Giya Kancheli, György Ligeti, Alfred Schnittke and Carl Vine. “I think our audiences will love two of the newer works,” said Marya Martin. “Dutch composer Gerard Beljon’s Something Wicked for flute, piano, and electronic samples is music I can’t wait to share with them. And Carl Vine’s Café Concertino is a rhythmic romp which will have them on the edge of their seats.”
The newest piece, of course, will be the world premiere. Paul Brantley’s Swevens Sonata for Flute and Piano is named after the Middle English word ‘sweven,’ which the composer explains is an enigmatic word with a meaning somewhere between sleep, dream and vision. Marya Martin, flute and Jeewon Park, piano, will present this new creation. This is not the first time Brantley’s music has been featured in the Festival, though. Marya Martin performed Brantley’s Syrinx-double, a work inspired by Claude Debussy’s solo flute landmark Syrinx, at the 2010 Festival.
Some further examples of the Festival’s exceptional groupings of musicians: violinist Joseph Lin, cellist Carter Brey and pianist Alessio Bax performing Schubert’s Piano Trio in B-flat Major; flutist Marya Martin, cellist Michael Nicolas and pianist Orion Weiss performing Martinů’s Flute Trio; and violinists Ani Kavafian and Stefan Jackiw, violists Richard O’Neill and Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, and cellists Edward Arron and Peter Stumpf ending the season with Brahms’ String Sextet No. 2.
Tickets for any of the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival concerts may be purchased on the festival’s website, www.bcmf.org, or by calling 633-537-6368.