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May 20, 2025

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GRACE NOTES: Season-ending programs

BCO celebrates an anniversary, Ars Nova celebrates eternity

By Peter Alexander May 20 at 8:35 p.m.

NOTE: The following post covers events for the next two weeks. I will be traveling with the Longmont Concert Band for a performance in Carnegie Hall May 25 and not back in Colorado until June 1. —Ed.

The Boulder Chamber Orchestra (BCO) and their conductor, Bahman Saless, wrap up their 20th-anniversary 2024–25 season with a “Grand Finale” in Macky Auditorium Saturday (7:30 p.m. May 24; details below).

Fresh back from a performance at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall venue, the BCO will be joined by pianist Adam Zukiewicz and soprano Sylvia Schranz in a varied program, selected to celebrate the group’s anniversary. The program will be anchored by Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 5 (“Egyptian’), which Zukewicz played a week ago in New York.

Boulder Chamber Orchestra and conductor Bahman Saless

A review of the New York concert said that BCO “could hold its own with any orchestra, anywhere,” and praised Zukiewicz’s “lively rendering” of the Concerto. Other works on Saturday’s program reflect the BCO’s eclectic programming over the past 20 years, ranging from Strauss waltzes to dances by Dvořák and Shostakovich, and a patriotic romp based on the National Anthem by the largely forgotten American composer Dudley Buck.

Saint-Saëns’ “Egyptian” Piano Concerto is a suitable choice for the BCO’s celebration, as it was written as a celebration of the composer’s own 50th-anniversary in 1896. Saint-Saëns wrote the concerto in Egypt, where he often spent his winter vacations. It features various exotic elements, particularly the slow movement that includes a song the composer heard sung by Nile boatmen.

Dudley Buck

Trained as a pianist in Germany, Buck was a classmate of Edvard Grieg, Leoš Janáček and Arthur Sullivan. His Festival Overture on The American National Air began life as a set of Concert Variations on “The Star Spangled Banner” for solo organ. Though largely forgotten today, Buck was widely known in the late 19th century as a composer, organist and composer, and as the author of Buck’s New and Complete Dictionary of Musical Terms.

The Strauss waltzes recall the years that the BCO performed concerts during the Holidays that included music familiar from the popular Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s concert. On Saturday, these works will be the Overture to Die Fledermaus, the Emperor Waltz and Frühlingstimme (Voices of Spring) by Johann Strauss II. The program concludes with two Slavonic Dances by Dvořák (see full program below).

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“Grand Finale”
Boulder Chamber Orchestra, Bahman Saless, conductor
With Adam Zukiewicz, piano, and Sylvia Schranz, soprano

  • Dudley Buck: Festival Overture on the American National Air
  • Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 5 in F major (“Egyptian”)
  • Johann Strauss II: Overture to Die Fledermaus
  • Khachaturian: Waltz from Masquerade
  • Strauss: Emperor Waltz
  • Shostakovich: Waltz No. 2 from Suite for Jazz Orchestra
  • Strauss: Frühlingstimme (Voices of spring)
  • Dvořák: Slavonic Dances op. 72 no. 10 and op. 46 no. 8

7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 24, Macky Auditorium

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Boulder’s ever adventurous Ars Nova Singers will present the last of their 2024–25 season concerts at the end of the month, with performances of significant a cappella works from the 20th century (Friday, May 30 in Longmont, Saturday, May 31 in Denver, and Sunday June 1 in Boulder; see times and concert details below).

Titled “Time/Eternity,” the program concludes a season characterized by programs that have embraced contrasts: “Here/There,” “Light/Shadow,” “Lost/Found” and “Science/Fantasy.” In each case, Ars Nova’s director Tom Morgan has found a creative and fun way to realize the two conflicting concepts in music, from pieces that were literally lost and and later rediscovered for “Lost/Found,” to a Victorian-era steampunk-inspired program for “Science/Fantasy.”

Ars Nova Singers with conductor Tom Morgan (kneeling, fourth from left)

For the current program, “Time/Eternity,” the program features two contemporary works modeled on church music dating back to at least the Renaissance, thus representing both eternity and modern time in each work. The first of these is the Mass for Double Chorus by Swiss composer Frank Martin. Written in 1922 and 1926, the Mass is a setting of the traditional five movements of the ordinary of the liturgical mass—that is, the texts that are sung at nearly every mass and not subject to variation across liturgical seasons.

Composer Frank Martin

The Mass combines techniques typical of Renaissance mass settings, such as the use of a double chorus, fugal passages and imitative techniques across the choruses, together with modern stylistic elements that Martin was exploring. After he completed the Mass, Martin put the score away, considering it an early attempt at composition. He later consented to a performance in the 1960s, and today it is considered one of the most significant choral works of the 20th century.

The English composer Herbert Howells’ Requiem, written in 1932, is likewise based on traditional liturgical texts, in this case combined with other sacred texts from the Psalms and other sources. Although written for a single a cappella chorus, the Requiem sometimes divides the full chorus into two separate choirs. While using texts with a long liturgical history, the Requiem clearly has a musical style from the mid-20th century, using polytonality and chord clusters.

John Bawden, an active choral director and author of A Directory of Choral Music, wrote that “Howells’ music is much more complex than other choral music of the period. . . Long, unfolding melodies are seamlessly woven into the overall textures; the harmonic language is modal, chromatic, often dissonant and deliberately ambiguous. The overall style is free-flowing, impassioned and impressionistic, all of which gives Howells’ music a distinctive visionary quality.”

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“Time/Eternity”
Ars Nova Singers, Tom Morgan, conductor

  • Frank Martin: Mass for Double Choir
  • Herbert Howells: Requiem

7:30 p.m. Friday, May 30
United Church of Christ, Longmont

7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 31
St. Paul Lutheran Church, Denver, and Livestream

7:30 p.m. Sunday, June 1
Mountain View United Methodist, Boulder

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May 7, 2025

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GRACE NOTES: Chamber piano with strings, bassoons and student soloists

Piano Quartet at the Academy, Bassoon Quartet with Cantabile, BCO with competition winners

By Peter Alexander May 7 at 4:40 p.m.

The Boulder Piano Quartet—pianist David Korevaar with violinist Igor Pikayzen, violist Matthew Dane and cellist Thomas Heinrich—will present a free concert in Chapel Hall at the Academy University Hill Friday (7 p.m. May 9; details below).

The central work on the program is the five-movement King of the Sun by Stephen Hartke, who is chair of composition at the Oberlin Conservatory. Written for the Los Angeles Piano Quartet, The King of the Sun was inspired by a series of five paintings by the Spanish painter Joan Miró. 

Miró: Characters in the night guided by the phosphorescent tracks of snails, Art Institute of Chicago

The five major movements of Hartke’s score are titled after the titles of the paintings: “Personages in the night guided by the phosphorescent tracks of snails,” “Dutch interior,” “Dancer listening to the organ in a gothic cathedral,” “The flames of the sun make the desert flower hysterical,” and “Personages and birds rejoicing at the arrival of night.” The third and fourth movements are  separated by a brief “Interlude,” leading Hartke to describe the piece as comprising “five and a half” movements. 

The title of the work, The King of the Sun, is a mistranslation of a 14th-century canon that is quoted in the second and fourth movements of Hartke’s score. The actual title of the canon is Le ray au soleil, which means the sun’s ray. The change of one letter—Le rey instead of Le ray—changes “The sun’s ray” into “The king of the sun.”

The program opens with Phantasy for Piano Quartet, written in 1910 by English composer Frank Bridge. It was commissioned by Walter Wilson Cobbett, who worked to promote the composition of British chamber pieces in the style of Fantasy, or Phantasy, a type of work that had flourished in Elizabethan times. Bridge was one of 11 British composers Cobbett commissioned to write a phantasy in 1910.

The final piece on the program is the Piano Quartet in E-flat major of Robert Schumann. It was composed in the summer of 1842, which became known as Schumann’s “year of chamber music.” He had mostly written piano music until 1840, a year in which he wrote 120 songs. The following year he wrote two symphonies, and then in 1842 he completed three string quartets, a piano trio, a piano quintet, and the Piano Quartet.

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Boulder Piano Quartet
Igor Pikayzen, violin; Matthew Dane, viola; Thomas Heinrich, cello; and David Korevaar, piano

  • Frank Bridge: Phantasy for Piano Quartet
  • Stephen Hartke: The King of the Sun
  • Schumann: Piano Quartet in E-flat major, op. 47

7 p.m. Friday, May 9
Chapel Hall, The Academy University Hill, Boulder

Free

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Quartets of all bassoons are a musical rarity—except in Boulder.

The Boulder Bassoon Quartet will present an unusual program of music for bassoon and chorus on a concert shared with Boulder’s Cantabile Singers, directed by Brian Stone, Friday and Sunday at the First Congregational Church (May 9 and 11; details below).

Boulder Bassoon Quartet

The program will be repeated at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 1, at the Boulder Bandshell

A centerpiece of the program will be the newly commissioned “I Shall Raise My Lantern” by Greg Simon. That work for chorus and bassoon quartet will be paired with “Three Earth Songs” by Bill Douglas. Other works on the program are a capella works for chorus by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten, Craig Hella Johnson and Shawn Kirchner. 

The Sunday performance will be available online by a free live stream.

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“The Beauty Around Us”
Cantabile Singers, Brian Stone, director, with the Boulder Bassoon Quartet

  • Greg Simon: “I Shall Raise My Lantern”
  • Bill Douglas: “Three Earth Songs”
  • Works by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten, Craig Hella Johnson and Shawn Kirchner

7:30 p.m. Friday, May 9
3 p.m. Sunday, May 11
First Congregational Church, Boulder

3 p.m. Sunday, June 1, Boulder Band Shell

Tickets HERE

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The Boulder Chamber Orchestra (BCO) will present the winners of the 2025 Colorado State Music Teachers Association (CSMTA) Concerto Competition as soloists on a concert program Saturday (8 p.m. May 10; details below).

The winners in four categories—Piano Elementary, Piano Junior, Piano Senior, and Strings/Harp—will each play the concerto movement that was required for the competition, with the orchestra (see the concert program below). BCO music director Bahman Saless will conduct.

Boulder Chamber Orchestra with conductor Bahman Saless

An annual event, the CSMTA Concerto Competition has three piano categories that are held every year: elementary, junior and senior. There are vocal and instrumental categories in alternating years: strings/harp and voice in odd-numbered years, and winds/percussion in even-numbered years. The competition is for pre-college students up to age 19.

This year’s competition was held in March, and had violin, cello and harp contests in the strings/harp category. Every instrument has one concerto movement specified as its competition repertoire. The judges for the 2025 competition were Saless; Mary Beth Rhodes-Woodruff, artistic director of the Santa Barbara (Calif.) Strings; and Kate Boyd, professor of piano at Butler University.

The winners who will appear with the BCO are:
—Piano elementary: Natalie Ouyang
—Piano, junior: Lucy (Yuze) Chen
—Piano, senior: Bobby Yuan
—Strings/Harp: Sadie Rhodes Han (violin)

This is the second year that the BCO has presented the CSMTA Concerto Competition winners as concert soloists.

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CSMTA Concerto Competition Winners’ Concert
Boulder Chamber Orchestra, Bahman Saless, conductor

  • Haydn: Keyboard Concerto in C major, Hob. XVIII/5, I. Allegro moderato
    -Natalie Ouyang, piano
  • Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major; K467, I. Allegro maestoso
    -Lucy (Yuze) Chen, piano
  • Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, op 54, I. Allegro affettuoso
    -Bobby Yuan, piano
  • Saint-Saëns: Introduction et Rondo Capriccioso
    -Sadie Rhodes Han, violin

8 p.m. Saturday, May 10, Boulder Adventist Church

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April 24, 2025

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GRACE NOTES: Curiosity and chamber music

Offerings from the Boulder Symphony and Boulder Chamber Orchestra

By Peter Alexander April 24 at 8:40 p.m.

The Boulder Symphony agrees to disagree for its upcoming Curiosity Concert (3 p.m. Saturday, April 26 at Grace Commons; details below).

Curiosity Concerts are aimed at children ages four to 12, but structured to appeal to the entire family. For April 26, the musical content revolves around a playful showdown between Mozart and “Snooty, Professor of Musical Snobbery.” Through their debates and the sharing of favorite pieces and styles, they will explore the diversity of musical preferences. 

The program under the direction of Devin Patrick Hughes features selections from a wide variety of both classical and popular pieces, including portions of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, Khachaturian’s “Sabre Dance” from the Gayane ballet suite, “Fireworks” from Harry Potter and “Enter Sandman” by Metallica.

The music is selected to illustrate various styles, including sad contemplative music, musical madness, the description of weather in music, and how instruments can sing like a human voice. Pop and classical styles will be contrasted with the same tune played in both styles, and the characteristics of film music will be demonstrated. 

The 45-minute program will be preceded and followed by an “instrument petting zoo” provided by Boulder’s HB Woodsongs, allowing children to see and try instruments. 

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Spring Curiosity Concert: “Agree to Disagree”
Boulder Symphony, Devin Patrick Hughes, conductor

Program includes music from:

  • Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
  • J.S. Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major
  • Nicholas Hooper: “Fireworks” from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
  • Samuel Barber: Adagio for Strings
  • Mozart: Presto from the Divertimento in D major, K136
  • Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings
  • Beethoven: Grosse Fuge
  • Khachaturian: “Sabre Dance” from Gayane
  • Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus spake Zarathustra)
  • Mozart and Metallica

3 p.m. Saturday, April 26
Grace Commons, 1820 15th St., Boulder

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The Boulder Chamber Orchestra will wrap up its current season of Mini-Chamber Concerts featuring pianist Jennifer Hayghe as artist in residence Saturday (7:30 p.m. April 26; details below).

Jennifer Hayghe

The program, titled “Chamber Music Diamonds in the Rough,” features four works that are not often performed, in part because of their unusual instrumentation. Two of the composers—Aram Khachaturian and Max Bruch—are known for works that are featured on standard orchestral programs, but the other two—Mel Bonis and Nikolai Kapustin—are unfamiliar to American audiences.

In fact, the music of Mélanie “Mel” Bonis is currently undergoing a period of rediscovery after many years of obscurity. Born in 1858, Bonis taught herself to play piano and entered the Paris Conservatory at 16. She was in the same class with Debussy, and studied composition with César Franck. 

Mel Bonis

Bonis gave up music for a number of years when her parents arranged her marriage to an older businessman who disliked music, but returned to composition later in her life. Composed in 1903, her three-movement Suite en trio for flute, violin and piano is one of the works she wrote after her husband’s death..

Known for his “Sabre Dance” from the ballet Gayane, his Piano Concerto and other orchestral music, Khachaturian wrote only two pieces of chamber music, both of them during his student years at the Moscow Conservatory. The Trio for violin, clarinet and piano features folk tunes and styles throughout, including highly ornamented passages in the first movement and variations on a folk-like melody in the finale.

The German Romantic composer Max Bruch is best known for his Scottish Fantasy and two concertos for solo violin with orchestra. He wrote his Eight Pieces for clarinet, viola and piano in 1910, when he was 72, for his son who was a professional clarinetist. He used the same combination of clarinet and viola in another work he wrote for his son, the Concerto for clarinet, viola and orchestra in E minor, op. 88.

Kapustin was born in Ukraine in 1937 and studied composition at the Moscow Conservatory. He discovered jazz around 1954 and became known as a jazz pianist and played in a jazz quintet and big band. His music combines elements of classical, jazz and pop styles, but he always insisted that he was a composer, not a jazz musician. “I never tried to be a real jazz pianist,” he once wrote. Composed in 1998, the Trio for flute, cello and piano is one of his most popular chamber works.

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“Chamber Music Diamonds in the Rough”
Jennifer Hayghe, piano, with Rachelle Crowell, flute; Kellan Toohey, clarinet; Hilary Castle, violin; and Erin Patterson, cello

  • Mel Bonis: Suite en trio, op. 59
  • Khachaturian: Trio for violin clarinet and piano
  • Max Bruch: Eight Pieces for clarinet, viola and piano
  • Nikolai Kapustin: Trio for flute, cello and piano, op. 86

7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 26, Boulder Adventist Church

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February 27, 2025

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Boulder Chamber Orchestra features “Boulder Celebrities”

Violinist Ed Dusinberre and violist Richard O’Neill will play Mozart

By Peter Alexander Feb. 27 at 5:15 p.m.

The Boulder Chamber Orchestra (BCO) traces the history of classical music on their next concert (7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 1; details below), with a concerto grosso from the Baroque era, music from the heart of the classical style, and a symphony pointing the way to the early Romantic era.

The concert under conductor Bahman Saless will feature violinist Edward Dusinberre and violist Richard O’Neill from the Takács Quartet playing Mozart’s exquisite Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola with orchestra. Two of the superstars of the classical music world, Dusinberre and O’Neill are hailed in the concert’s title as “Boulder Celebrities.”

Edward Dusinberre

Works framing the Mozart are the Concerto Grosso in F major attributed to Handel, and Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major. All three are bright and cheerful works, giving the entire concert an uplifting spirit.

With its two soloists, the Mozart stands as the centerpiece of the program. Dusinberre and O’Neill know each other well, having played together in the Takács since the latter joined the group five years ago. In addition to their work in the quartet, they both have concert and recording careers as soloists and both have won a classical music Grammy. 

Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante is one of the composer’s most loved pieces, and one that O’Neill has played many times. “For some violists it’s the reason they play the viola,” he says. “It’s such an amazing work, and it has been a lifetime dream for me, visiting it through different stages of my life. (There is) the joy of playing it over the years with different orchestras and different violinists, each having their own distinct views on the piece.”

He says he learns from every violinist he plays it with, but this is his first time with Dusinberre. And it’s a special experience playing with someone he knows so well from their work together in the Takács. 

“Part of the magic of being in a string quartet is that you spend so much time with your colleagues, and you get to know them under many different circumstances,” O’Neill says. “I’ve played (the Mozart) with brilliant soloists, but this time with Ed we’ve been able to dig into the more psychological aspects of the music, because we already know each other’s playing pretty well.”

Richard O’Neill

In other words, O’Neill and Dusinberre were able to skip past the early stages of getting to know a musical partner and get down to details right away. The quartet just returned to Boulder from a tour, but they were able to rehearse Mozart together on the road, O’Neill says. Now, “I’m really looking forward to working with the orchestra and Bahman (Saless),” he says.

One thing he urges the audience to tune into with the Sinfonia Concertante is how the two solo parts relate to one another. “Mozart pairs the violin and viola like they’re operatic characters,” he explains. “It’s like a conversation.

“The person that talks first often frames the way the conversation will go. In the first movement,  the violin says, then the viola says, and then the violin says and the viola says. There’s a lot of playful discussion, and then in the recapitulation—the viola says it first!”

The concerto grosso was a form common in the Baroque period, featuring a small group of soloists with orchestra. The Concerto Grosso in F features two oboes with a string orchestra. The soloists will be guest artist Ian Wisekal and BCO member Sophie Maeda. 

The Concerto is “attributed to Handel” because publishers of the time often printed and sold works that had been pirated, or changed the name of the composer, making authenticity uncertain. In the case of this concerto—which is certainly an authentic representative of the Baroque style—it has appeared under Handel’s name and as an anonymous composition.

Schubert wrote his Fifth Symphony in 1816, when he was 19 years old. It is the most classical of Schubert’s symphonies, having been written for a smaller orchestra, with one flute and no clarinets, trumpets or timpani. Schubert was infatuated with Mozart’s music, and wrote in his diary ”O Mozart, immortal Mozart!”

At the time he was unemployed, hanging out with a group of young artists, poets and musicians. The first reading of the symphony was given by this circle of friends in a private apartment, with the first public performance occurring 13 years after Schubert’s death.

The music of the symphony is often described as “Mozartian” in its gracefulness and melodiousness. It conforms closely to the standard four-movement structure of the classical period, with a minuet movement in third place. At the same time, the harmonic palette suggests the Romantic style to come, particularly in Schubert’s works of the remaining 12 years of his life.

But regarding the program’s title, the question of classical musicians being genuine “celebrities” might be debatable—but if it’s possible it would be in Boulder, where the Takács Quartet routinely sells out two performances of every program. 

Superstars or celebrities, Grammy winners both, Dusinberre and O’Neill are always worth hearing.

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“Boulder Celebrities”
Boulder Chamber Orchestra, Bahman Saless, conductor
With Edward Dusinberre, violin, and Richard O’Neill, viola

  • Handel: Concerto Grosso in F major, op. 3 no. 4
  • Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat major for violin and viola with orchestra, K364
  • Schubert: Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, D485

7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 1
Boulder Adventist Church, 345 Mapleton Ave.

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January 24, 2025

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Boulder Chamber Orchestra changes Saturday’s program

Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite replaces Gerald Finzi Clarinet Concerto Jan. 25

By Peter Alexander Jan. 24 at 9:40 a.m.

The Boulder Chamber Orchestra has changed the planned program for their concert tomorrow (7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25).

The program as originally announced included the Gerald Finzi Clarinet Concerto performed by the orchestra’s principal clarinet player, Kellan Toohey. However, the orchestra has just announced that the Concerto has beed dropped from the program and replaced by the Holberg Suite by Edvard Grieg. The announcement states that “Kellan Toohey will not be performing on Saturday due to illness.”

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“Strings Sensational”
Boulder Chamber Orchestra strings, Bahman Saless, conductor
With Kellan Toohey, clarinet

  • Grieg: Holberg Suite, op. 40
  • Dag Wirén: Serenade for Strings
  • Dvořák: Serenade for Strings

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25
Boulder Adventist Church, 345 Mapleton Ave.

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CORRECTION: The original post stated that no reason had been given for the change of program. After that was posted, a delayed email arrived in my inbox noting that Toohey would not appear “due to illness.” We apologize for the inaccurate earlier notice on this site.

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January 21, 2025

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Boulder Chamber Orchestra presents string serenades

Clarinetist Kellan Toohey plays Concerto by Gerald Finzi

By Peter Alexander Jan. 21 at 11:12 p.m.

The Boulder Chamber Orchestra will present a concert Saturday featuring their string section (7:30 p.m. Jan. 25; details below), playing one of the great masterworks for strings, Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings.

The concert, under the direction of Bahman Saless, will also feature clarinetist Kellan Toohey playing the Concerto for clarinet and strings by British composer Gerald Finzi. The program also includes the Serenade for Strings by 20th-century Swedish composer Dag Wirén. 

Kellan Toohey

Known mostly as a composer of songs and choral music, Finzi also wrote concertos for clarinet and cello, a Grand Fantasia and Toccata for piano and orchestra, and other instrumental pieces. 

The Clarinet Concerto was written in 1949 for the Three Choirs Festival located in turn in the English cities of Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester, with which Finzi had a long association. The concerto is in three movements, of which the Adagio second movement is the expressive core. The quick rondo finale incorporates an English folk song. Finzi himself conducted the premiere, performed in Hereford by the London Symphony strings and clarinetist Frederick Thurston.

Wirén studied at the Stockholm Conservatory 1926–31, and won a state award that allowed him to live and study in Paris for several years. He wrote a number of orchestral works, including five symphonies and other concert works. His music is generally accessible to audiences, mixing traditional elements with modernist and innovative impulses. 

His Serenade for Strings, composed just after his return to Sweden from Paris in 1937, is his most widely performed work. The composer wrote in his notes for the score, “The purpose of this little Serenade is simply to amuse and entertain, and if the listener, when the last note has faded, feels cheerful and happy, then I have reached my goal.”

Dvořák won the Austrian State Prize in music in 1875—the first of three times that he received that award and the support it offered young composers. It was those awards that gave Dvořák the freedom to purse his work as a composer. One of the judges of the competition was Brahms, who later became an important champion of Dvořák and introduced him to the German publisher N. Simrock. 

In the months after winning the award, Dvořák composed his Fifth Symphony, several pieces of chamber music, and the Serenade for Strings. The Serenade was completed in only 12 days in May, 1875, but not performed until December 1876. One of his most tuneful and cheerful works, the Serenade has remained popular since the first performances. Dvořák was proud enough of the work that he included it with his application for his third state award in 1877.

In addition to performing as the principal clarinetist of the BCO, Toohey also plays with the Fort Collins Symphony, the Wyoming Symphony and the Cheyenne Symphony. He holds a doctorate from CU Boulder and has recorded a CD of music for clarinet and piano by Colorado composers, Scenes from Home. 

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“Strings Sensational”
Boulder Chamber Orchestra strings, Bahman Saless, conductor
With Kellan Toohey, clarinet

  • Dag Wirén: Serenade for Strings
  • Gerald Finzi: Concerto for Clarinet and string orchestra, op. 31
  • Dvořák: Serenade for Strings

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25
Boulder Adventist Church, 345 Mapleton Ave.

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January 10, 2025

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GRACE NOTES: Chamber music on the weekend

Music for winds from the BCO, quartets and quintet from the Takács Quartet

By Peter Alexander Jan. 10 at 1:45 p.m.

The Boulder Chamber Orchestra (BCO) will present a program of French music for piano and winds for its third Mini-Chamber program of the season Saturday (7:30 p.m. Jan. 11; details below).

The orchestra’s current artist-in-residence, pianist Jennifer Hayghe, will be joined by members of the BCO to perform works by Vincent d’Indy, Albert Roussel, Francis Poulenc, Florent Schmitt and Louise Farrenc.

BCO artist in residence Jennifer Hayghe

The program that was curated by Hayghe offers an opportunity to hear pieces and composers that are little known to American audiences. French music in particular is less often programmed here than German and Austrian works. The least familiar, and the earliest of the composers is Farrenc, who lived in the 19th century. A successful concert pianist, she became the first woman to hold a permanent position at the Paris Conservatory, which she maintained for 30 years, from 1842 to 1872.

All the other composers lived and worked in the 20th century. The most familiar is probably Poulenc, who died in 1963. Known for his opera Dialogues des Carmélites (Dialogue of the Carmelites), his Organ Concerto and his choral Gloria, he also wrote a large number of pieces for chamber ensembles.

The other three composers—d’Indy, Roussel and Schmitt—were active in the first half of the 20th century. Offering a rare taste of a time and place that rarely shows up in concert programs in the U.S., Mini-Chamber 3 is a welcome opportunity for the chamber music audience to expand their horizons beyond the routine.

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Boulder Chamber Orchestra Mini-Chamber 3
Jennifer Hayghe, artist in residence, piano
With Rachelle Crowell, flute; Brittany Bonner, one; Kellan Toohey, clarinet; Kaori Uno-Jack, bassoon; and Devon Park, horn

  • Vincent d’Indy: Sarabande et menuet, op. 72
  • Albert Roussel: Divertissement, op. 6
  • Francis Poulenc: Trio for oboe, bassoon and piano
  • Florent Schmitt: Sonatine en trio, op. 85
  • Louise Farrenc: Sextet in C minor, op. 40

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 11
Boulder Adventist Church, 345 Mapleton Ave., Boulder

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The Takács Quartet will be joined by pianist Margaret McDonald to present one of the preeminent chamber works of the 19th century, Brahms’s Quintet in F minor for piano and strings.

The program will also feature Beethoven’s early String Quartet No. 1 in F major, op. 18 no. 1—actually the second quartet of the set to be written—and the String Quartet no. 1 by Stephen Hough, which was written for the Takács.

Hough’s quartet was first written to be heard alongside the Ravel String Quartet and Ainsi la nuit (Thus the night), a string quartet by the French composer Henri Dutilleux. Hough subtitled the quartet “Les Six Rencontres” (The six re-encountered), a reference to a group of early 20th-century composers active in France that did not include either Ravel or Dutilleux. Hough wrote that the subtitle “has in it a pun and a puzzle: the six movements as an echo of ‘Les Six,’ although there are no quotes or direct references from those composers; and ‘encounters’ which are unspecified.”

Margaret McDonald, guest pianist with the Takács Quartet

The six movements of the quartet have titles that indicate places, presumably in the Montparnasse district of Paris, where an encounter with a composer from “The Six” might have occurred: On the boulevard, in the park, at the hotel, at the theater, in the church and at the market. The Takács Quartet premiered “Les Six Rencontres” in Costa Mesa, Calif., Dec. 8, 2021.

One of the best known major pieces of chamber music from the 19th century, Brahms F minor Piano Quintet evolved through several forms before being finished as a quintet. It was first written as string quintet, a version that the composer later destroyed, and then as a duet for two pianos, and finally as a quintet for string quartet with piano. All of this stretched over six years, prior to the Quintet’s premiere in 1868.

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Takács Quartet
With Margaret McDonald, piano

  • Beethoven: String Quartet in F Major, op. 18 no. 1
  • Stephen Hough: String Quartet No. 1, “Les Six Rencontres” (The six re-encountered)
  • Johannes Brahms: Piano Quintet in F Minor, op. 34

4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 12
7:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 13
Grusin Music Hall

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December 17, 2024

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GRACE NOTE: A Gift of Music

Boulder Chamber Orchestra presents word premiere concerto for guitar

By Peter Alexander Dec. 17 at 2:20 p.m.

The Boulder Chamber Orchestra (BCO) will present their annual Holiday “Gift of Music” featuring guitarist Nicolò Spera Saturday (7:30 p.m. Dec. 21) at the Boulder Adventist Church.

Nicolò Spera

Bahman Saless, artistic director of the BCO, will share conducting duties with Nadia Artman and Giacomo Susani. Spera will play the world premier of Susani’s Concerto for 10-string guitar and orchestra, titled Lungo il Po (Along the Po river), conducted by the composer.

The orchestra’s concertmaster, Annamaria Karacson, will be the featured soloist for the “Méditation” from Thaïs by Jules Massanet, with Saless conducting. He will also lead the orchestra in the program’s closing work, Dvořák’s Czech Suite. Nadia Artman will conduct the opening work on the program, the Prélude from Bizet’s Carmen.

Susani has an active career as a guitar soloist in Europe, and recently presented his Carnegie Hall debut in New York. He taught guitar at the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music in London 2019–23, and is currently artistic director of the Homenaje International Guitar Festival in Padua, Italy, and co-artistic director and teacher of the Residenze Erranti, an initiative that supports young artists by providing scholarships for masterclasses, workshops and other events in Milan and Padua.

Giacomo Susani

Susani has recorded four albums on the Stradivarius label. Performances this year included appearances in the UK, at the Paganini Guitar Festival and the Conservatorio G. Puccini in Gallarate, Italy. His Guitar Concerto Lungo di Po is one of several works he has written for guitar.

Lungo il Po is based on a book of the same title by Federica Pocaterra. It was commissioned by Spera, to whom it is dedicated. Susani believes that it is the first concerto written for the unusual 10-string guitar and orchestra. The music includes quoted fragments of the Lamento di Arianna by Claudio Monteverdi, one of the most famous laments of the early Baroque period. 

Dvořák wrote the Czech Suite in 1879 for the German publisher Fritz Simrock, who was the principal publisher for both Dvořák and Brahms. It comprises five movements, three of which are Czech folk dances: a polka, a soudedska—a type of slower dance in triple time—and a furiant—a fast and fiery dance that Dvořák used in several of his works.

A member of the CU College of Music faculty, Spera is known for playing both the six-string and 10-string guitars, as well as the Renaissance theorbo, a member of the lute family. He holds degrees from the Conservatory of Bolzano, Italy, and the Accademia Musical Chigiana in Siena, Italy, as well as as an artist diploma from the University of Denver and a doctorate from CU, Boulder. In addition to his teaching duties at CU, Spera appears frequently as a solo performer, both locally and internationally.

A native of Moscow, Russia, Artman has appeared as a guest conductor of the BCO in past seasons, and manages Artman Productions in Boulder.

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“The Gift of Music”
Boulder Chamber Orchestra, Bahman Saless, conductor
With Nicolò Spera, guitar, and Annamaria Karacson, violin
Guest conductors Nadia Artman and Giacomo Susani

  • Bizet: Prélude to Carmen
  • Giacomo Susani: Concerto for 10-string guitar and orchestra, Lungo il Po (Along the Po river)
  • Jules Massanet: “Méditation” from Thaïs
  • Dvořák: Czech Suite, op. 39

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 21
Boulder Adventist Church, 345 Mapleton Ave., Boulder

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November 19, 2024

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GRACE NOTES: From Brahms to Taylor Swift

Mini Chamber concert in Boulder and Groovin’ in Longmont

By Peter Alexander Nov. 19 at 11:40 p.m.

The Boulder Chamber Orchestra (BCO)will present “Mini-Chamber 2,” the second of its chamber music programs for the 2024–25 season, Saturday (7:30 p.m. Nov. 23; details below).

The program features guest pianist Adam Żukiewicz performing quintets for piano and strings by Brahms and Théodore Dubois with members of the BCO string sections. Żukiewicz appeared on a Mini-Chamber concert last spring, and will be the soloist with the orchestra when they perform in New York in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall next spring.

Dubois was a prominent French composer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. After winning the Prix de Rome in1861, he became organist and choirmaster at several churches in Paris and was professor of harmony at the Paris Conservatory 1871–91 and composition until 1896. He became director of the Conservatory in 1896, but had to resign from the position over his hostility to the adventurous student works of Ravel.

Adam Żukiewicz

Dubois was as conservative in his compositions as he was as a leader of the Conservatoire. He wrote orchestral chamber and choral works. most of which have disappeared from the standard repertoire, while his theoretical books are still used for teaching.

Brahms wrote in Piano Quintet in F minor over a number of years, first as a string quintet, then as a sonata for two pianos. The first version dates to 1861, and the final form, the Quintet for piano and strings, was completed in 1864 and premiered in 1868. Widely considered one of the great works of chamber music from the 19th century, it comprises four movements that last around 45 minutes in performance.

A native of Poland, Żukiewicz has studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, and holds a doctorate from the University of Toronto, where he also served on the faculty. He won first prize both the 2011 Canada Trust Music Competition and the 2012 Shean Piano Competition in Canada, and was a medalist at several other contests. Since 2018 he has been a judge for the Steinway Piano Competition.

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Boulder Chamber Orchestra: Mini-Chamber 2
Adam Żukiewicz, piano, with members of the BCO

  • Théodore Dubois: Piano Quintet in F major
  • Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor, op. 34

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 23
Boulder Adventist Church

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The Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra will repeat its “Groove” concert, first presented at Planet Bluegrass in September, next Monday at the Dickens Opera House in Longmont (6:30 p.m. Nov. 25).

The concert is one in the Boulder Phil’s new “Shift” series, designed to bring the orchestra’s musicians into informal spaces and present them in smaller groups. Each program in the “Shift” series will be presented first at Planet Bluegrass in Lyons, and then taken to smaller venues in Longmont and Boulder.  

“Groove” features the Boulder Philharmonic String Quartet, principal players from each of the orchestra’s string sections. The program includes music by pop sensations from Lizzo to Taylor Swift alongside pieces by living composers including Philip Glass and Jessie Montgomery. And neither a pop sensation nor living, Vivaldi shows up on the program with one piece as well. 

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“Groove”
Boulder Philharmonic String Quartet: Ryan Jacobsen and Hilary Castle-Green, violin; Stephanie Mientka, viola; and Amanda Laborete, cello

  • Takashi Yoshimatsu: Atomic Hearts Club Quartet, Movement I
  • Justin Bieber: “Peaches” (arr. Alice Hong)
  • Dinuk Wijeratne:Two Pop Songs on Antique Poems: “Letter from the afterlife”
  • Carlos Simon: “Loop”
  • Michael Begay: “Forest Fires”
  • Lizzo: “ Good As Hell” (arr. Alice Hong)
  • Jessie Montgomery: “VooDoo Dolls”
  • Philip Glass: String Quartet No. 3: VI “Mishima/Closing”
  • Taylor Swift: “All Too Well” (arr. Alice Hong)
  • Wijeratne: Two Pop Songs on Antique Poems: “I will not let you go”
  • Ed Sheeran: “Shape of You” (arr. Alice Hong)
  • Due Lipa: “Dance the Night” (arr. Zack Reaves)
  • Jessica Meyer: “Get into the NOW”: III. “Go Big or Go Home”
  • Vivaldi: Summer: Movement III (arr. Naughtin)

6:30 pm. Monday, Nov. 25
Dickens Opera House, Longmont

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October 29, 2024

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GRACE NOTES: Curiosity entertains while the Baroque blooms

Boulder Symphony celebrates Día de los Muertos; BCO presents Vivaldi and Pergolesi

By Peter Alexander Oct. 29 at 9:40 p.m.

“The Creative Spirit,” the Fall Curiosity Concert of the Boulder Symphony, will be presented Saturday (3 p.m. Nov. 2) at Grace Commons.

The Boulder Symphony and director Devin Patrick Hughes will present two Curiosity Concerts as part of their 2024–25 season, one each in the fall and the spring. Curiosity Concerts are designed as interactive, educational experiences for family audiences. They typically use humorous characters, trivia and original stories to entertain as well as educate the audiences.

Statue of La Llorana at Xochimilco, Mexico. Photo by KatyaMSL.

The Fall Curiosity Concert, lasting 45 minutes, will celebrate La Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Joining the Symphony for portions of the concert will be the Niwot High School Mariachi Ensemble and the Longmont Youth Symphony. 

The performance will tell the tale of a ghostly composer who reunites with a musical partner for the premiere of their final composition, only to discover that the piece was never finished. They turn to the audience for help completing the song before the ghostly composer vanishes again. 

The program will feature not only the imaginary composer’s new work but also familiar tunes including Radiohead’s “Creep,” Kate Bush’s “Running up the Hill” and “La Llorana” (The weeping woman), a Mexican folk song based on the legend of a woman weeping over the loss of her children, or her lover. The song has often been used for Día de los Muertos festivities.

The performance will also include music from the standard classical orchestra repertoire, including Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony and Arturo Márquez’s Dánzon No. 2.

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Fall Curiosity Concert: The Creative Spirit
Boulder Symphony, Devin Patrick Hughes, conductor
With the Niwot High School Mariachi Ensemble and Longmont Youth Symphony

3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2, Grace Commons

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The Boulder Chamber Orchestra (BCO) will present an all-Baroque program Saturday featuring violinist Zachary Carrettin, director of the Boulder Bach Festival playing concertos by Vivaldi, for violin solo and with other strings (7:30 p.m. Nov. 2 at the Boulder Adventist Church; details below). Other soloists for two of the concertos will be members of the BCO.

Also featured on the program are soprano Jennifer Ellis Kampani and mezzo-soprano Gabrielle Razafinjatovo performing the Stabat Mater of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. The concert will be conducted by Bahman Saless, music director of the BCO.

Published as Op. 3, L’estro armonico is a set of 12 concertos by Vivaldi for stringed instruments. The set was published in Amsterdam in 1711, making it the first set of Vivaldi’s concertos to be printed. The concertos are organized in four sets of three concertos each, with each set containing first a concerto for four violins with strings; second for two violins, cello and strings; and third for solo violin and strings. 

Zachary Carrettin

The concertos were probably written for performance by students at the Ospedale della Pietà, the orphanage/music school where Vivaldi was employed as music teacher. Later the published edition was widely circulated in Europe and the concertos were performed as both church music and secular chamber pieces. At least six of the concertos were arranged in various settings by J.S. Bach.

The BCO performance will present two of the solo violin concertos with Carrettin as soloist, as well as one each for two violins and cello, and for four violins, with Carrettin joined by members of the orchestra as additional soloists. 

Pergolesi wrote his Stabat Mater in 1736, weeks before his untimely death at the age of only 26. The manuscript was preserved at the Benedictine Abbey of Monte Cassino in Italy, which was the site of brutal battles in World War II. After being nearly destroyed, the abbey was rebuilt after the war.

While many works attributed to Pergolesi were in fact written by others, due to the survival of the original manuscript the Stabat Mater is known to be his. The title literally means “The mother was standing.” The text is a 13th-century hymn to the Virgin Mary, describing her suffering during the crucifixion of Jesus. The hymn has been set by many European composers from the 15th century to the current day.

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“L’estro armonico“
Boulder Chamber Orchestra, Bahman Saless, conductor
With Zachary Carrettin, violin; Brune Macary, Annamaria Karacson, Kina Ono, and Ava Pacheco, violins; Joey Howe, cello; Jennifer Ellis Kampani, soprano; and Gabrielle Razafinjatovo, mezzo-soprano

  • Vivaldi: Four concertos from L’estro armonico (The harmonic inspiration)
    —Concerto No. 9 in D major for violin, RV230
    —Concerto No. 11 in D minor two violins and cello, RV565
    —Concerto  No. 6 in A minor for violin, RV 356
    —Concerto No. 10 in B minor for 4 violins, RV580
  • Pergolesi: Stabat Mater

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2, Boulder Adventist Church

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