Chamber Music Palisades Showcases Martha Masters February 2, 2010

CHAMBER MUSIC PALISADES CONCERT SHOWCASES LEADING GUITARTIST MARTHA MASTERS IN PROGRAM FEATURING
PIAZZOLLA’S HISTOIRE DU TANGO, GERSHWIN’S PORGY AND BESS SUITE, AND OTHER TOUR DE FORCE CHAMBER WORKS

Tuesday, February 2, 2010, 8:00 PM, at St. Matthews Parish in Pacific Palisades

In Addition to Masters, Guest Artists Roger Wilkie, Violin, and John Walz, Cello, Appear with CMP Co-Founders/Co-Artistic Directors Susan Greenberg, Flute, and Delores Stevens, Piano

Chamber Music Palisades (CMP) continues its 13th season with a program of five tour de force chamber works showcasing leading guitarist Martha Masters, violinist Roger Wilkie, cellist John Walz and CMP Founders/Co-Artistic Directors Delores Stevens, piano, and Susan Greenberg, flute, on Tuesday, February 2, 2010, 8:00 p.m., at St. Matthew Parish in Pacific Palisades. Featured works include Piazzolla’s compelling Histoire du Tango for flute and guitar, Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess Suite for violin, cello and piano, and Beethoven’s Trio in G Major for violin, cello and piano (Kakadu Variations). Also slated are M. Giuliani’s Duo Concertante for Flute and Guitar, op. 85, and Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Duo for piano and guitar.

The program opens with three guitar works, including Mauro Giuliani’s (1781-1829) Duo Concertante for Flute and Guitar, op. 85, composed in 1817. One of the leading guitar virtuosos of the 19th century and greatest exponents of the instrument, Giuliani worked with the era’s top musicians as well as such leading composers as Rossini and Beethoven, helping to define a new role for guitar in European music.

The second piece is Duo for piano and guitar by Italian-born composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968), one of the most prolific and important composers for the guitar in the 20th century. He began composing at age nine and later moved to America, where he wrote more than 200 works for Hollywood films. His composition students included such legends as André Previn, Henry Mancini and John Williams. Guitar virtuoso Andrés Segovia, himself, urged Tedesco to write for the guitar and proclaimed, “It is the first time the I have met a musician who understands immediately how to write for the guitar.”

Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) revolutionized the tango, spending much of his career blending classical music and tango, resulting in, among other classics, Histoire du Tango for flute and guitar – the evening’s third selection. It is a masterful work in which the composer conveys the evolution of this seductive dance, which began in the humble working-class neighborhoods of Buenos Aires in the early 1900’s and went on to captivated the world.

Chamber Music Palisades takes the musical mix in a different direction with Ludwig Van Beethoven’s (1770-1827) Trio in G Major for violin, cello and piano (Kakadu Variations). In 1803, Beethoven took a song from a then current operetta by Wenzell Muller and turned it into a lean and powerful set of variations. The operetta was named "The Sisters from Prague" and the song was "I am the Tailor Kakadu," hence the reference "Kakadu Variations."

The program concludes with a concert arrangement of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess Suite for violin, cello and piano that is based on familiar songs from the composer’s popular opera Porgy and Bess, including "Summertime," "It Ain't Necessarily So" and others.

Chamber Music Palisades was founded in 1997 by Pacific Palisades residents Greenberg and Stevens. They draw guest artists from their vast pool of talented colleagues in the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera, plus other leading instrumentalists from the U.S. and Europe. In addition to presenting established chamber works, to date Chamber Music Palisades has commissioned 11 compositions by such renowned composers as Paul Chihara, Jane Brockman, Henri Lazarof, Adrienne Albert, Maria Newman, Gernot Wolfgang and Joel McNeely.

Tickets are $25; students with ID are free. St. Matthew’s Parish is located at 1031 Bienveneda in Pacific Palisades, CA 90272. For tickets and information, please call 310-463-4388 or visit www.cmpalisades.org.

Official Website: http://www.cmpalisades.org