It’s Holy Week, so expect Bach’s sacred oratorios to be in bloom. But for me, give me the intimacy of the cello suites and violin sonatas. Fortuitously, Bach’s works for solo strings will be presented in their entirety in the contemplative setting of Princeton University Chapel, performed by students from the university’s music department. If you’re in the area, stop by or go the distance. The Bach marathon will take place tomorrow (Tuesday) from 3:00 to 8:30 p.m. Admission is free, so Bach ‘til you drop.
Tag: Princeton
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Bach in Bloom at Princeton University
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Cover Me!
I scored the cover story in this month’s Princton Echo! Yes, it’s the same article that ran this week in the Princeton weekly U.S. 1, but there I got bumped from the cover by the indisputably more compelling subject of summer camps. Julian Grant’s new harpsichord concerto, “Vaudeville in Teal,” will receive its world premiere, with Mahan Esfahani the soloist, on concerts of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra at Richardson Auditorium this weekend (Saturday at 7:30 and Sunday at 4:00).
Tickets and information at princetonsymphony.org
Much more information in my article at https://www.communitynews.org/princetoninfo/artsandentertainment/grant-goes-for-baroque-in-new-harpsichord-concerto/article_94cf66e3-ae6b-4c7f-b193-2dc7fcdc2592.html -
Julian Grant Goes for Baroque with New Harpsichord Concerto in Princeton
As Director of Music at London’s St. Paul’s Girls’ School, Julian Grant was the successor of some rather estimable composers. “I had an office which had a big plaque right in from of my desk, saying, ‘In this room Gustav Holst wrote ‘The Planets’’ — which was not helpful,” he says with a laugh.
Grant, who is probably most notable for his 20 operas, has since settled in Princeton. His harpsichord concerto, “Vaudeville in Teal,” will receive its world premiere this weekend, on two concerts of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 4:00, at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium. Mahan Esfahani, one of the foremost proponents of the instrument, will be the soloist.
Also on the program will be two works indebted to music of the 18th century: a genuinely fun concerto for two oboes and orchestra, “Extra(ordinarily) Fancy),” by Princeton alumnus Viet Cuong (who also studied at Curtis), and the pseudo-Pergolesi ballet “Pulcinella,” by Igor Stravinsky. The latter will be played complete, as opposed to in its more familiar guise as a concert suite. The work is sunny, tuneful, and memorable, Stravinsky for people who think they don’t like Stravinsky. Rossen Milanov will conduct.
On a related note, Grant and Esfahani will discuss Grant’s harpsichord concerto, their creative partnership, and the process of shepherding a new work from written score to actual performance, at Princeton Public Library tomorrow evening at 6:30. The event is free. Attendees will have the opportunity to enter a drawing for tickets to the weekend concerts.
To learn more, visit princetonsymphony.org.
Oh, yeah! I also hope you’ll read my article in the Princeton weekly newspaper U.S. 1, out today.
https://www.communitynews.org/princetoninfo/artsandentertainment/grant-goes-for-baroque-in-new-harpsichord-concerto/article_94cf66e3-ae6b-4c7f-b193-2dc7fcdc2592.html -
Adieu to John Bertalot
It’s tough for me to keep up with everything sometimes, especially on a weekend when I want to promote my shows and I’ve got to be in New York for the day. So it’s only now that I’m getting around to posting about English organist and choir director John Bertalot, for 15 years director of music at Princeton’s Trinity Episcopal Church. Bertalot, who died on Saturday, founded the Princeton Singers in 1983.
Across the pond, he was organist and director of music at St Matthew’s Church, Northampton (1958-1964) and Blackburn Cathedral (1964-1982). He wrote several books on choral directing and singing.
In 1998, Bertalot was succeeded as director of the Princeton Singers by composer-conductor Steven Sametz. Under Sametz, the group, a professional chamber choir based at Trinity Church, also served as resident ensemble for the Lehigh University Summer Choral Composers Forum. The organization folded in August, after 41 years, due to “ongoing financial challenges… significantly intensified by the pandemic.”
At the time of his death, Bertalot, who was born in Maidstone, Kent, in 1931, was 94 years-old. It was difficult for me to find a good or interesting photo (beyond those that have already been shared by others), as sadly, it appears his website has expired. Here’s something of an informal one, with Bartelot in neither gown nor tie. Thankfully, there are still some decent videos posted on YouTube.
R.I.P.
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Bertalot at Blackburn (complete program in the description)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiSEicR9lt0&t
Bertalot at Trinity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22FS_48V6fE
With the Princeton Singers, Herbert Howells’ “Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing,” to the memory of JFK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3tXoLC2Fqg -
Einstein’s Unexpected Music Taste at Princeton
Yesterday, I had folks in from out of town and took them over to see Einstein’s furniture at Updike Farm on Quaker Road. Since 2004, the property has been owned by the Historical Society of Princeton.
I’d been there before, but yesterday was the first time I thought to lean in and take note of what was on Einstein’s turntable. By squinting, I could just about make out Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, but it was only by taking a photo, flipping it, and enlarging that I could make out the music: William Schuman’s Symphony No. 3! A most bizarre selection as, despite his friendship with Bohuslav Martinů and association with Arnold Schoenberg, from everything I’ve heard, Einstein was not really a contemporary music guy. He was all about the meat-and-potato classics. (He loved Haydn and Mozart.)
If this record was indeed from Einstein’s personal collection, it was a very interesting choice, making more of an impression on me than E = mc². But I am the first to admit, as a classical music lover at the science fair, I tend to look at things a little differently.
More than likely, someone who didn’t know William Schuman from Robert Schumann had selected it – if he or she even knew who Schumann was. I like to think the record was actually from Einstein’s collection and not just something from the period that somebody picked up at a yard sale. The docent, while friendly and attentive, didn’t seem to know anything about it. But I’m used to that.
In the same room, as part of an Innovators Gallery, there’s also some material on Freeman Dyson, one of Einstein’s colleagues at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study, who also happened to be the son of eminent English composer Sir George Dyson. Again, I appeared to be the only one with much interest in the connection (neither was it noted, that I could see, in the literature).
In his day, William Schumann was recognized as one of our great American symphonists. In particular, his Symphony No. 3 of 1941 was held up, alongside the corresponding symphonies of Roy Harris and Aaron Copland, as among the best this country had to offer. Schuman won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1943, became president of the Juilliard School in 1945, and president of Lincoln Center in 1961.
By coincidence, he was a student of Roy Harris, whose Symphony No. 3 is being performed this afternoon by the Princeton University Orchestra. The concert, a repeat of last night’s program, will be held at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium at 3:00. Also on the program will be Hector Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique.” Be there, or be square.
For tickets, visit
https://tickets.princeton.edu/
Discover Albert Einstein at Updike Farmstead
Ormandy conducts William Schuman’s Symphony No. 3
Article I wrote about Einstein’s musical activities and enthusiasms
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