Hadley McCarroll, piano
Helmut Lachenmann - Ein Kinderspiel (Child’s Play)
Elliott Carter - Two Thoughts about the Piano
Claude Debussy - Douze Etudes selections
Monica Scott - World Premiere
Matt Ingalls - Minimalistic Etude #2
J. S. Bach - Prelude in D major, BWV 850;
- Sinfonia in F minor, BWV 795;
- Prelude in C-sharp minor, BWV 849;
- Sinfonia in B minor, BWV 801
Hailed for her “…lively and exhilarating…” pianism (San Francisco Classical Voice), acclaimed pianist Hadley McCarroll returns to the stage of Old First Concerts with a new program celebrating the deep, personal histories and quixotic twists of fate that influenced four brilliant composers to write extraordinary works for piano, pairing them with two new world premieres from two Bay Area artists in their prime. J. S. Bach, Elliott Carter, Claude Debussy, and Helmut Lachenmann may seem to have nothing in common, but they are deeply bonded by their profound accomplishment as composers of exquisitely personal, humanistic masterpieces. At a moment when many may feel connections in our communities fraying, hearing these wildly different sounding works in context with each other invites us all to listen carefully and draw ourselves more closely together. In the universe of this program, simple childhood songs share the stage with wildly complex, adult musical virtuosity – the ornate rigor of the high Baroque is living next door to the sonic austerity of American post-modernism, where the audience is asked to listen in a very heightened and immediate way. Kicking off with four short, late works of Bach, the program includes Lachenmann’s Ein Kinderspiel, Carter’s Two Thoughts for the Piano, and selections from Claude Debussy’s Douze Etudes. Commissioned premieres by local composer/performers Monica Scott and
Matt Ingalls tie us back to the visions of composer/performers living here in the Bay Area who are helping to shape the musical identity of our community.
Cost: $5 - 25