A Big Bouquet
Fritz Kreisler opens Evening Music with “Love Sends a Little Gift of Flowers,” leading us to a strictly instrumental version of the ‘Flower Song’ from Bizet’s “Carmen.” Following “From Grandmother’s Garden,” by Amy Beach, Joanne Polk on the piano, we hear harpist Cheryl Ann Fulton play the traditional “Flowers of the West.” The final floral offering is Francaix’s “L’horloge de flore” (The Flower Clock), which features oboist Lajos Lenczes. Whether or not the evening has brought virtue via music—that’s up to you! In our second hour, Arvo Pärt’s “Berliner Messe” (1992) is brought to us by Paul Hillier, who leads both the Pro Arte Singers and the Theatre of Voices in this magnificent reworking of a much sparer original. Then we’ll hear two disparate works featuring the violin: Leila Josefowicz is the soloist in Chausson’s “Poeme” for violin and orchestra, while Andrew Manze dominates as soloist and conductor in Bach’s Violin Concerto No. 2.
In the evening’s last half, you’ll enjoy Leif Ove Andsnes’s interpretation of the Chopin Sonata No. 1 in C Minor. Handel and Haydn come next, as we bring you George Frederick’s “Laudate pueri Dominum” and Franz Joseph’s Notturno No. 5 for the King of Naples. We wind down with a 20th-century wrap-up: Douglas Moore’s Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, Arnold Schoenberg’s Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra, and Webern’s opus 24 Chamber Concerto.
