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News

Music presents October concert schedule

  • The Talich Quartet will present the second concert in the annual Slee/Beethoven String Quartet Cycle.

By SUE WUETCHER
Published: October 7, 2010

The Department of Music will present a full concert schedule this month, including a performance by the internationally regarded Talich Quartet from Czechoslovakia in the second concert in the annual Slee/Beethoven String Quartet Cycle.

The Talich will perform at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 29 in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus, and also will host a master class earlier that day, from 2-4 p.m., in Baird Recital Hall, 250 Baird Hall, North Campus. The master class is free and open to the public.

The concert schedule for October also will include performances by pianist Stephen Manes, professor emeritus and former chair of the UB music department; Norwegian contemporary ensemble Cikada; and violinist Tim Fain, who will give a solo recital, as well as perform with the Slee Sinfonietta, UB’s professional chamber orchestra.

This year’s Slee/Beethoven cycle is particularly noteworthy because each quartet hails from a distinct international city. In addition to the Talich Quartet of Prague, other quartets performing include the Borealis String Quartet of Vancouver (which opened the cycle on Sept. 24), Ysaye Quartet of Paris (March 4), Leipzig String Quartet of Leipzig (March 7), Vogler Quartet of Berlin (March 22) and the Henschel Quartet of Munich (April 1).

The members of the Talich Quartet—Jan Talich and Petr Macecek, violins; Vladimir Bukac, viola; and Petr Prause, cello—will perform Beethoven’s Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 74 (“The Harp”); Quartet in G Major, Op. 18, No 2; and Quartet in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131.

Advance tickets are $12 for general admission; $9 for UB faculty/staff/alumni and senior citizens; and $5 for students. Tickets at the door are $20, $15 and $8.

The Talich Quartet is considered one of Europe’s finest chamber ensembles and the embodiment of the great Czech musical tradition. It is regularly invited to prestigious chamber music festivals, such as the Pablo Casals Festival in Prades, Prague Spring Music Festival, Europalia Festival, Printemps des Arts in Monte Carlo, Tibor Varga Festival of Music and the International String Quartet Festival in Ottawa. It also frequently visits such venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall, le Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Salle Gaveau in Paris, as well as London’s Wigmore Hall.

The Talich’s recordings of the complete string quartets by Felix Mendelssohn, released on the Calliope label between 2001-04, have been widely praised, and its Janácek recording was honored by Gramophone with a nomination for the best chamber recording of 2006—the only recording by a string quartet to be selected.

Stephen Manes will present an all-Hungarian program, titled “From Ligeti to Liszt: A Hungarian Retrospective,” at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 15 in Lippes Concert Hall.

Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for faculty/staff/alumni, senior citizens and non-UB students, and free to UB students with ID.

Manes has performed in most major U.S. cities, as well as in such European centers as London, Berlin, Amsterdam, the Hague, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Vienna. While at UB, he presented the complete cycle of Beethoven piano sonatas three times.

Equally distinguished for his formidable technique and interpretive refinement, Manes has appeared numerous times with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and has performed with the New York Philharmonic; the Pittsburgh, National, Detroit, Baltimore and Denver symphonies; and at the Boston Esplanade, and has played under such notable conductors as Michael Tilson Thomas, Neville Marriner, Arthur Fiedler, Brian Priestman, Sergiu Comissiona, Christopher Keene, Semyon Bychkov and Maximiano Valdes.

Norway’s leading contemporary ensemble, Cikada, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 21 in Lippes Concert Hall.

The group also will present a composer workshop session at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 20 in Lippes Concert Hall. The workshop is free and open to the public.

The concert is presented by the Department of Music in conjunction with the Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music.

The program for Cikada Ensemble’s concert includes the works of contemporary chamber music composers from Norway and Germany, as well as the world premiere of Requiescat by UB faculty composer David Felder.

Advance tickets are $12 for general admission; $9 for UB faculty/staff/alumni and senior citizens; and $5 for students. Tickets at the door are $20, $15 and $8.

Founded in Oslo in 1989, Cikada is considered one of Europe's leading contemporary music ensembles.  In addition to performing acoustically, Cikada works regularly with electro-acoustic music and has collaborated with jazz musicians, visual artists and video designers.

It focuses on works by significant Norwegian and Scandinavian composers, as well as leading international composers. Cikada actively commissions and premieres new works, which continuously expands its repertoire. The ensemble’s long-term objective is to work with composers to develop new pieces, portrait concerts and interdisciplinary projects, thus helping to shape the future of western art music.

Throughout the years, Cikada has worked closely with renowned composers, including Bent Sørensen in the creation of “Night Windows,” and British-born Richard Barret in a trilogy of works for the ensemble and the instillation project “Dark Matter.”

Violinist Tim Fain will visit UB later this month for two performances: a solo recital with accompanist Cory Smythe on piano as part of the Slee/Visiting Artist Series, and a concert with the Slee Sinfonietta, led by conductor/composer Matthias Pintscher, on Oct. 26.

The second concert is co-presented with The Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music.

Both concerts will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus. Advance tickets are $12 for general admission; $9 for UB faculty/staff/alumni and senior citizens; and $5 for students. Tickets at the door are $20, $15 and $8.

Fain also will host a string/chamber music master class from 1-3 p.m. Oct. 24 in Baird Recital Hall. The class is free and open to the public.

The program for Fain’s Oct. 23 recital, part of the Slee/Visiting Artist Series, features Beethoven’s Sonata No. 5 in F Major, Op. 24 ("Spring"); Aaron Jay Kernis’ Air; Bach’s Chaconne; Gabriel Fauré’s Sonata No. 1 in A major, Op. 13; and Romanza Andaluza, Op. 22, No. 1 and Introduction and Tarantella, Op. 43, both by Pablo de Sarasate.

In the Oct. 26 concert with the Slee Sinfonietta, Fain will be featured as the soloist in John Corigliano’s suite from the award-winning 1998 film “The Red Violin.” The program also includes Aaron Copland’s perennial favorite Appalachian Spring. Additionally, Matthias Pintscher will conduct one of his own compositions.

Bass-baritone Evan Hughes will join Fain and the Sinfonietta for the performance.

Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, Fain was selected as one of Symphony magazine’s “Up-and-Coming Young Musicians” of 2006, and the next year was a Strad magazine “Pick of Up and Coming Musicians.”

Recipient of the coveted Young Concert Artists International Award, he has appeared as soloist with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Mexico City Philharmonic, New York Chamber Symphony at Alice Tully Hall, Curtis Symphony Orchestra at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center and many others internationally in works ranging from Beethoven and Tchaikovsky to Danielpour and Corigliano.

His recitals have taken him to the Kennedy Center, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Boston’s Gardner Museum, Mexico’s Festival de Musica de Camera, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, California’s Carmel Mozart Society, and New York’s 92nd Street Y. He has toured with Musicians from Marlboro, performed as a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and appeared at the Spoleto, Ravinia, Moab, and Santa Fe Festivals.

Tickets for all Department of Music concerts may be obtained at the Slee Hall box office, the Center for the Arts box office and at all Ticketmaster outlets, including Ticketmaster.com.