15th Season 2024-2025
Sunday, May 18th at 3pm
Kinderhook Reformed Church, Kinderhook, NY
Spirited–in every sense!
Mendelssohn: “Italian” Symphony
Rossini: Stabat Mater
Broad Street Orchestra
Broad Street Chorale
David Smith Artistic Director and Conductor
- Caroline Dunigan soprano
- Raphaella Medina soprano
- Eric Finbarr Carey tenor
- Tyler Duncan baritone
“Spirited – in every sense!” On Sunday May 18th Concerts in the Village presents its 60th program with major works of Mendelssohn and Rossini.
CITV’s Broad Street Orchestra opens the concert with Mendelssohn’s well-known “Italian” Symphony of 1833. Clearly inspired by all things Italian, while in Rome and in the midst of the work’s composition the composer wrote to his sister “It will be the jolliest piece I have ever done, especially the last movement.” Considering the elegant, sun-drenched sweep of the symphony’s opening and the dance-like frenzy of its conclusion, Mendelssohn’s personal assessment seems indisputable. And for nearly two-hundred years listeners have enthusiastically agreed.The “Italian” Symphony’s popularity has never wavered.
Composed more than a decade following his 39th and last opera, Rossini’s stunning, highly operatic Stabat Mater follows. However contemplative the liturgical subject may seem, this is a passionate and musically demanding work of great emotional intensity that famously holds nothing back – vocally, chorally and orchestrally. In many respects the Stabat Mater became Verdi’s model for his own Requiem. In fact, Verdi’s well-known work began its life inspired by the first anniversary of Rossini’s death and the great admiration he held for the older composer. Conducting the Italian premiere, none other than Donizetti remarked “The enthusiasm is impossible to describe. Even at the final rehearsal, which Rossini attended, in the middle of the day, he was accompanied to his home to the shouting of more than 500 persons.”
Featured will be CITV’s primary ensembles, the Broad Street Orchestra and Broad Street Chorale, along with return engagements by three soloists: soprano Caroline Dunigan, tenor Eric Finbarr Carey, and bass Tyler Duncan. Chilean-American mezzo-soprano Raphaella Medina will be having her CITV debut. All four soloists have performed both in North America and in Europe. Among their many credits, Dunigan has been an opera fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and at Chautauqua, Carey has been a Tanglewood Vocal Fellow and will be a vocal artist at the Marlboro Music Festival this coming summer, and Duncan has sung throughout the United States and Canada, including the Metropolitan Opera.
CITV Artistic Director David Smith will conduct. He comments, “For this thrilling concert we gather 65 very talented musicians. The vocal demands of Rossini’s engaging Stabat Mater are legendary. I am delighted to have with us four outstanding soloists and assure our listeners a striking musical afternoon.” The Rossini performance is believed to be a long overdue premiere in the region.
Suggested contribution $25, with students and children free.
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Historic Note: Concerts in the Village had to postpone the concert of April 26, 2025 due to last-minute international travel complications. Ms. Zhou and Ms. Silver look forward to their performances when the concert can be rescheduled.
15th Season 2024-2025
SOLO JOURNEYS with BACH
Goldberg Variations
Sonata for Solo Violin No. 1
Sophia Zhou piano
Elizabeth Silver violin
POSTPONED TBA (new date to be announced)
3:00pm Saturday April 26th
Van Buren Hall, 6 Chatham Street, Kinderhook NY 12106. Lift available.
On Saturday, April 26th Concerts in the Village offers its 60th concert with important solo works of J. S. Bach: The Goldberg Variations, a genuine milestone in the entire history of music, and the intensely transparent Sonata No. 1 for solo violin. For these two journeys CITV welcomes pianist Sophia Zhou, and Broad Street Orchestra Concertmaster Elizabeth Silver.
- Of all his brilliant compositions for keyboard, none presents Bach’s emotional power and the creative genius of his writing more completely than The Goldberg Variations. An opening theme of striking simplicity, although uncertain origin, is subjected to 30 reworkings, no two of which are alike. The demands upon the player, including exceptional virtuosity and relentless concentration, are legendary in the annals of keyboard performance. And in the end, when all comes magically together with the memorable return of the opening, the listener fully appreciates the very special journey he has taken.
Bach’s deservedly well-known first sonata for solo violin is equally fascinating for the listener. As with The Goldberg Variations attention is drawn to both performer virtuosity and compositional beauty. Throughout the sonata’s four movements Bach ingeniously balances both the vertical and horizontal dimensions of his writing, a feature present in each of his sonatas and partitas for violin. Neither harmony (the vertical dimension) nor counterpoint (the horizontal dimension) takes precedence. When performed with clarity and directness – no modest achievement – the listener’s experience is not easily forgotten.
For CITV, pianist Sophia Zhou (www.sophiazhoupiano.com) is a returning artist. Her widely recognized talent has taken her throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, and the major concert halls of America.
Violinist Elizabeth Silver is well-known to regional audiences, as a regularly performing soloist, chamber musician and member of the Albany Symphony and Glimmerglass Orchestras.
CITV Artistic Director David Smith comments, “I am especially pleased that for our 60th concert we will be offering these important solo works by Bach – performed by two remarkably sensitive and experienced artists in the perfect acoustics of Kinderhook’s Van Buren Hall. What a fine celebration it will be!”
Van Buren Hall, 6 Chatham Street, Kinderhook NY 12106. Lift available.
Suggested contribution $ 25, with students and children free.
Follow CITV on Facebook.
Reserve Seats (payment at the door)
15th Season 2024-2025
Bach: Goldberg Variations
Bach: Sonata for Solo Violin No. 1
Sophia Zhou piano Elizabeth Silver violin
3:00pm Saturday April 26th Van Buren Hall, Kinderhook NY
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4 in A major (“Italian”)
Rossini: Stabat Mater
The Broad Street Chorale The Broad Street Orchestra
Caroline Dunigan soprano Paulina Swierczek soprano
Eric Finbarr Carey tenor Tyler Duncan bass
David Smith conductor
3:00pm May 18th Kinderhook Reformed Church, Kinderhook NY
Songs of Schubert, Poulenc and Britten
Eric Finbarr Carey tenor Erika Switzer piano
3:00pm May 25th Van Buren Hall, Kinderhook NY
In the Village of Kinderhook
Following enthusiastically received programs in October, November and December, save these three April and May dates for the continuing 15th Anniversary Season 2024-2025 of Concerts in the Village. CITV’s fourteen preceding seasons have offered over 200 instrumental and vocal works from the recital, chamber, choral, orchestral, and operatic repertoire. Back in 2010 such an achievement could hardly have been imagined!
On April 26th CITV offers its 60th concert with two remarkable solo works of J. S. Bach: The Goldberg Variations, an undisputed milestone in the history of music, and the intensely transparent Sonata No. 1 for solo violin. For this journey we welcome pianist Sophia Zhou, and CITV Concertmaster Elizabeth Silver. Zhou is a returning artist, whose widely recognized talent has taken her throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, and the major concert halls of America. Silver is well-known to regional audiences, as a regularly performing soloist, chamber musician and member of the Albany Symphony and Glimmerglass Orchestras.
On May 18th an especially exciting program features Mendelssohn’s spirited Symphony No. 4 (the “Italian”) and Rossini’s stunningly dramatic, in effect operatic, Stabat Mater. Featured will be CITV’s primary ensembles, the Broad Street Orchestra and Broad Street Chorale, along with return engagements by four outstanding soloists: soprano Caroline Dunigan, soprano Paulina Swierczek, tenor Eric Finbarr Carey, and bass Tyler Duncan. Artistic Director David Smith conducts. The Rossini performance is believed to be a long overdue premiere in the region, for which CITV gathers over 70 vocal and instrumental musicians.
On May 25th tenor Eric Finbarr Carey is joined by pianist Erika Switzer in a recital of works by Schubert, Poulenc and Britten. Recently returned from Europe, Carey has been a Tanglewood Vocal Fellow, and this coming summer is honored to be an artist at the Marlboro Music Festival. Erika Switzer, internationally active as a pianist, teacher and arts administrator, performs widely, especially as a vocal collaborator throughout the United States and Canada. She is a member of the music faculty of Bard College.
I hope you will be with us as often as possible!
David Smith
Artistic Director, Conductor and Founder
Concerts in the Village
Kinderhook, NY
www.concertsinthevillage.org
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