With three major high-quality musical productions and several recitals on the calendar, it looks like this might be the stellar week of the year for classcial music at Harvard.
Mstislav Rostropovich, the great Soviet cellist-conductor who yesterday dropped his suit-and cello cases in the Leverett House suite where he will live for the remainder of the week, has promised to share some of his riches with Harvard audiences. On Saturday afternoon he will conduct a master class in Sanders with four undergraduate cellists.
One warning: don't come expecting to hear recipes for great cello playing, or even isolated ingredients. Rostropovich is not only a great musician, but also a great charmer, and one can never gues what means he'll use to captivate and educate his audience. (At a Juilliard master class last fall, Rostropovich asked the audience to allow him his "quota of silliness." He filled at least that.) At any rate, the class will undoubtedly be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, if only to hear him fiddle with the instrument.
A program of Beethoven warhorses will feature the familiar/familial Harvard trio of Richard Kogan '77, piano; Lynn Chang, 75, violin; and Yo-Yo Ma '76, cello, on Friday night in Sanders. This weekend may be an endurance test for Ma who will perform three times in four days. Not that he sours with fatigue, but chances are that you will catch him at his freshest on Friday evening.
The legendary conductor/impressarios/grad student director Gerald Moshell, who, in his eighth year here has become something of an institution in Harvard musical life, has organized another extravagant concert--this time, of what he calles "dynamite and accessible" 20th century concertos. Part of Moshell's magical touch is that despite the limits of rehearsal time and space, he always manages to pull off successful large-scale productions, replete with taste and finesse. This Saturday night's concert will feature the Prokofieff Third Piano Concerto, the Strauss Oboe Concerto, and works for chamber ensemble by Stravinsky and Grandjany. In order to accommodate everyone in the Kirkland JCR, the program will be done twice, at 8 and 11:15.
FRIDAY
Richard Kogan, piano; Lynn Chang, violin; and Yo-Yo Ma, cello, perform Beethoven warhorses. Sanders Theater, 8:30.
David Schulenberg, harpsichord, plays renaissance and baroque classics. Dunster House Library, 5:30.
Cambridge folk artists Cathy Winter, Drew Paton, Bob Holmes, and Marcia Taylor perform original music. Adams House Lower Common Room, 8:00.
William Owen, organ, interprets compositions of Bach, Baddings and Hindemith. Memorial Church, 8:00.
This week may be an endurance test for cellist Yo-Yo Ma '76 who will make three public appearances here in four days.
SATURDAY
Concerto Concert with the Kirkland Festival Orchestra featuring Gerry Moshell, conductor Stephen Drury, piano and Kip Wilkins, oboe. Prokofieff Piano Concerto No. 3, Strauss Oboe Concerto, plus chamber works for harp and tenor by Grandjany and Stravinsky. Kirkland House JCR, 8:00 and 11:15.
Stephen Crist, piano, performs pieces of Chopin, Bach and Beethoven. Dunster House Library, 5:30.
Yale Russian Chorus sings classics and folk songs of the Soviet Union, Sanders Theater, 8:30.
Master Class with Mstislav Rostropovich and cellists Greg Colburn '79 Cindy Forbes '79, David Commanday '76 and Yo-Yo Ma, '76. Sanders Theater, 2:00.
SUNDAY
Heidi Ratner, flute; Michael Loucks, piano; Charles Kletzch, voice and piano perform compositions of Brahms, Ibert and Kletzsch. Dunster House Library, 3:00. James Meadors, lute, plays sixteenth century English lute songs. Eliot House Library, 8:00.
Bicentennial Festival Orchestra under Robert Hart Baker, conductor, and members of the Yale Philharmonic and Symphony Orchestras salute famous American composers who taught at Harvard or Yale. Symphony Hall., Boston, 3:00.
MONDAY
Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Lydia Artimiw, piano, interpret works of Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Schumann. Cabot Living Room, South House, 8:30.
