Falmouth Chamber Players Fall Musicale
The Falmouth Chamber Players Orchestra, John Yankee, music director, presents a Fall Musicale on Sunday, September 29, at 4 PM at Cape Cod Conservatory, 60 Highfield Drive, in Falmouth.
Orchestra members and friends will present a selection of familiar and rarely heard chamber music works by contemporary, classical, and Renaissance composers.
Debbe Carlisle will perform one of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s most famous pieces, his Prelude in C sharp minor, first performed by Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), when he was 19, on September 20, 1892 at the Moscow Electrical Exhibition.
The piece begins with a memorable, dark three-note motif that is echoed throughout. The prelude has often been used in works of popular culture. In the Marx Brothers movie, “A Day at the Races” (1937), Harpo plays it with such energy that the piano keys explode and the whole instrument collapses. It has also been heard in numerous television shows and movies, and incorporated into other musical works from rock to jazz to hip hop.
Carlisle is a former attorney who started out as a pianist in her teens and 20s, traveling with touring groups that played Broadway shows in local venues, including the Cape's Melody Tent. Shortly after retiring from her law career and moving to the Cape, she reconnected with her love of playing music.
The trumpet will be featured in Baroque composer Giuseppe Torelli’s (1658-1709) lively and joyful Sinfonia in D. The work was composed for “natural” trumpet, a valveless brass instrument frequently used for chamber music from the pre-Baroque through the Romantic period.
Richard Bahman, principal trumpet for the Falmouth Chamber Players Orchestra, will play a piccolo trumpet in this piece, accompanied by Laura Sonnichsen and Jo Anne Caputo on violin, Beth Giuffrida on string bass, and Fritz Sonnichsen on harpsichord.
“Melodies from Carmen” by Georges Bizet (1838-1875), arranged Louis Victor Saar (1868-1937), will be performed by a quintet: Lorrie Hassan on flute, Laura Sonnichsen and Carol Rizzoli on violin, Beth Giuffrida on string bass, and Fritz Sonnichsen on piano.
One of the most frequently performed operas, “Carmen” been praised for its "combination in abundance of striking melody, deft harmony and perfectly judged orchestration," and the skill with which Bizet brought out the emotions of his characters.
Lorrie Hassan will also perform Ingolf Dahl’s “Variations on a Swedish Folk Tune.” Dahl (1912-1970) was born in Germany to a Swedish family and later moved to the United States, where he became successful as a film and radio arranger. His music is American in style, with Central European influences and especially well-regarded by wind instrumentalists for his compositions for band and other wind ensembles.
Jan Elliot, recorder; Molly Johnston, viola da gamba; and Fritz Sonnichsen, harpsichord, will perform French composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier’s Trio Sonata in A minor, an elegant and charming piece—decidedly French. Its three movements are playful, melancholy, and optimistic, by turn.
Boismortier (1689-1755) was a very prolific Baroque composer of instrumental music. He was one of the first composers to support himself with music sales, rather than relying on a patron.
Joyce Gindra, oboe; Dick Payne, flute; Debbe Carlisle, piano, will perform “Pavane Melancholique” by Kees Schoonenbeek (born 1947, a contemporary pianist and composer in the Netherlands.
Violinist Carol Rizzoli and cellist Elizabeth Kushigian will perform two pieces. The first is a Baroque work, Duet for Violin and Piano, Largo, by Francesco Giuliani (1760-1825) and the second is a contemporary piece by Rick Sowash (b. 1950) called “Convivial Suite: Fugue, Blues, March.”
Sowash describes his music as falling “squarely within the very listenable, modern American tradition of Gershwin, Ives, and Copland,” with influences of his father’s French homeland, and his mother’s Eastern European heritage.
Sarah Sadler, of the Falmouth Chorale, will sing “Come Again, Sweet Love,” a bittersweet love song by Renaissance composer John Dowland (1563-1626).
Henry Duckham will play the Clarinet Sonata by Camille Saint-Saëns, accompanied on piano by Stephanie Weaver, who will also play a piano solo: “Caprice d’après le bal masqué,” by Francis Poulenc.
Melanie Hayn will play an oboe solo.
Admission is by donation. The suggested donation is $15 for adults and $5 for students.
For more information, contact Fritz Sonnichsen at 508-274-2632, email FCPO@FalmouthChamberPlayers.org, or visit
www.FalmouthChamberPlayers.org.
