Artist Showcase
Lustrous Sounds

The final Artist Showcase of the 2024 Festival presents virtuosity in many guises. New SMF faculty member Benjamin Beilman, hailed for his “dreamy lyricism” and “heated intensity” (The New York Times), performs Johann Sebastian Bach’s unaccompanied Partita No. 3, incorporating improvised ornamentation Bach would have expected, but which is highly unusual today. SMF faculty revel in the jazzy Sextet Francis Poulenc wrote in 1932 as “an homage to the wind instruments I have loved from the moment I began composing.” Finnish American composer Ilari Kaila’s entrancing Hum and Drum (2017), performed by Karen Ouzounian and Jean Schneider, fuses romantic lyricism and mesmerizing drones. Ernst von Dohnányi’s Serenade possesses drama belied by its seemingly lighthearted title.

Program

J.S. BACH  Violin Partita No. 3
POULENC    Sextet
ILARI KAILA  Hum and Drum
DOHNÁNYI  Serenade

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