The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center returns to Fairfield University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts on Saturday, March 18, at 8 p.m. in the second of a three-concert series. Guest artist is mezzo-soprano Phyllis Pancella.

David Shifrin, artistic director, has announced that the following artists will perform: Cho-Liang Lin, violin; Paul Neubauer, viola; Gary Hoffman, cello, and Andre-Michel Schub on piano. Highlights of the program include Beethoven's "Piano Trio in C Minor," Brahms' "Two Songs," Mascheroni's "Eternamente," Braga's "Angel's Serenade," Curtis' "Carmela P Canto Sorrentino" and Dvorak's "Piano Quartet in E-flat Major."

The "Piano Trio in C Minor" premiered in 1793 in Vienna at a concert to which the newcomer Beethoven invited his teacher and mentor Franz Joseph Haydn. The trios created a sensation and, with these works, the young composer was announced to the world and music was forever changed.

Lincoln Center Chamber Musicians
Angelo Mascheroni was born in Bergamo, Italy in 1855, studied under Delibes at the Paris Conservatoire and thereafter based his career in the French capital and London. Phyllis Pancella, a mezzo-sporano, will perform his composition, "Eternamente," a popular salon piece at the turn of the century, known in English as "For All Eternity."

Gaetano Braga studied at the Naples Conservatory and composed nine operas, two symphonies, two cello concertos, church music and chamber pieces. His legacy has largely dwindled to "The Angel's Serenade," the once-popular salon piece for voice, piano and cello, and sung at the Quick Center by Pancella.

Though largely self-taught, Ernesto De Curtis became one of the leading Neapolitan composers best-known for his "Come Back to Sorrento," which partakes of the same subject and musical idiom as "Carmela-Canto Sorrentino," also to be performed by Pancella in a tribute to Naples.

Saint Louis-born Phyllis Pancella has enjoyed an operatic career that has taken her to the major opera houses in the United States, Canada and France. She has also performed in concert with the nation's major symphonies including the National Symphony in Washington and the St. Louis Symphony. A chamber singer as well, Pancella is the recipient of several major awards and career grants.

Lincoln Center Chamber Musicians
Brahms completed his "Two Songs for Alto, Viola and Piano" when he was 51 years old and well settled into his bachelor's life. Titled "Resignation and Serenity" by one of his biographers, the music is eloquent testament to the maturity and stability Brahms won for himself in later years.

By the time Dvorak undertook his "Piano Quartet in E-flat Major" in 1889, he too was nearing 50 and had risen from his humble and impoverished beginnings to become one of the most respected musicians in his native Bohemia as well as Europe and America. This year was one of the most creative periods of his life as his opera "The Jacobin" debuted, his orchestral concert in Dresden received widespread acclaim and he completed his lyrical "Symphony No. 8" in just two months.

Tickets for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center concert are $30 with discounts for seniors, students, subscribers and groups. An Art-to-Heart pre-concert discussion with New York Times journalist Robert Sherman will take place at 7 p.m. For more information call the box office at (203) 254-4010 or toll-free at 1-877-ARTS-396.

Posted On: 02-15-2000 09:02 AM

Volume: 32 Number: 176