The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMSLC) will play a concert of Beethoven and Brahms at Fairfield University's Quick Center for the Arts on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 8 p.m. Featured in the performance will be Jeffrey Kahane, piano, Cho-Liang Lin, violin and David Finckel, cello. There will be a pre-concert Art-to-Heart from 7-7:40 p.m. with journalist Robert Sherman. Tickets are $35. The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is an Arts & Minds presentation.

Upon the death of Beethoven, Franz Schubert asked, "Who can do anything after him?" No one was more expected to answer that question than Johannes Brahms, who was widely regarded as the obvious heir to Beethoven's legacy. The CMSLC's Winter Festival reveals how courageously Brahms received the mantle of Beethoven, pairing striking parallels in their repertoire.

The program features Beethoven Trio in D major for Piano, Violin and Cello, Op. 70, No. 1, "Ghost" (1808); Beethoven Trio in E-flat major for Piano, Violin and Cello, Op. 70, No. 2 (1808) and Brahms Trio No. 1 in B major for Piano, Violin and Cello, Op. 8 (1853-54, rev. 1889).

Cellist Finckel's multifaceted career as concert performer, recording artist, educator, arts administrator and cultural entrepreneur places him in the ranks of today's most influential classical musicians. He has been hailed as a "world class soloist" ( Denver Post ) and "one of the top ten, if not top five, cellists in the world today" ( Nordwest Zeitung , Germany). In high demand as a chamber musician, Finckel appears in over one hundred concerts each season in recital with pianist Wu Han (CMSLC co-artistic director) and as cellist of the Grammy® Award-winning Emerson String Quartet at the most prestigious venues and concert series across the United States and around the world. His activities as a concerto soloist include performances and recordings of the Dvorak Concerto, John Harbison Concerto, and Augusta Read Thomas's Ritual Incantations.

Taiwanese-American violinist Lin is praised for the eloquence of his playing and for the outstanding musicianship that marks his performances. This season, in addition to concerts in the United States, Canada, Japan, Sweden, New Zealand, and China, he completes a decade as music director of La Jolla SummerFest. He recently presented the world premiere of Lalo Schifrin's violin concerto with Norway's Bergen Philharmonic and an album of Bright Sheng's violin music for the Naxos label is due for release during this season.

As a soloist, Lin has premiered concertos by Tan Dun, Joel Hoffman, Christopher Rouse, Elie Siegmeister, Bright Sheng, George Tsontakis, George Walker, and Chen Yi. The winner of such awards as Gramophone 's Record of the Year and two Grammy® nominations, he was honored as Musical America 's Instrumentalist of the Year in 2000.

Born in Los Angeles in 1956, Kahane began classical piano studies at age five with Howard Weisel. At age fourteen he was accepted as a scholarship pupil by the great pianist Jakob Gimpel, whom he credits as one of the most profound influences on his vision of music as a vehicle for narrative, poetic expression and ethical purpose.

After his sophomore year, Kahane left high school to attend the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. While in San Francisco he began to play chamber music professionally, played keyboard instruments in the San Francisco Symphony, began to explore jazz, and played in the pit for a touring Broadway musical. His pianistic career took a major turn when he was a finalist in the 1981 Van Cliburn Competition. In 1983 he won the Grand Prize in the Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Israel.

Kahane is a conductor and has made guest appearances with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony and others. He is music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and artistic director of the Green Music Festival in Sonoma County. This season, Kahane and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra joined forces to perform all twenty-three of the original Mozart Piano Concerti over the course of two seasons.

Tickets are available at fairfield.edu/quick or by calling the Box Office at (203) 254-4010. The toll free number is 1-877-ARTS-396. Special offers and discounts are available through the Quick Center's e-mail list. Join, by contacting boxoffice@quickcenter.com . Become a fan of the Quick Center for the Arts on Facebook and keep up-to-date with the latest performance news, plus special offers and discounts. Find the Quick Center at www.facebook.com/FairfieldQuickCenter.

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Directions: Fairfield University is located off I-95, exit 22 at 1073 North Benson Road, Fairfield, CT 06824. Access to the Quick Center for the Arts is through the Barlow Road gate at 200 Barlow Road. Special Note: From Oct. 4, 2010 through June 30, 2012, the southern end of North Benson Road (Rt. 135) will be closed to traffic on nights and weekends. Round Hill Road intersects with Barlow and provides access to the Quick Center for the Arts.

Photo Credit for Cho-Liang Lin: Paul Body
Photo Credit for Jeffrey Kahane: Contributed

Posted On: 01-25-2011 10:01 AM

Volume: 43 Number: 175