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Filament Baroque, Lyric Fest, Ensemble Arts, and more
BSR Classical Interludes, more in September 2024
Gail Obenreder
Presenters and musicians are going wild this fall! There’s a plethora of concerts in the region this month—a dozen on this coming weekend alone. Regretfully, when the schedule is so packed, we can’t preview them all, but here’s a sampling. There’s one of JS Bach’s great works, a keyboard conversation, a trio of rangy gems, European treasures, and music from Tin Pan Alley. Plus, a free fall preview festival as well. Whew!
Filament Baroque: A Musical Offering
Friday, September 20, 7pm
University Lutheran, 3637 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia
Saturday, September 21, 7pm
Immanuel Episcopal Church, Strand and Harmony Streets, Old New Castle
Sunday, September 22, 5pm
Church of the Redeemer, 230 Pennswood Road, Bryn Mawr
Filament opens its season exploring a famous Johann Sebastian Bach musical escapade. In 1747, Bach visited King Frederick the Great, where his son, Carl Phillip Emmanuel, was employed as a court musician. Curious to test his contrapuntal prowess, Frederick presented the elder Bach with a musical subject and asked him to improvise two fugues, one in three parts and one in six. Declining the second, Bach took Frederick's subject home and created The Musical Offering. Guest artist Héloïse Degrugillier (flute) joins the trio—Evan Few (violin), Elena Kauffman (gamba), and John Walthausen (harpsichord)—for this fascinating work.
Ensemble Arts Philly: Fall Arts Fest
Saturday, September 21, 11am-3pm
Commonwealth Plaza and the Perelman Stage, 300 South Broad Street, Philadelphia
Celebrate the start of the new and busy arts season with the fourth annual Philadelphia Fall Arts Fest. This free event features a diverse sampling of festival-style performances on multiple stages, bringing together over 50 arts organizations from around the region. There will be highlights from their resident companies, including Opera Philadelphia, the No Name Pops, Philadelphia Ballet, and lots more, along with family-friendly activities, ticket deals and giveaways, and a special Philadelphia Orchestra performance.
Night Music: Keyboard Conversation: Music of Mozart & the Bach Sons
Saturday, September 21, 7pm
Settlement Music School, 416 Queen Street, Philadelphia
Sunday, September 22, 3pm
Church of the Good Shepherd, 1116 Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr
Fortepianist Sylvia Berry joins the Night Music ensemble to explore what “chamber music” meant during the time of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Also called Hausmusik (or house music), this was what you played at home. Night Music’s core trio, Karen Dekker (violin and viola), Steven Zohn (flute and co-director), and Heather Miller Lardin (double bass and co-director), is augmented by Berry, Aniela Eddy (violin), Amy Leonard (viola), and Ellen Exner (oboe). At Settlement Music School, this concert will be pay-what-you-can with no tickets required.
Dolce Suono: Adventures with the Trio
Sunday, September 22, 3pm
Trinity at 22nd, 2212 Spruce Street, Philadelphia
Fresh from a performance at New York’s Cutting-Edge Concert series (on September 17), the three musicians of Dolce Suono—Mimi Stillman (flute), Gabriel Cabezas (cello) and Charles Abramovic (piano)—will kick off their Philadelphia season with a Rittenhouse concert that will see the trio playing music by Weber, Martinu, and Ned Rorem, all staples in the repertoire for flute, cello, and piano. And you can listen to a concert preview here.
Music at the Mansion: Treasures of France and Spain
Wednesday, September 25, 7pm
Woodlands, 4000 Woodland Avenue, Philadelphia
Under the artistic direction of Amy Leonard, the Woodlands presents these concerts in the beautiful Hamilton Mansion’s ballroom, a space created in the 1780s specifically for music and dancing. This concert features the trio of Leonard (viola), Eve Friedman (flute), and Mindy Cutcher (harp) in an evening of colorful music from France and Spain that includes works both large and small by François Devienne, Claude Debussy, Manuel de Falla, Gabriel Fauré, and Jacques Ibert.
Lyric Fest: Play a Simple Melody
Saturday, September 28, 3pm
Academy of Vocal Arts, 1920 Spruce Street, Philadelphia
Sunday, September 29, 3pm
Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church (Chapel), 625 Montgomery Avenue, Bryn Mawr
Lyric Fest opens its season with a concert of true American classics—popular songs that came to define America at home and abroad and captured the national mood of a century ago. This concert of music from Tin Pan Alley will include works by Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Dorothy Fields, Rodgers & Hart, and many more. Laura Ward (on the piano) will be joined by Jennifer Aylmer (soprano), Suzanne DuPlantis (mezzo-soprano), and Randall Scarlata (baritone) for a truly tuneful afternoon. Tickets are available at the door.
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