Coming up in Philly music: Dolce Suono presents an October double-header

Mimi Stillman keeps busy. On October 14, her Dolce Suono Ensemble will open its new season with a program devoted to a bevy of piano trios. And ten days later, in a free concert at the Free Library’s main branch, Dolce Suono will inaugurate a three-year project designed to bring chamber music to new audiences. (Stillman will be doing a few other things in October, like a solo appearance with a Mexican orchestra, but these are the two events of most interest to local audiences.)

The October 24 concert, kicking off the three-year series, will be an audience participation event. Dolce Suono recently asked chamber-music enthusiasts to vote for their favorite pieces, and this show at the library will unveil some of the winners. The concert will spotlight a good selection of the A-list musicians Dolce Suono has attracted in a program that should be unpredictably varied, given the nature of most arts audiences.

Why try chamber music?

Many people pass up chamber-music concerts because they think music for small ensembles must be small-scale and ultra-refined. Its devotees know it is actually lively, intense, and even grand. A free concert by an organization like Dolce Suono, like the one coming up at the library, is a risk-free opportunity to find out what you’re missing.

Chamber-music nomenclature can sometimes be misleading. A piano trio doesn’t require three pianos. The term usually refers to a trio for violin, cello, and piano. It can also denote a trio for flute, cello, and piano. Dolce Suono’s October 14 concert will present five examples of the less common flute version, featuring Stillman’s flute alongside two Dolce Suono regulars, cellist Nathan Vickery and pianist Charles Abramovic.

Bernstein, Martinů, and more

The concert will include arrangements of two notably popular works. Leonard Bernstein will receive a bow with an arrangement of the orchestral overture to Candide, created by Charles Abramovic in honor of the 100th anniversary of Bernstein’s birth. Mendelssohn’s first piano trio has been a chamber-music favorite since the 1830s, but it didn’t enter the flute repertoire until the last years of the 20th century. Mendelssohn wrote a flute version, but it disappeared until it was rediscovered 150 years after the trio’s first performance.

The rest of the October 14 program will include a trio from Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů dating from the Second World War, along with repeat performances of two pieces originally commissioned and premiered by Dolce Suono. Martinů actually labeled his creation “Trio for Flute, Cello, and Piano,” leaving no doubt he wanted it played that way.

The Dolce Suono Ensemble presents Dolce Suono Trio Classics and Commissions on Sunday, October 14, at 3pm at Trinity Center for Urban Life (22nd and Spruce Streets, Philadelphia). Tickets ($30; $25 for seniors and $10 for students) are available online and at the door. The Trinity Center provides an ADA-compliant chair lift for mobility-impaired patrons.

The Dolce Suono Ensemble presents Fall for Chamber Music on Wednesday, October 24, at 7pm at the Free Library of Philadelphia, (19th and Vine, Philadelphia). The library is ADA-accessible. This is a free concert supported by a three-year grant from the William Penn Foundation.