This Thursday, the noon concert series at the Open University returns with a fun program of “Classical Music to a Contemporary Beat”. The Noon Concert series is a great way to take a break in the middle of the day and enjoy an hour of music with commentary by Anat Sharon, who will be playing piano in this upcoming concert.
The program will begin with a composition by French composer Marcel Bitsch (1921-2011), “Four Variations on a Theme of Scarlatti“, in B flat. Bitsch explored a wide variety of genres, including a comic opera and a ballet. In addition to composing, he was also a musicologist and professor of counterpoint at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he’d been a student, and composed pieces exclusively for the music competitions held there. Based on a piece Scarlatti originally wrote for harpsichord, Bitsch’s “Four Variations” (1950) are written for trumpet and piano, and the piece, like his other works for brass, has become popular among performers.
Next on the program is a sonata for violin and piano by Handel (Opus 1 No. 13). The German-born Handel – born in the same year as J.S Bach – spent time in Italy in his youth and was greatly influenced by Arcangelo Corelli, one of the most important composers of the baroque period. He then moved to England where he enjoyed immense success in eighteenth-century London, and served as Kapellmeister to the future George I.One of the baroque’s most prolific composers, he focused more on operas and orchestral works than chamber music, but his sonatas for violin and continuo show the unique amalgam of styles Handel could achieve, blending elements from the Italian church and secular traditions and the German polyphonic tradition.
The concert will close with the program’s most recent composition: Eric Ewazen’s Trio for Trumpet, Violin and Piano (1992). Ewazen was born in Cleveland in 1954 and is a professor of composition at Julliard. His compositions for brass have become standard repertoire. While many composers employed the trumpet to convey drama, the Trio for Trumpet, Violin and Piano focuses on its lyrical, expressive qualities. The Trio was inspired by Brahms’ Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano, and it features some interesting effects: the second movement has a tango rhythm, and the third has the violin produce a marimba-like sound.
Two excellent Israeli soloists will join Anat Sharon for this extraordinary program.: Sharon Cohen, violin and Yuval Shapira, trumpets, are both members of the Israel Philharmonic, and perform in various venues across the country.
The concert will be held on Thursday, October 10 (incidentally, Giuseppe Verdi’s 200th birthday!) at 12:00 at the Chais Auditorium on the Open University campus (1 University Road, Ra’anana).
Tickets cost only 25 NIS and can be ordered by phone at *3337 or 03-5114412, or via website (in Hebrew): https://www.fee.co.il/noonconcert110102013.
The brochure for the concert (in Hebrew) may be viewed here: http://www.openu.ac.il/events/Arts/101013.html.
