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Join the Saint Rose faculty musicians for an evening of Romantic music by Beethoven and Schubert.

The Saint Rose Camerata, a musical group of Saint Rose faculty

The Saint Rose Camerata will perform a series of romantic pieces on February 17.

A shepherd pines for his lost love – despairs – and regains hope with the coming spring. Two side-by-side pianists forge melodies and harmonies both tragic and sweet. In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, the Saint Rose Camerata will present an evening of unabashedly romantic works at 7:30 p.m. February 17 at the Massry Center for the Arts.

Taken from the peak of the Romantic era in music, the program features two of the last works by Franz Schubert (1797-1828), the lovelorn poet who wrote music to make the angels weep. “Schubert’s pencil was dipped in moonbeams and in the flame of the sun,” wrote music critic and composer Robert Schumann.

In “The Shepherd on the Rock” D. 965 (1828), a soprano, oboe (traditionally clarinet), and piano join in a virtuosic three-section showpiece composed for soprano Pauline Anna Milder-Hauptmann, a friend of Schubert’s, and written during the final months of the composer’s life. The Fantasia in F minor, D. 940 (1828) is widely considered the best of Schubert’s piano duets, and arguably one of the greatest piano duets of all time; Schubert penned it in the last year of his life, and dedicated the piece to his unrequited love and former pupil, Countess Karoline Esterhazy. (Karoline is said to have once asked Schubert why he had dedicated no works to her, to which he answered: “What would be the use? All that I do is dedicated to you.”)

Rounding out the evening is the Serenade in D major, Op. 25 (1801), written by Schubert’s idol, Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). A flute, violin, and viola team up for sparkling melodies and playful harmonies. Dancelike minuets and a gentle Andante, bookended by two lively movements, form the structure of this lighthearted piece from the middle of Beethoven’s life.

Your hosts for this visit to the Romantic era include Camerata director Yvonne Chavez Hansbrough, flute; Susan Boddie, soprano; Sherwood Wise, oboe; Jamecyn Morey, violin; Andrew Snow, viola; and Young Kim and Timothy Dunne, piano.

EVENT DETAILS

The Saint Rose Camerata

When: 7:30 p.m. February 17

Where: Massry Center for the Arts, The College of Saint Rose, 1002 Madison, Ave., Albany

Cost: Free and open to the public