Saint Rose Camerata March 30 Season Finale: Eclectic and Engaging

Join the Saint Rose Camerata at 7:30 p.m. on March 30 for a sparkling evening of eclectic chamber music – from the Baroque period to the present day – to close out the group’s 16th season. The concert is at the Massry Center for the Arts, 1002 Madison Avenue, Albany.

During the last few months of his life, Franz Schubert (1797-1828) wrote “The Shepherd on the Rock” (1828) for soprano Pauline Anna Milder-Hauptmann. Scored for soprano, oboe (traditionally clarinet), and piano, the three-part work depicts a shepherd pining for his lost love, despairing, and then regaining hope in the coming spring, and challenges the performers’ technical prowess as well as dramatic range.

Two recent works, both from 2011, couldn’t be more different from each other. Intrigued by the contrasting moods in an Italian folk tune, composer Andrew McKenna Lee wrote his “Curio” for solo guitar to start out “pretty” and dark, and become progressively stranger. For “Woven,” for soprano, alto flute, and cello, composer Sarah Gibson collaborated closely with singer-poet Sophie Wingland to set Wingland’s text to music that is alternately bright, primitive, and sultry.

First met with bewilderment by some critics (including Aaron Copland) for its composer’s abrupt change in style, the Octet for Wind Instruments (1923) marked Igor Stravinsky’s (1882-1971) venture into Neoclassicism. Featuring shifting meters and textural and harmonic complexity, it is now considered one of the most celebrated, challenging works for wind octet.

The program also includes “Ein jeder läuft, der in den Schranken läuft” (1725), a cantata for soprano, oboe, keyboard, and cello, by Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1787).

Artists include Camerata director Yvonne Chavez Hansbrough, flute and alto flute; Sherwood Wise, oboe and bassoon; Paul Green, clarinet; Susan Loegering Daves, bassoon; Eric Latini, trumpet; Jay Stoltzfus, trumpet; David Paul, trombone; Nathaniel Coleda, trombone; David Bebe, cello; Susan Boddie, soprano; Suna Gunther, soprano; Andrew McKenna Lee, guitar; Josiah Stocker, piano; Dan Foster, harpsichord; Robert Hansbrough, conductor.

EVENT DETAILS
Saint Rose Camerata
When: 7:30 p.m., March 30
Where: Massry Center for the Arts, The College of Saint Rose, 1002 Madison Ave., Albany
Cost: Free and open to the public