March 13, 2011, 4 pm

Program

Beethoven: Piano Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 16
Lowell Lieberman: TBA
— Intermission —
Dvořák: Piano Quartet in E-Flat, Op. 87

OPUS ONE brings together four of the leading musicians of our time, Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, Violinist Ida Kavafian, Violist Steven Tenenbom, and Cellist Peter Wiley. Veterans as well as present members of the world’s most prestigious chamber groups including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Tashi, the Beaux Arts Trio and the Orion and Guarneri String Quartets-  OPUS ONE is the result of a mutual love of music making between four extraordinary instrumentalists and friends. As soloists as well as chamber musicians, they are each familiar figures in concert halls throughout the world and have joined together to form one of the most exciting groups performing anywhere. Their dedication to the works of contemporary American composers is reflected in their programming, and the sheer, obvious joy they have in performing together communicates directly to their audiences.

1998-99 marked the inaugural season of OPUS ONE, with a debut at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC to a packed, enthusiastic house. Subsequent seasons have included recital debuts and return engagements in New York (at Lincoln Center as well as on the series “Free for All” at Town Hall), Detroit, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, San Diego, Philadelphia and Portland, Oregon, all to great acclaim. University series performances have included VCU in Richmond, VA, Caltech in Pasadena and Duke University. Their orchestral debut was with the Chattanooga Symphony, performing Beethoven’s “Triple Concerto” and a work written by Douglas Lowry for the entire group with orchestra.

OPUS ONE has presented several other world premieres as well. Along with the Pittsburgh and Cleveland Chamber Music Societies, OPUS ONE commissioned the outstanding composer, Stephen Hartke to write a new quartet, “Beyond Words,” which was premiered in December, 2001. The piece, an emotional musical tribute to 9/11, was enthusiastically received. More recently, the group gave the world premiere performance of a work they co-commissioned (along with the festival, Music from Angel Fire) by George Tsontakis.

An extraordinary experience for the group came in May, 2006, when OPUS ONE performed at Marine Barracks, Washington, DC by special invitation from the Commandant of the Marines and his wife, General and Mrs. Michael Hagee. The summer of 2007 brought another world premiere of a piece called “Green Torso,” by the celebrated composer, pianist and conductor, Marc Neikrug. In the summer of 2009, OPUS ONE premiered two additional movements of Mr. Neikrug’s work, commissioned for them by the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. The composer Lowell Lieberman is currently writing a new quartet for the group, slated for premiere in August, 2010.

Recent Opus One appearances have included a feature performance on the popular NPR program, “St. Paul Sunday” and festival performances at Caramoor, Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon, the June Music Festival in Albuquerque, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Detroit, Music from Angel Fire in NM, and Mainly Mozart in San Diego. In the studio, they recorded the two piano quartets of Dvořák, due for release some time in 2009. They also recorded works by Aaron Kernis and Stephen Hartke as part of the “Americans in Rome” project on Bridge Records.

The March 13th concert takes place at 4:00 p.m. at the Wilton Congregational Church, just north of Wilton center on Route 33. Tickets may be obtained at the door for $25 dollars ($10 for students). For information on subscriptions to the entire four concert series, go to the ticket order page. Season tickets start at $90 ($75 for seniors); and patrons and benefactors of the series have the option of bringing two or four children under 16 (respectively) to the concerts free of cost. For more information on this concert or on the series, or to order a series brochure to be sent to you, call (203) 762-3401 or (203) 762-5019. Candlelight Concerts benefits the Wilton Library, and happily accepts individual and corporate tax deductible contributions.

December 5, 2010, 4 pm

Program

The Christmas Story: A Medieval Style Christmas Pageant

THE WAVERLY CONSORT is one of America’s premiere ensembles and a pioneer in early-music revival. Founded in 1964 by Michael and Kay Jaffee to explore the fascinating sounds and styles of early musical repertories, the ensemble has created a worldwide audience for its music through international concerts, recordings, and radio and television appearances. In addition to annual tours of North America, the ensemble has appeared throughout South America, Great Britain, Portugal, the Far East, and at international festivals including the Casals Festival, the Hong Kong Festival, the Madeira Bach Festival, and the Caramoor Festival. In its home city of New York, the group has performed 100 concerts at Lincoln Center, in addition to concert series at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and The Cloisters, as well as at cultural centers throughout the country.

Featured on many national radio and television broadcasts, the ensemble has appeared on “CBS Sunday Morning” and National Public Radio’s “Performance Today.”  The Waverly’s numerous recordings include the best-selling A Renaissance Christmas Celebration with the Waverly Consort (CBS Masterworks), and 1492: Music from the Age of Discovery (Angel-EMI), created to commemorate the Columbian Quincentenary.  The latter recording was listed on Billboard’s classical chart of bestsellers for seventeen weeks. In 1999 The Waverly Consort launched its own record label, WAVE RECORDS, with The Christmas Story (WAV 13099), featuring selections from its most popular medieval program. Its most recent release is ¡IBERIA! Spanish and Portuguese Music of the Golden Age (WAV 14002).

Each holiday season the Waverly Consort’s thirteen-member ensemble of singers and players tours The Christmas Story, a program combining solemn and festive music, processions and simple gestures to dramatize the Biblical narrative as conveyed by music manuscripts and illuminated miniatures of the Middle Ages. Since its premiere at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1980, this seasonal offering has become a favorite of audiences throughout North America. At other times during the year, the ensemble performs programs of wide breadth and variety, covering repertories from Europe and both American hemispheres.

The Waverly Consort and Michael and Kay Jaffee, in recognition of their role in furthering the development of early music and chamber music, have been awarded honors by the National Music Council, the Music Educators National Conference, Chamber Music America, Early Music America, and New York University.

The December 5th concert takes place at 4:00 p.m. at the Wilton Congregational Church, just north of Wilton center on Route 33. Tickets may be obtained at the door for $25 dollars ($10 for students). For information on subscriptions to the entire four concert series, go to the ticket order page. Season tickets start at $90 ($75 for seniors); and patrons and benefactors of the series have the option of bringing two or four children under 16 (respectively) to the concerts free of cost. For more information on this concert or on the series or to order a series brochure to be sent to you, call (203) 762-3401 or (203) 762-5019. Candlelight Concerts benefits the Wilton Library, and happily accepts individual and corporate tax deductible contributions.

November 7, 2010, 4 pm

Program

Mozart – Quartet in D “Hoffmeister” KV499
Janáček – Quartet No. 2 “Intimate Letters”
— Intermission —
Dvořák – Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 51

The Johannes Quartet consists of four outstanding musicians who take time away from their busy careers to pursue their love of the string quartet literature. This quartet brings together the principal cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the first American to win the Paganini Violin Competition in 24 years, and a Concert Artist Guild International Competition winner.  The Johannes has been praised by listeners and critics alike for its special combination of passion, warmth, elegance and poetry. Each member has spent numerous summers at the celebrated Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, birthplace of many of the world’s renowned ensembles. New York appearances include their recent Carnegie Hall debut as well as frequent performances on the Schneider Series at the New School and the Peoples’ Symphony Concerts at Town Hall.

Since the Johannes made its acclaimed debut there in 1998, the Chamber Music Society of Philadelphia has played a major role in launching the Quartet, presenting them regularly each season, including in a two-concert series of the complete Beethoven opus 18 quartets. Their debut was described by the Philadelphia Inquirer as having “accurate intonation, vigorous interaction and careful regard for the details in the score…the passion and attack that characterize the best of quartet playing.”

The 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons included the group’s collaboration with the legendary Guarneri String Quartet in a program featuring Octet: Double Quartet, written specifically for the two ensembles by award-winning composer William Bolcom, and commissioned by the Music Accord consortium of presenters. The two groups also joined together for performances of Mendelssohn’s glorious Octet. In addition to these works, the Johannes also premiered a new string quartet, Homunculus, written for them by Esa-Pekka Salonen. For the performance of the groundbreaking Bolcom and Salonen works, they received audience acclaim at the Krannert Center (Urbana, IL), University Musical Society (Ann Arbor, MI), Penn State University, and Boston’s Celebrity Series, the Orange County Performing Arts Society, San Francisco Performances, Phoenix Chamber Music Society, UCLA Live, Kansas City Friends of Chamber Music, Hayes University (KS), and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York City.

The Johannes Quartet has held residencies at Middlebury College, the Islip Arts Council and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.  They started off their 2009-10 season with a triumphant return to the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, where they appear bi-annually in multiple concerts. Spring 2010 tours took the Johannes to Alabama, California, Minnesota, New York and Pennsylvania. Forthcoming collaborations include plans for tours and a new quintet with renowned clarinetist Richard Stoltzman.The Johannes has also been heard around the country through broadcasts on NPR’s Performance Today and St. Paul Sunday programs.

The November 7th concert takes place at 4:00 p.m. at the Wilton Congregational Church, just north of Wilton center on Route 33. Tickets may be obtained at the door for $25 dollars ($10 for students). For information on subscriptions to the entire four concert series, go to the ticket order page. Season tickets start at $90 ($75 for seniors); and patrons and benefactors of the series have the option of bringing two or four children under 16 (respectively) to the concerts free of cost. For more information on this concert or on the series, or to order a series brochure to be sent to you, call (203) 762-3401 or (203) 762-5019. Candlelight Concerts benefits the Wilton Library, and happily accepts individual and corporate tax deductible contributions.

October 24, 2010 4 pm

Program

Felix Mendelssohn: Four Songs Without Words
Jaegerlied (Hunter’s Song),Opus 19 no. 3
Presto Agitato,Opus 19 no. 5
Duetto, Opus 38 no. 6
Spinnerlied (Spinning Song), Opus 67 no. 4
Robert Schumann: “Faschingsschwank aus Wien” (Carnival Jest from Vienna)
— Intermission —
Frédéric Chopin:
Polonaise in C sharp minor, Op. 26 no. 1
Grande Valse Brillante in A flat Major, Op.34 no.1
Waltz in C sharp minor,  Op.64 no. 2
Nocturne in B Major, Op.62 no. 1
Prelude in F sharp minor, Op.28 no. 8
Preludes in A flat Major, Op.28 #17
Scherzo No.1 in B minor, Opus 20

Beloved the world over for her exquisite pianism, Janina Fialkowska has enchanted audiences for over thirty years with her glorious lyrical sound, her sterling musicianship, and her profound sense of musical integrity.  Blending her vast experience with a refreshingly natural approach, Fialkowska has become an artist of rare distinction as well as retaining all the virtuosity of her youth” (La Presse, Montreal, February 13, 2009).

Celebrated for her interpretations of the classical and romantic repertoire, she is particularly distinguished as one of the great interpreters of the piano works of Chopin and Mozart. She has also won acclaim as a champion of the music of twentieth-century Polish composers, both in concert and on disc.

Born to a Canadian mother and a Polish father in Montreal, Janina Fialkowska started to study the piano with her mother at the age of five. Eventually she entered the Ecole de Musique Vincent d’Indy, studying under the tutelage of Mlle. Yvonne Hubert. The University of Montreal awarded her both advanced degrees of “Baccalaureat” and “Maitrise” by the time she was seventeen.

In 1969, her career was greatly advanced by two events: winning the first prize in the Radio Canada National Talent Festival and travelling to Paris to study with Yvonne Lefebure. One year later, she entered the Juilliard School of Music in New York, where she first studied with Sascha Gorodnitzki. She later became his assistant for five years. In 1974 her career was launched by Arthur Rubinstein after her prize-winning performance at his inaugural Master Piano Competition in Israel.

She has performed with the foremost North American orchestras, among them the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Houston Symphony and the Pittsburgh Symphony, as well as with all of the principal Canadian orchestras, including the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa, the Calgary Philharmonic and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. In touring Europe each year, Ms Fialkowska has appeared as guest artist with such prestigious orchestras as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Halle Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, the BBC Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic, the Scottish National Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic and the French and Belgium National Radio Orchestras. She has also performed with the Israel Philharmonic, the Osaka Philharmonic and the Hong Kong Philharmonic and has worked with such renowned conductors as Sir Andrew Davis, Charles Dutoit, Hans Graf, Bernard Haitink, Kyril Kondrashin, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Georg Solti, Leonard Slatkin, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and Klaus Tennstedt.

She has won special recognition for a series of important premieres, most notably the world premiere performance of a newly discovered Piano Concerto by Franz Liszt with the Chicago Symphony in 1990. She has also given the world premiere of a Piano Concerto by Libby Larsen with the Minnesota Orchestra (October 1991) and the North American premiere of the Piano Concerto by Sir Andrzej Panufnik with the Colorado Symphony (February 1992).

Janina Fialkowska was the Founding Director of the hugely successful “Piano Six” project and its successor “Piano Plus”. This latest project brings together some of Canada’s greatest classical pianists, instrumentalists and vocalists with Canadians who, for either geographical or financial reasons, would otherwise be unable to hear this calibre of “live” classical performance. In 2000 “Piano Six” won one of Canada’s top Arts’ awards, the Chalmers Award.

In January, 2002 at the onset of a major European tour encompassing eight different countries, Ms. Fialkowska’s career was brought to a dramatic halt by the discovery of a tumour in her left arm. After successful surgery to remove the cancer, Ms Fialkowska underwent further surgery in January 2003: a rare muscle-transfer procedure. After 18 months of performing the Ravel and Prokofiev “concertos for the left hand,” which she transcribed for her right hand, she resumed her two-handed career beginning with a tremendously successful and highly emotional recital held in Germany in January 2004.

Ms Fialkowska’s discography includes discs featuring the 24 Chopin Etudes, Op. 10 & Op. 25, the Sonatas Nos. 2 & 3 and the Impromptus, a solo album of Liszt piano works and her astonishing version of the 12 Transcendental Etudes by Franz Liszt. She has also recorded a solo Szymanowski album and the highly praised CD, “La jongleuse – Salon pieces and encores.” She has also recorded her immensely popular CD of the Paderewski piano concerto with the Polish National Radio Orchestra, the rarely heard piano concerto by Moritz Moszkowski and a tremendously successful CD of the three Liszt piano concertos with Hans Graf conducting.

Ms Fialkowska’s recent recordings include performances of piano concertos by Chopin and Mozart in authentic versions consisting of piano solo and string quintet accompaniment. Both were released to highest critical acclaim. Just released for the 2010 Chopin bicentennial: a Chopin Recital, her third collaboration with the successful Canadian ATMA Classique label.

The October 24th concert takes place at 4:00 p.m. at the Wilton Congregational Church, just north of Wilton center on Route 33. Tickets may be obtained at the door for $25 dollars ($10 for students). For information on subscriptions to the entire four concert series, go to the ticket order page. Season tickets start at $90 ($75 for seniors); and patrons and benefactors of the series have the option of bringing two or four children under 16 (respectively) to the concerts free of cost. For more information on this concert or on the series, or to order a series brochure to be sent to you, call (203) 762-3401 or (203) 762-5019. Candlelight Concerts benefits the Wilton Library, and happily accepts individual and corporate tax deductible contributions.

Sunday March 14, 2010 at 4 p.m.

Program:
Beethoven: Piano Sonate nr. 6 in F Major. op.10 nr.2
Schubert: Piano sonate nr. 19 in c minor D958
Chopin: Nocturne in c minor Op.48 no.1
Chopin: Ballade nr. 4, op. 52
Adès: Darknesse Visible
Ravel: La Valse

The final concert of the 2009-10 Candlelight Concert series features the brilliant young pianist, Inon Barnatan in a program of Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Ravel and the contemporary composer Thomas Adès. Mr. Barnatan has graciously stepped in for Joyce Yang, who is unable to perform for us this season. Mr. Barnatan, one of the undisputed new stars of the music world, is renowned for his communicative and high-minded performances. In April 2009, he was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant, one of the most prestigious prizes in classical music.

Mr. Barnatan has developed and curated a project of Schubert’s late solo piano and chamber music works that has been performed to great acclaim at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, at the Festival dé Mexico, and at the Library of Congress. He also champions new music, and has performed works by George Crumb, Kaija Saariaho, Judith Weir, Avner Dorman, Thomas Adès, and others. He comes to us having just completed a concert tour of Europe.

Born in Tel Aviv in 1979, Inon Barnatan started playing the piano at the age of four. He made his orchestral debut at eleven, and studied with Professor Victor Derevianko. In 1997, he moved to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music with Maria Curcio (a student of the legendary Arthur Schnabel) and Christopher Elton. He also has coached extensively with Leon Fleischer. Since 2006, Mr. Barnatan has resided in New York.

Mr. Barnatan has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Delft and Verbier Festivals, at the Royal Festival, Wigmore and Queen Elizabeth Halls in London, at the Musikverein in Vienna and the Salle Gaveau in Paris. He made his American concerto debut in 2007, with the Houston Symphony. Among his numerous appearances with other major symphony orchestras are engagements with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Orchestra de la Suisse Romande, the Shangahai Symphony Orchestra, and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Barnatan’s debut CD of Schubert piano works was released on Bridge Records. Gramophone praised its “sensitivity, poise, and focus,” and called him “a born Schubertian.”

The March 14th concert will take place at the Wilton Congregational Church, just north of Wilton center on Route 33. Tickets will be available at the door one-half hour before the concert and are $25 ($10 for students). For more information on this concert or on subscriptions to the Candlelight series, or to request a brochure, phone 203-762-3401 or 203-762-5019. Candlelight Concerts benefits the Wilton Library. Individual and corporate contributions are gratefully accepted.

February 28, 2010 at 4 p.m.

Program:
J.S. Bach Violin Sonatas (TBA)
Antonio Vivaldi The Four Seasons

An all Baroque program is featured as the third concert of the 2009-2010 Candlelight season.The versatile American harpsichordist, pianist, conductor, musicologist and pedagogue Kenneth Cooper was trained at New York’s High School of Music and Art, the Mannes College of Music, and Columbia University. He made his debut as a harpsichordist at London’s Wigmore Hall in 1965. A US debut followed in 1973 at New York’s Alice Tully Hall. In subsequent years, he toured widely in the USA and abroad.

Mr. Cooper is one of the world’s leading specialists in the music of the 18th century, and one of America’s most exciting and versatile performers. Renowned for his improvisations and his expertise in ornamentation, he has revived countless musical works, lending them extraordinary authenticity and vitality. His comprehensive repertory embraces works from the early keyboard era to the avant-garde. Among the 20th century composers whose works he has premiered are George Flynn, Daniel Paget, Seymour Barab, Noel Lee, Ferruccio Busoni, Paul Ben-Haim, and Ernst Krenek.

As music director of the Berkshire Bach Ensemble, Mr. Cooper has made a tradition of the New Year’s performances of the Bach Brandenburg Concerti, and has instituted a series of “Concertofests” in the style of Bach’s Collegium concerts at Zimmermann’s Kaffeehaus. He has been co-director of the legendary Our Bach concerts and was featured on Live From Lincoln Center as soloist in Bach’s Brandenburg No. 5 with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has also appeared as guest soloist with the American Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the Mostly Mozart Festival, the Yale Norfolk Festival, and in many other venues.

Mr. Cooper has served on the faculties of Barnard College, the Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, the Mannes College of Music, the Manhattan School of Music and the Peabody Conservatory. He has made dozens of recordings and soundtracks for CBS, Vanguard, and EMI records.

Ani Kavafian has performed with virtually all of America’s leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, as well as the Philadelphia, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, St. Louis, Detroit, and San Francisco orchestras. Among the many premieres she has given are Henri Lazarof’s Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra, and Aaron Kernis’ Double Concerto for Violin and Guitar. Her numerous recital engagements include performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and Alice Tully as well as in venues across the country. A long time artist-member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, she collaborates with such distinguished musicians as André-Michel Schub and David Shifrin.

Born in Istanbul, Turkey, of Armenian decent, Ani Kavafian began her musical studies with piano lessons at the age of three. At age nine, shortly after her family came to the United States, she began the study of the violin with Ara Zerounian. At the age of sixteen, she won first prize in both the piano and violin competitions at the National Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan. Two years later, she began violin studies at the Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian, eventually receiving a Master’s Degree with top honors. Ms. Kavafian resides in Northern Westchester, New York with her husband, artist Bernard Minich, and their son, Matthew. She plays a 1736 Muir McKenzie Stradavarius violin.

The February 28th concert takes place at 4:00 p.m. at the Wilton Congregational Church, just north of Wilton center on Route 33. Tickets may be obtained at the door for $25 dollars ($10 for students). For information on subscriptions to the entire four concert series, go to the ticket order page. Season tickets start at $90 ($75 for seniors); and patrons and benefactors of the series have the option of bringing two or four children under 16 (respectively) to the concerts free of cost. For more information on this concert or on the series, or to order a series brochure to be sent to you, call (203) 762-3401 or (203) 762-5019. Candlelight Concerts benefits the Wilton Library, and happily accepts individual and corporate tax deductible contributions.

Sunday, October 25th 2009 at 4 pm

J.S. BACH Chaconne in E minor (from Partita No. 2, BWV 1004)
ROBERT SCHUMANN Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 121
GEORGES ENESCU Sonata No. 3 for Violin in a minor, Op. 25

Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos gives a benefit performance for the Candlelight Concert series on October 25th, 2009, accompanied by the distinguished Hungarian pianist, Péter Nagy. Mr. Kavakos has established himself as a violinist and artist of rare quality, known at the highest level for his virtuosity, superb musicianship and the integrity of his playing.

Mr. Kavakos began studying the violin with his father at the age of five. At 12, he was the youngest member of the European Union Youth Orchestra. At sixteen, in 1985, he won the Sibelius competition. Three years later, he won the Paganini competition, and following these successes, pursued an international career as a soloist. Mr. Kavakos now appears in concert throughout the world with the great orchestras and conductors. He regularly visits the major international festivals. He plays the “Falmouth” Stradivarius of 1692 and a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini of 1782 (Torino).

Mr. Kavakos is an established chamber musician and collaborates with many distinguished partners – Heinrich Schiff, Natalia Gutman, Emanuel Ax, Lars Vogt, and Elisabeth Leonskaya, among others. He regularly plays at the major European halls, and last season gave a series of chamber music recitals at the Verbier Festival and the Salzburg Festival. He was also resident at the Concertgebouw in a dedicated weekend of recital and chamber music and has served as artistic director of the Camerata Salzburg.

In addition to his most recent disc of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Camerata Salzburg, and Mendelssohn piano trios with cellist Patrick Demenga and pianist Enrico Pace, Kavakos has a distinguished catalogue of recordings. In 1991, he won the Gramophone Award for the first recording ever of the original version of Sibelius’ Violin Concerto (1903/04) on BIS. Further recordings include the violin concerto by Hindemith with the BBC Philharmonic (Chandos), solo sonatas by Ysaÿe (BIS), works by Debussy, Kreisler, Paganini et al (Delos) as well as Sibelius’ Humoresques (Finlandia). On ECM, he has released a recording of sonatas by Enescu and Ravel together with pianist Péter Nagy, along with a recording of works by Bach and Stravinsky which received the following accolade, “…the exquisite tenderness of the playing gives the music a sense of timeless, poignant beauty…the performance here is exceptional for its unruffled poise and delicious details. Not to be missed”. [Gramophone May 2005].

The October 25th performance for Candlelight Concerts will take place at the Wilton Congregational Church, just north of Wilton center on Route 33. Tickets will be available at the door one-half hour before the concert and are $25 ($10 for students). For more information on this concert or on subscriptions to the Candlelight series or to request a brochure, phone 203-762-3401 or 203-762-5019. Candlelight Concerts benefits the Wilton Library. Individual and corporate contributions are gratefully accepted.

October 18th, 2009 at 4 p.m.

Program:
Robert Schumann Quartet, Op. 41 No. 1
Dmitri Shostakovich Quartet, No. 11
Ludwig van Beethoven Quartet, Op. 59 No. 1

The Takács String Quartet opens the 2009-10 Candlelight concert season. Recognized as one of the world’s great ensembles, the Takács Quartet plays with a unique blend of drama, warmth, and humor, combining four distinct musical personalities to bring fresh insights to the string quartet repertoire. Commenting on their latest Schubert recording for Hyperion, Gramophone magazine noted; “The Takács have the ability to make you believe that there’s no other possible way the music should go, and the strength to overturn preconceptions that comes only with the greatest performers.”

Based in Boulder at the University of Colorado, the Takács Quartet performs ninety concerts a year worldwide, throughout Europe as well as in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea. The 2009-2010 season includes cycles of the complete Beethoven Quartets in London, where the members of the Quartet are Associate Artists at the South Bank Centre, and in Madrid. The quartet will play a series of two Beethoven concerts in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and give their first concert in St.Petersburg. At Carnegie’s Zankel Hall a series of three concerts will feature the Schumann Quartets and works that were composed last year for the Takács by Wolfgang Rihm, James Macmillan and John Psathas. The quartet will perform over 40 concerts in North America and open the season of the San Diego Symphony with performances of Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro and Handel-Schoenberg’s Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra.

The Quartet’s award-winning recordings include the complete Beethoven Cycle on the Decca label. In 2005, the Late Beethoven Quartets won Disc of the Year and Chamber Award from BBC Music Magazine, a Gramophone Award and a Japanese Record Academy Award. Their recordings of the early and middle Beethoven quartets collected a Grammy, another Gramophone Award, a Chamber Music of America Award and two further awards from the Japanese Recording Academy. Of their performances and recordings of the Late Quartets, the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote, “The Takács might play this repertoire better than any [string] quartet of the past or present.”

In 2006 the Takács Quartet made their first recording for Hyperion Records of Schubert’s D804 and D810. A disc featuring Brahms’ Piano Quintet with Stephen Hough was released to great acclaim in November 2007 and was subsequently nominated for a Grammy. Brahms’ Quartets Op. 51 and Op. 67 was released in the Fall of 2008 and a disc featuring the Schumann Piano Quintet with Marc-Andre Hamelin will be released in late 2009. The complete Haydn “Apponyi” Quartets, Op. 71 and 74, will be released in early 2011.

The Takács has also made sixteen recordings for the Decca label since 1988 of works by Beethoven, Bartok, Borodin, Brahms, Chausson, Dvorak, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Smetana, and Bartok. The latter recording of the Bartok String Quartets received the 1998 Gramophone Award for chamber music and, in 1999, was nominated for a Grammy. They Takacs has collaborated with such artists as Joshua Bell, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, András Schiff, and Gyorgy Pauk.

The quartet is known for innovative programming. In 2007 it performed, with Academy Award–winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Everyman” in Carnegie Hall, inspired by the Philip Roth novel. The group collaborates regularly with the Hungarian folk ensemble Muzsikas, performing a program that explores the folk sources of Bartok’s music. The Takács also performed a music and poetry program on a fourteen city US tour with the poet Robert Pinsky.

At the University of Colorado, the Takács Quartet has helped to develop a string program with a special emphasis on chamber music, where students work in a nurturing environment designed to help them develop their artistry. The Quartet’s commitment to teaching is enhanced by summer residencies at the Aspen Festival and at the Music Academy of the West, Santa Barbara. The Takács is also a Visiting Quartet at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London.

The Takács Quartet was formed in 1975 at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest by Gabor Takács-Nagy, Károly Schranz, Gabor Ormai and András Fejér, while all four were students. It first received international attention in 1977, winning First Prize and the Critics’ Prize at the International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France. The Quartet also won the Gold Medal at the 1978 Portsmouth and Bordeaux Competitions and First Prizes at the Budapest International String Quartet Competition in 1978 and the Bratislava Competition in 1981. The Quartet made its North American debut tour in 1982. Violinist Edward Dusinberre joined the Quartet in 1993 and violist Roger Tapping in 1995. Violist Geraldine Walther replaced Mr. Tapping in 2005. Of the original ensemble, Károly Schranz and András Fejér remain. In 2001, the Takács Quartet was awarded the Order of Merit of the Knight’s Cross of the Republic of Hungary.

The October 18th concert takes place at 4:00 p.m. at the Wilton Congregational Church, just north of Wilton center on Route 33. Tickets may be obtained at the door for $25 dollars ($10 for students). For information on subscriptions to the entire four concert series, go to the ticket order page. Season tickets start at $90 ($75 for seniors); and patrons and benefactors of the series have the option of bringing two or four children under 16 (respectively) to the concerts free of cost. For more information on this concert or on the series or to order a series brochure to be sent to you, call (203) 762-3401 or (203) 762-5019. Candlelight Concerts benefits the Wilton Library, and happily accepts individual and corporate tax deductible contributions.

Sunday, March 29, 2009, 4 p.m.

Program
Anton Rubinstein Persian Songs (12), op 34
Jules Massenet Poèmes d’avril
Gerald Finzi Let Us Garlands Bring, op. 18

Described by Opera News as “a commanding bass,” singer Jason Hardy will appear on the last concert of the Candlelight Concerts 2008-09 season. A graduate of Emory University and Peabody Conservatory, Mr. Hardy is emerging as one of the most versatile young talents on the opera and art song stage. He has sung with the New York City, Cleveland and San Francisco Operas, has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Symphony, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and has been a regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council auditions as well as a finalist for the Lyric Opera of Chicago Center for American Artists. Among the operas in which he has performed are La Bohème, The Barber of Seville, Falstaff, Sweeny Todd, Don Giovanni, L’Elisir d’amore, La Cenerentola, The Rake’s Progress, The Tales of Hoffmann, and Salome. Mr. Hardy has perfomed chamber works ranging from Purcell to Prokofiev at the Marlborough Music Festival and has given recitals throughout the country under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation. He has recently recorded a CD entitled “Youth and Love.”

Mr.Hardy’s art song recital will take place at 4 p.m. at the Wilton Congregational Church, just north of Wilton center on Route 33. Tickets will be available at the door for $25 ($10) for students. For more information on this concert or to request to be put on the mailing list for the Candlelight Concerts series, please call (203) 762-3401 or (203) 762-5019. The Candlelight Concerts series benefits the Wilton Library. Tax deductible individual and corporate contributions to the series are gratefully accepted.

Sunday, February 22, 2009 at 4:00 p.m.

Program
Joseph Fiale: Quartet for Oboe and Strings
Beethoven: String Trio op. 9, no. 3
Murray Adaskin: String Trio
Martinu: String Trio
Mozart: Quartet for Oboe and Strings, K. 370

On Sunday, February 22, 2009, oboist Thomas Gallant joins the Adaskin String Trio in the third concert of the 2008-09 Wilton Candlelight Concert series. Award winning artist Thomas Gallant is one of the world’s few virtuoso solo and chamber music performers on the oboe. His technique and breath control have been compared to that of the great violinists and singers. Praised by the New Yorker as “a player who unites technical mastery with intentness, charm and wit,” Mr. Gallant was First Prize Winner of the Concert Artists Guild International New York Competition. His performances have taken him from Avery Fisher and Carnegie halls to the Salle Pleyel in Paris, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and Italy’s Spoleto Festival. Among other summer venues, he has appeared at the Ravinia and Mostly Mozart Festivals and has collaborated with such artists as Jean Pierre Rampal, Paula Robison and with the Cuarteto Casals. Mr. Gallant is the solo oboist of the Wind Soloists of New York. He plays on an “Evoluzione” oboe made by Fratelli Patricola.

The Adaskin String Trio has won over audiences internationally with exuberant and stirring performances. Their playing has been hailed for “vigor, precision and stylistic certitude.” Formed in 1994, the trio—violinist Emlyn Ngai, violist Steve Larson, and cellist Mark Fraser—performs extensively throughout the United States and Canada and has appeared at Merkin Concert Hall in New York, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and in Boston, Los Angeles, Montreal, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Santa Barbara, and Chicago. In addition, the trio’s concerts have been regularly recorded for broadcast by CBC Radio, Radio-Canada, and National Public Radio. This dynamic ensemble commands a large string trio repertoire ranging from Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven to Dohnányi, Rozsa, Villa-Lobos, and Schnittke. Among contemporary composers from whom they have commissioned works are Murray Adaskin, Robert Carl, Thomas Schuttenhelm, and David Macbride.

Although the Adaskin String Trio is currently based in New England, its members are all originally from Canada. They met in Montreal where they studied chamber music with founding Oxford Quartet cellist Marcel Saint-Cyr. They later completed two years as ensemble-in-residence at The Hartt School under the guidance of the Emerson Quartet. The trio is named in honor of Murray Adaskin, one of Canada ‘s most loved and respected composers.

The February 22nd performance will take place at 4:00 p.m. at the Wilton Congregational Church on Route 33 just north of Wilton center. Tickets may be purchased at the door one-half hour prior to performance for $25 ($10 for students). For more information on this program or on subscriptions to the Candlelight Concert series or to request a season brochure, phone 203-762-3401. Wilton Candlelight Concerts are for the benefit of the Wilton Library Association. Tax deductible individual and corporate donations are gratefully accepted.