For any classical music ensemble to celebrate 30 years is a significant milestone. When Camerata Pacifica plays the first of three Auerbach & Beethoven concerts on Tuesday night at the Rothenberg Hall at the Huntington Library, they will have a lot to celebrate.
Under the leadership of Artistic Director Adrian Spence, Camerata Pacifica continues its Why Beethoven? program this year, which also happens to be the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth. During this season they will explore the composer’s chamber work and these first concerts are no exception.
The program opens with Lera Auerbach’s 24 Preludes for Violin and Piano. Auerbach was born in Russia in 1973. These preludes were composed in 1999. Camerata Pacifica has performed her work before and they gave the first performances of two works they commissioned: Dreammusik for cello and chamber orchestra which had its first performance in 2014 and 24 Preludes for Viola and Piano which had its debut during the 2017-2018 season.
The second half of the program finds the Beethoven Piano Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 97, “Archduke” being performed. Beethoven completed this work in 1811 and it had its first public performance in 1814 with the composer on the piano. He would play the piece one more time and that apparently marked the end of his public performances as his hearing loss was becoming worse.
This work has four movements:
- Allegro moderato
- Scherzo (Allegro)
- Andante cantabile ma però con moto. Poco piu adagio, D major
- Allegro moderato – Presto
This piece runs approximately 43 minutes. The musicians for these performances are: Paul Huang on violin; Ani Aznavoorian on cello and Gilles Vonsattel on piano.
On Thursday there is a performance of this program at Zipper Hall at The Colburn School.
On Friday there is a performance of this program at Hahn Hall at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.
Check back for our interview with Adrian Spence later this week.
Photo of Lera Auerbach by N. Feller courtesy of her website.