Concert on April 25th – Close Encounters With Music
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
BEETHOVEN AND SHOSTAKOVICH TRIOSADAM NEIMAN, piano STEFAN MILENKOVICH, violin
APRIL 25 AT 6 PM
Two of today’s brightest young performers will appear on Saturday, April 25, 6 PM performing Beethoven and Shostakovich at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington. Violinist Stefan Milenkovich will make his first Close Encounters appearance and audience favorite, pianist Adam Neiman, returns to join Artistic Director Yehuda Hanani for an evening of extremes—the most uplifting contrasted with the most heart-wrenching and devastating. The program offers a striking juxtaposition of the Shostakovich Piano Trio No. 2, a wartime elegy for a world gone mad, and Beethoven’s Olympian “Archduke” Trio.
“Beethoven supports the ancient conception of art, providing catharsis, while Shostakovich challenges it, providing a mirror to a reign of terror,” says Hanani. “Beethoven aims for a triumph of the spirit, while Shostakovich bears witness to the destruction of the spirit. One piece ends with a tremendous affirmation, the other fades with a disturbing question mark and no resolution in sight. These are two utterly different visions of life, history, human existence.”
Close Encounters continues its tradition of commentary before the performance and of inviting the entire audience to a reception to meet the artists immediately following the performance at the “Afterglow.”
Tickets at $35 and $10 for students are available at The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center box office, 413.528.0100, or at www.mahaiwe.org; and through Close Encounters With Music at 800-843-0778 or at www.cewm.org .