Festival Mozaic's WinterMezzo 2009-2010:
Auspicious Beginnings, Triumphant EndingsOpus One: November 6- 8, 2009
Closing Chapters: January 22-24, 2010
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Festival Mozaic’s WinterMezzo Series includes two weekends of engaging musical experiences centered on great works of chamber music, featuring our Festival’s nationally-renowned guest artists. To begin the celebrations of our 40th year, WinterMezzo activities focus on ‘firsts and lasts’–first works of major composers and final works that assured their places in musical history.Each WinterMezzo weekend focuses on three works and offers you three different ways to experience them:
*Listen to musicians’ perspectives in a one-hour Notable Encounter INSIGHTS, where the performers explore topics pertaining to the featured works.
*Enjoy an evening of food, wine and music at a Notable Encounter DINNER to get the performers’ perspectives on the weekend’s program, plus listen to program highlights.
*Hear it all come together at the Sunday CONCERT, where the full works are performed.Listen before you go:
W.A. Mozart – Piano and Violin Sonata in C, K. 6, op. 1
Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Trio in E-flat, op. 1/1
Ernst von Dohnányi - Piano Quintet in c, op. 1Each work is an Opus One or first work of these composers, foreshadowing great genius to come. Mozart’s delightful Violin Sonata, composed when he was eight, is paired with Beethoven’s first attempt at chamber music, 30 years later. Hungarian composer Dohnányi wrote this lushly romantic quintet at the age of 18 and the influence of Brahms on the young composer is immediately apparent.
Scott Yoo, violin; Jason Uyeyama, violin; Edwin Kaplan, viola;
Andrew Smith, cello; Noam Elkies, pianoFriday, November 6, 2009, 5:30-6:30 PM
Notable Encounter INSIGHTS: Fingerprints of Genius
Grace Church, San Luis Obispo
Cost: $19
A one–hour presentation with the musicians’ commentary exploring how the first two chamber music works of Beethoven and Mozart signaled great things to come.
Saturday, November 7, 2009, 6 PM*
Notable Encounter DINNER
"Villa Filaree," Home of Sharon Harris Schneider & Dennis Schneider, Varian Ranch, Arroyo Grande
Cost: $90
Take in the stunning views offered by this spectacular home in an intimate evening of food, wine and music. Enjoy pre-dinner wine and hors d’ oeuvres on the covered patio, and then head inside with the musicians and other guests for a buffet
accompanied by fine wine. Sit back as the musicians take us inside the music, illuminating these three featured works.
*Parking is at the Varian Ranch entrance. Trolley service to the home begins at 5:30 PM.Dinner menu from Phoenix Fine Catering and award-winning wines from Tablas Creek Vineyard coming soon.
Sunday, November 8, 2009, 3 PM
Sunday CONCERT: Opus One
United Methodist Church, San Luis Obispo
Cost: $23-$47
Hear all three featured works in full at this beautiful mountain-top location.
Closing Chapters
January 22-24, 2010
Anton Bruckner - Adagio from the String Quintet in F, WAB 112
John Harbison - Snow Country for Oboe and String Quartet (1979)
Franz Schubert - String Quintet in C, D. 956American composer John Harbison wrote the spare, beautiful Snow Country during an unusually dark Wisconsin winter. The work’s starkly tonal landscape recalls the sense of finality of a never-ending winter. Symphonic in scale and intimate in character, the Adagio from Bruckner’s first and only chamber work expresses an almost unbearable bliss. One critic wrote, “If the only thing Bruckner had ever written had been this magnificent slow movement, his reputation would have been secured for all eternity.” The composer Benjamin Britten once said that “the richest 18 months in music history” were “the period in which Franz Schubert wrote...the C Major String Quintet.” This pinnacle in the chamber music repertoire is a tantalizing monument to what might have been had Schubert’s life not been so tragically short.
Anne-Marie Gabriele, oboe; Scott Yoo, violin; Caroline Campbell, violin; Erik Rynearson, viola; Paul Severtson, viola; Susie Yang, cello; Andrew Smith, cello
Friday, January 22, 2010, 5:30–6:30 PM
Notable Encounter INSIGHTS: Isn’t It Romantic? Or Is It?
Grace Church, San Luis Obispo
Cost: $19
What do we mean when we say music is ‘Romantic’? And when and where did it start crossing the ‘Classical” line? Join the musicians for a one-hour lively presentation.
Notable Encounter DINNER
END of the LINE Café, San Luis Obispo
Cost: $90
Enjoy an intimate evening of food, wine and music. Join the guest artists
for a buffet dinner and then listen as the musicians take us inside the
music, illuminating these three works by Harbison, Bruckner and Schubert.View the dinner menu from Phoenix Fine Catering with wine pairings from Anglim Winery
Sunday, January 24, 2010, 3 PM
Sunday CONCERT: Closing Chapters
Congregation Beth David, San Luis Obispo
Cost: $23-$47
Hear all three featured works in full at this stunning location.*Special Package Deal: Buy the Saturday DINNER and Sunday CONCERT and get the Friday Notable Encounter INSIGHT for FREE!
