Posted on
ST. MARY'S CITY, Md. (Dec. 2, 2015)—St. Mary's College of Maryland musician-in-residence Brian Ganz will present his only full-length recital of the season on Tuesday, Dec. 8, at 8 p.m. in Auerbach Auditorium, St. Mary's Hall. The program will feature works of Frédéric Chopin and will include one work originally written for piano and orchestra, Chopin's Variations on La ci darem la mano from Mozart's Don Giovanni, Op. 2. Ganz's colleague and frequent collaborator Beverly Babcock will play the orchestra part on a second piano. General admission: $15. For more information call (240) 895-4498.
"Chopin adored the sound of the human voice and he made the piano sing as no other composer has done before or since," Ganz said. "On this program I feature works that demonstrate that great gift. In addition to the Variations for piano and orchestra with Beverly, I'll play an impromptu, a couple nocturnes, and the great Sonata No. 3 in B minor. All of these feature gorgeous singing lines. I'll start the program with a very short, nearly unknown work Chopin called 'Cantabile,' which means 'with a singing tone.' It's quite beautiful and almost never played. Although all the music will be played on the piano, the evening will really be a celebration of the beauty of the human voice in song."
Ganz recently performed his fifth recital at the Strathmore Music Center in North Bethesda in his decade long journey through the complete works of Chopin, a project he has undertaken in partnership with the National Philharmonic. He began his "Extreme Chopin" quest at Strathmore five years ago in a sold out recital that launched the ambitious endeavor to perform the composer's approximately 250 works. The next recital in the series will take place on Jan. 9, 2016.
Ganz has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the National Philharmonic, the Baltimore and the National Symphonies, the City of London Sinfonia, and L'Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo. He has performed in many of the world's major concert halls and has played under the baton of such conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pinchas Zukerman, Jerzy Semkow and Yoel Levi. A critic for La Libre Belgique wrote of Ganz's work: "We don't have the words to speak of this fabulous musician who lives music with a generous urgency and brings his public into a state of intense joy." Beverly Babcock is the Accompanist-in-Residence at the college and a member of the piano faculty. She maintains a thriving concert schedule throughout the Washington, D.C. metro area.
"Chopin adored the sound of the human voice and he made the piano sing as no other composer has done before or since," Ganz said. "On this program I feature works that demonstrate that great gift. In addition to the Variations for piano and orchestra with Beverly, I'll play an impromptu, a couple nocturnes, and the great Sonata No. 3 in B minor. All of these feature gorgeous singing lines. I'll start the program with a very short, nearly unknown work Chopin called 'Cantabile,' which means 'with a singing tone.' It's quite beautiful and almost never played. Although all the music will be played on the piano, the evening will really be a celebration of the beauty of the human voice in song."
Ganz recently performed his fifth recital at the Strathmore Music Center in North Bethesda in his decade long journey through the complete works of Chopin, a project he has undertaken in partnership with the National Philharmonic. He began his "Extreme Chopin" quest at Strathmore five years ago in a sold out recital that launched the ambitious endeavor to perform the composer's approximately 250 works. The next recital in the series will take place on Jan. 9, 2016.
Ganz has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the National Philharmonic, the Baltimore and the National Symphonies, the City of London Sinfonia, and L'Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo. He has performed in many of the world's major concert halls and has played under the baton of such conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pinchas Zukerman, Jerzy Semkow and Yoel Levi. A critic for La Libre Belgique wrote of Ganz's work: "We don't have the words to speak of this fabulous musician who lives music with a generous urgency and brings his public into a state of intense joy." Beverly Babcock is the Accompanist-in-Residence at the college and a member of the piano faculty. She maintains a thriving concert schedule throughout the Washington, D.C. metro area.