Concertante is in its 15th season, well known for their concerts in the region. They dropped by our performance studio on the day of their latest concert at the Rose Lehrman Arts at HACC and gave us a sneak preview of the music on the program. We brought in our camera, and you can check out the videos below.
Here, clarinetist Christopher Grymes, violinist Xiao Dong Wang, and pianist Xak Bjerken of Concertante perform a section of Bela Bartok’s Contrasts. Bartok wrote this for himself to play as pianist along with violinist Joseph Szigeti and clarinetist Benny Goodman. It uses a deliberately out-of-tune fiddle to start the section, evoking the idea of a folk fiddler in the Hungarian region.
Violist Rachel Shapiro plays her solo section of Yiddish Dances by Jonathan Leshenoff. The trio version of this work was written for Rachel Shaprio and her husband Christopher Grymes in honor of their wedding.
Cellist Alexis Gerlach joins the other members of Concertante to perform the slow movement of Brahms great Piano Quartet No. 2 in A, Op. 26.
