July Encore Recital

The fourth and final Encore of this season took place on July 6th at St. Mark Presbyterian Church in North Bethesda, Maryland. We had nine performers, with two duets, including a piano four-hands duet and a flute/piano duet.

Sondra Mills started us off, playing the third and final movement of the Schumann C-major Fantasie. She explained how the piece was written during a time of contention between Schumann and the father of his future wife Clara, over the desire of the young couple to get married. The Fantasie is in the key of C, which Schumann sometimes used as a symbolic key for Clara in his music (this also occurs for example in his Piano Concerto).

Michelle Powell played the last movement of the Beethoven “Moonlight” sonata, and talked about how the piece was written when he was 42 years old and already experiencing the hearing impairment that eventually became deafness. The movement is classic Beethoven, stormy and full of driving energy.

DuEwa Kamara told us how she learned all of the Debussy “Suite Bergamasque” during pandemic stay-at-home time. In the last Encore she played the opening Prélude, and this time she performed the Menuet. Carol Barth followed with the next piece in the suite, “Clair de Lune,” telling us how she had come back to the piece for the first time since a recital in eighth grade! She also played the Ravel “Pavane for a Dead Princess.” Carol explained that a Pavane was a stately march that might be used at weddings or funerals, and that the princess was a made-up idea of Ravel, not intended to represent any particular princess.

Mary Lewers and Dale Dean started with a flute “daydream” piece by French composer Émile Pessard, then played a serene character piece “Vignette” by American composer Eugénie Rocherolle. Mary mentioned that Rocherolle grew up in New Orleans and is still living. She wrote many teaching pieces and duet or trio pieces, some of which have been played by AMSF members in previous Encore recitals.

Judith Block started out playing two Rachmaninoff preludes, remarking that the first is from his early-middle period (1910) and has a left hand figuration with a rolling quality bringing to mind a flowing brook. The right hand comes in at times with a figuration evocative of birdsong. Judith mentioned that this was a favorite encore piece of Horowitz. Rachmaninoff himself played it as an encore after the first Moscow performance of his third concerto.

Kuo-Wei Wang and Louis Reichwein played all three movements of a Sonatina for piano four-hands by Argentine composer Carlos Guastavino. Louis said that Guastavino was popular in his own country, to the extent that he was able to make a living as a composer/pianist, and that his music was very much in the Romantic idiom. This is in contrast with the more modern sound of his fellow Argentinian Ginastera.

Starting this fall with the 2024–2025 recital season, Stuart Rosenthal will step in as our new Encore coordinator. The next Encore recital is slated for January 5th. If you wish to participate, contact Stuart at srosenthal@amsfperform.org.

Program