Russian summer downtown

A third season of summer chamber-music programs at downtown Richmond’s Dominion Arts Center, surveying “Rachmaninoff and the Russians,” will open with the first extensive local performance by Ronald A. Crutcher, the cellist who is concluding his first year as president of the University
of Richmond.

Summer Series 2016,
staged by the Richmond Symphony in collaboration with the UR and Virginia Commonwealth University music departments, will present six casual hour-long duo recitals on Thursdays from July 7 to Aug. 11. Each begins at 6:30 p.m. in the arts center’s Gottwald Playhouse.

Crutcher has performed in the Cincinnati, New Haven and Greensboro symphonies and the Beethovenhalle Orchestra of Bonn, Germany, and is cellist of the Klemperer Trio. He held leadership posts at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the University of Texas in Austin, and was president of Chamber Music America (1996-2000).

Other performers in the series include violinist Susy Yim, violist Molly Sharp, cellist Jason McComb, flutist Mary Boodell, oboist and English horn player Shawn Welk and pianist Russell Wilson – all members of the symphony; and pianists Joanne Kong, Daniel Stipe, Charles Staples, John Walter and Magdalena Adamek.

Programs will mix chamber and solo-piano works by Rachmaninoff with chamber and solo pieces by Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Scriabin, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and other composers active in Russian music from the 18th to 21st centuries.

Subscription tickets sets are $100 for six concerts, and 10 percent off the single ticket price of $20 for three or more concerts. Discounted subscriptions and single tickets are available for students and children. (Concerts often sold out in advance in previous seasons of the series.)

For ticket information, call (804) 788-1212 or visit http://www.richmondsymphony.com

Summer Series 2016 artists and programs: 

July 7
Ron Crutcher, cello
Joanne Kong, piano
Glazunov: Elegie, Op. 17
Scriabin: Prelude in B major, Op. 16, No. 1
Scriabin: Étude in C sharp minor, Op. 42, No. 5
Rachmaninoff: Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 19

July 14
Susy Yim, violin
Daniel Stipe, piano
Rachmaninoff: “Variations on a Theme of Corelli”
Prokofiev: Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 80
Tchaikovsky: “Valse-Scherzo”

July 21
Mary Boodell, flute
Russell Wilson, piano
César Cui: Scherzetto
Sofia Gubaidulina: “Allegro rustico”
Gubaidulina: “Sounds of the Forest”
Rachmaninoff: Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14
Rachmaninoff: Études-tableaux in C minor, A minor, Op. 39, Nos. 1-2
Prokofiev: Flute Sonata

July 28
Molly Sharp, viola
Charles Staples, piano
Glinka: Viola Sonata
Shostakovich: Viola Sonata, Op. 147
Rachmaninoff: Étude-tableaux in E flat minor, Op. 39, No. 5
Scriabin: Étude in D sharp minor, Op. 8, No. 12
Lera Auerbach: Postlude for viola and piano

Aug. 4
Jason McComb, cello
John Walter, piano
Miaskovsky: Cello Sonata No. 1, Op. 12
Shostakovich: Cello Sonata in D minor, Op. 40
Rachmaninoff: Prélude in F major, Op. 2, No. 1

Aug. 11
Shawn Welk, oboe & English horn
Magdalena Adamek, piano
Boris Vladimirovich Asaf’ev: Sonatina for oboe and piano
Marina Dranishnikova: Poem
Rachmaninoff: Moments musicaux, Op. 16, No. 3
Rachmaninoff: “Two Pieces,” Op. 2
Prokofiev: “Ten Pieces from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ ” –
VI: “Montagues and Capulets”
Johann Heinrich Luft: “Concerto brillant,” Op. 5