Monday, September 12, 2011

Paley Festival set for October


The Richmond festival staged by pianist Alexander Paley is moving this year to later dates, Oct. 14-16, while continuing at its longtime venue, First English Lutheran Church on Stuart Circle (Monument Avenue at Lombardy Street) in the Fan District.

This 14th season of the Paley Music Festival, titled “Fourteen Hands,” will be highlighted by performances of all of Mozart’s works for piano four-hands, played by Paley and wife, Pei-Wen Chen, and the U.S. premieres of two pieces by Joao Guilherme Ripper, a noted Brazilian composer who also serves as director of the Cecília Meireles Concert Hall in Rio de Janeiro.

Performers, in addition to Paley and Chen, are clarinetist Charles West, violinists Akemi Takayama and Kathy Judd, violist Daphne Gerling and cellist Clyde Thomas Shaw.

Admission is free, with donations accepted.

For more information, call First English Lutheran Church at (804) 355-9185 or visit http://www.paleyfestival.info/

This year’s Paley Festival dates and programs:

Oct. 14 (8 p.m.) – Mozart: Sonata in C major, K. 521, for piano four-hands; Mozart: Theme and Variations in G major, K. 501, for piano four-hands; Beethoven: Violin Sonata in G major, Op. 30; Schubert: Piano Sonata in B flat major, D. 960.

Oct. 15 (8 p.m.) – Mozart: Sonata in D major, K. 381/123a, for piano four-hands; Mozart: Sonata in B flat major, K. 358/186c, for piano four-hands; Schumann: Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105; Prokofiev: “Overture on Hebrew Themes,” Op. 34, for clarinet, piano and string quartet; Fauré: Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15.

Oct. 16 (3:30 p.m.) – Mozart: Sonata in G major (unfinished), K. 357, for piano four-hands; Mozart: Sonata in F major, K. 497, for piano four-hands; Ripper: “Kinderszenen” for clarinet, cello and piano; Ripper: Trio for clarinet, viola and piano; Dvořák: Piano Trio in E minor, Op. 90 (“Dumky”).