The Daytona Solisti concert “Romantic Realms – Music of Schubert” will feature the Rickman-Acree-Corporon Piano Trio performing a Franz Schubert work that was never played publicly during the Austrian composer’s brief lifetime.
“Romantic Realms – Music of Schubert” will be presented at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 14, at Lighthouse Christ Presbyterian Church, 1035 W. Granada Blvd., Ormond Beach, where Solisti is in residence again this concert season. A $20 donation is requested at the door. For more information call 386-562-5423 or go online at daytonasolisti.com.
The Rickman-Acree-Corporon Piano Trio, composed of pianist Michael Rickman, violinist Susan Pitard Acree and cellist Joseph Corporon, will perform Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat Major, D. 898. The piece was never played publicly until after Schubert’s death. Also on the program is the Daytona Solisti String Quartet composed of violinists Olga Kolpakova and Acree, violist Zoriy Zinger, and Corporon on cello. They will perform Schubert’s String Quartet in A Minor, D. 804 “Rosamunde.”
Schubert, who lived from 1797 to 1828, bridged the Classical and Romantic periods of music. Despite his frequently ill health and bouts of depression, Schubert was very prolific, writing more than 1,000 works that included some six hundred Romantic lieder (songs accompanied by piano) as well as symphonies, sonatas, string quartets, operas and other pieces.
However, Schubert was neglected and largely unknown until after his death at age 31, when fellow composers Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, Brahms and others began to champion his compositions. Franz Liszt, the Hungarian composer who lived from 1811-1886, proclaimed Schubert was “the most poetic musician who ever lived.”
Schubert finished his Piano Trio No. 1 in the last year of his life. Not only was the work never performed publicly during his lifetime, but also it wasn’t published until eight years after his death. Music historians note the lively, buoyant, lyrical quality of the 40-minute work belies the melancholy mood swings that often plagued Schubert. The German composer Robert Schumann said that “One glance at Schubert’s Trio and the troubles of our human existence disappear and all the world is fresh and bright again.”
Schubert’s String Quartet in A Minor, D. 804 “Rosamunde” gets its name from the 1823 play “Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus” by German playwright Helmina von Chézy. Schubert composed the incidental music for the play, which was not very successful, and he repurposed one of the themes from that music when he composed his String Quartet in A Minor in early 1824.
The “Rosamunde” Quartet – a name that was not conceived by Schubert – would be the composer’s only string quartet performed and published during his lifetime. Schubert scholar Maurice Brown praised the work for its “emotional directness, poetry and sheer beauty” while also displaying a “technical power used with masterly ease.
Daytona Solisti was founded in 2005 by Acree after she moved to Daytona Beach from Atlanta. She previously played violin in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for 22 years, performing in New York (Carnegie Hall), London, Chicago, Paris and other cities.
Rickman has performed at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall at New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and at venues in London, Paris, Toronto, Chile, Latvia and across the United States. He retired from Stetson University in April 2017 after 34 years as professor of piano at the DeLand school, where he has been named Professor Emeritus. He also is a Steinway Artist, an honor bestowed by the prestigious piano maker, and Artist in Residence of Daytona Solisti.
Daytona Solisti presents an annual concert series featuring performances by the Daytona Solisti Chamber Orchestra, the Rickman-Acree-Corporon Piano Trio and Daytona Solisti String Quartet, and solo performances by Rickman. The ensembles are composed of professional musicians from throughout Central Florida and Northeast Florida.
Solisti’s remaining concerts this concert season include two by the Daytona Solisti Chamber Orchestra: “Romancing the Strings” on Feb. 11, and “Mozartiana – Music of Mozart” on April 21. All performances take place at Lighthouse Christ Presbyterian Church in Ormond Beach. For additional information visit daytonasolisti.com.
Leave a Reply