Iberian Mystics| read review | see program
The Music of Three Faiths
December 5, 2003 at 8pm
Presented in collaboration with The Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University and the Middle East Institute.
PRELUDE at 7pm with Flory Jagoda
“A warm Jewish voice that holds a wealth of emotions”
—The Washington Post
At a moment in history when we urgently need models of multi-cultural cooperation, the Post-Classical Ensemble presents an evening of music, visual art, dance, and the spoken word. Sephardic songs sung by Flory Jagoda, the ecstatic polyphony of Tomás Luis de Victoria, the mystic poetry of Juan de la Cruz and Teresa de Jesús, and the sinuous arabesques of the Arab ‘Ud celebrates Spain’s music of three faiths. Also on the program Manuel de Falla’s El Amor Brujo, with its ardent Moorish echoes and gypsy strains, and four Sephardic songs colorfully re-imagined by the contemporary Puerto Rican composer Roberto Sierra, revisit Andalusia’s magic confluence of cultures and religions.
An “Iberian Mystics” Open Rehearsal
December 3, 2003, 1:30pm
The Kreeger Museum
2401 Foxhall Road, NW
An Open Rehearsal with the Post-Classical Ensemble Selections of works
from its program “Iberian Mystics (The Music of Three Faiths)”
Tickets: Free / For reservations, please call 202-338-3552
Csárdás!
| read review | see program
February 5, 2004, 8pm
With the participation of the Gázsa Hungarian Folk Music Band from Budapest, and pianist Alexander Shtarkman in his Washington debut.
Presented in association with The Hungarian Cultural Center, New York.
PRELUDE at 7 pm with members of the Gázsa Band
Joseph Horowitz, host
“Compelling” —The New York Times
Budapest’s celebrated Gázsa Band recreates electrifying Hungarian gypsy dances and earthy peasant songs as heard in Vienna and rural Transylvania a century ago. Alexander Shtarkman, one of the world’s great pianists, makes a rare American appearance. With Hungarian Dances, Hungarian Rhapsodies, and Rumanian Dances by Brahms, Liszt, and Bartók, plus Bartók’s harrowing Divertimento for string orchestra.
“Alexander Shtarkman. Remember the name. He is only 22. He plays the piano with all the strength, flash and eagerness that his age would suggest. He also plays with the sensitivity and mellow refinement one associates with certain grand old men of the keyboard, most of them Russian. . .It was scary. It was wonderful.”
—Martin Bernheimer, Los Angeles Times (reviewing Alexander Shtarkman’s 1990 West Coast debut)
