Hello, I'm Daniel Meyer Music Director of the Erie Philharmonic, and it is my pleasure to welcome you to "In Your Home" with the Erie Philharmonic.

This is the first of a two episode concert featuring the musicians of our own Erie Philharmonic and two incredibly talented young concert soloists.

Pianist Michael Brown, and cellist Nicholas Canellakis.

Over these two episodes, we will explore music from over two centuries ago in a keyboard concerto by Johann Sebastian Bach.

All the way up through the present day in a tango inspired piece by Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov.

We begin this episode with music from what we now call the baroque era.

Georg Friedrich H ändel was born in Halle, in present day Germany in 1685.

He was a well-known composer in his day and his fame spread all over Europe.

We perhaps best know H ändel today as the composer of the oratorio "Messiah", which had its premiere in Dublin but the recognition H ändel garnered in his day included hits in opera or oratorio or castro music chamber works and Oregon Music.

We are about to perform a concerto grosso by H ändel.

It's music that divides the players into groups the soloists, in our case, two violins, a cellist, an organist and a lutenist versus the rest of the string orchestra.

This back and forth between the groups is what helps create contrast, and deliver the musical argument.

But to tell you the truth to my 21st century ears this argument sounds much more like a harmonious conversation among friends who have known each other for a long, long time.

Let's see what you think, as we play this four movement concerto grosso by H ändel I first had the pleasure of working with cellist Nicholas Canellakis.

When he came to Erie in 2017 to perform with the Philharmonic in the Warner Theater.

Since then, I've been looking forward to working with him again and I was really excited when he agreed to play this next piece by English composer John Tavener.

Here's what Nicholas had to say about this special piece.

It's great to be back with Daniel and the Erie Philharmonic its a real, real treat.

This next piece we're going to play for you is by John Tavener "The Protecting Veil" Its a very religious piece The title "The Protecting Veil" refers to The feast of the protecting veil of the mother of god.

Which was instatuted by the orthodox church which commemorate the supposed sighting of the mother of God at the church of Constantinople in the 10th century.

And so the cello plays the role of the voice of the mother of god.

You'll see me playing in the upper most register of the cello, singing away in these really, really, high tones that are supposed to represent her voice.

Its suppose to be reminiscent of a byzantine chant.

But Tavener himself said that you can enjoy this music either as religious music or as pure music, however works for you.

Hope you enjoy it.

We have really enjoyed reuniting with our friends Michael Brown and Nicholas Canellakis.

And we now have a chance to feature them together as chamber music partners in one of the most famous works for cello and piano.

It's Beethoven's "Cello Sonata in A Major".

You will now hear them played the finale of that sonata a wonderful showcase for the fleet fingers you must have to play the notes.

This music also demands a Brovara spirit to convey the optimism and heroism of this music.

I hope you enjoy this performance of one of the most impressive pieces of chamber music that Beethoven ever wrote, the "Cello Sonata in A Major".

American composer Cindy McTee, was one among many artists who was moved to create a response to the terrible tragedy of September 11th, 2001.

Her contribution was a work called anyus day or Lamb of God for Oregon.

She later decided to transform the work for Oregon into one for the full string section of an orchestra.

The work then became the second movement of her first symphony, premiered by the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC.

Later, it was set as a standalone piece, simply titled "Adagio".

It is in this form that we will perform the work for you now.

A deeply touching piece, "Adagio" reveals its beauty and sorrow over a long expanse, towards the end, McTee embeds a little musical motto.

It is the same note sequence that her mentor Krzysztof Penderecki put into the anyus day of his own Polish Requiem.

This musical motto of course serves as a tribute to her former teacher but also marks a connection to the sacrifice that too many families were forced to endure on that terrible day in 2001.

Here is Cindy McTee's "Adagio".

Let's finish our episode with a piece from 1926 that was originally written for students at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

The composer was Ernest Bloch and at the time he was head of the now internationally renowned music school.

He wanted to prove to his students that old fashioned forms, like the ones Bach and H ändel used could still sound fresh when they're recast new ideas.

The result is something like what Stravinsky was doing at the same time in Europe, finding ancient forms as a framework, but bringing a modern perspective to those older musical structures.

We will now welcome back pianist Michael Brown in this concerto grosso by Bloch.

A modern iteration of that Baroque form we talked about at the beginning with H ändel.

Here there are soloists in smaller groupings of instruments that are set against the whole orchestra just as in the H ändel.

The innovation here besides using a piano instead of a harpsichord, is that Bloch can use updated harmonies at a distinctly modern approach to rhythm and harmony to pour new wine into old wineskins.

Here are the first and third movements of Ernest Bloch "Concerto Grosso No.

1".

Thank you so much for joining us on this concert featuring musicians of the Erie Philharmonic in collaboration with Michael Brown and Nicholas Canellakis.

Thanks also to our friends and partners at Edinburgh University and WQLN PBS.

We simply could not have done this without you.

We have been touched by how many of you have reached out to us to express your gratitude for these televised concerts in this difficult time.

We miss you very much, and are really looking forward to when we can reunite and share this music with you in person.

Until then, stay safe, and join us for the next episode of "In Your Home" with the Erie Philharmonic where we will continue to explore great music with Michael Brown and Nicholas Canellakis.