[elegant classical music] Hello, I'm Daniel Meyer, music director of the Erie Philharmonic.

Welcome to this, the final installment of In Your Home with the Erie Philharmonic for the 2020-2021 season.

We are grateful that you have joined us for these concerts and have genuinely treasured this opportunity to partner with Edinboro University and WQLN PBS to bring these musical experiences to you.

This is the second of two episodes featuring two of the finest young classical artists based in the United States today, Nicholas Canellaskis, cellist, and Michael Brown, pianist.

Michael Brown's technical virtuosity and his beautifully detailed playing at the keyboard would alone be enough to call him one to watch.

But Michael is also a talented composer.

And he has written for voice and piano, piano and orchestra, chamber music, and works for full symphony orchestra.

Here is Michael to tell us about the next work we're going to perform with him.

I'm delighted to be back in Erie to play with the philharmonic, and especially one of my favorite pieces, Bach's "D Minor Keyboard Concerto."

Bach's music is very dear to my heart.

His "Two-Part Inventions" were some of the first piano pieces I ever played.

And this piece is becoming a friend of mine.

I've been fortunate to play it a lot in chamber music settings.

And that's one aspect of this piece that I love so much.

It's the interplay, the chamber music aspects, the intricate passage work, the kind of fun communication between all the players.

So here's the first movement.

It's extremely driven and boisterous, and absolutely thrilling, and we hope you enjoy.

["Keyboard Concerto in D Minor"] [elegant classical music] American composer George Walker was born in Washington, D.C. in 1922.

He showed musical talent at an early age as a pianist and was admitted to the Oberlin Conservatory near Cleveland at the age of 14.

He was later the first African American to graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with diplomas in both piano and composition.

Written when he was 24 years old, Walker's "Lyric for Strings" is his best-known and most often performed work.

The piece was originally titled "Lament," and it is dedicated to the memory of his grandmother who had died in the previous year.

Inspired by Curtis classmate Samuel Barber's beautiful "Adagio for Strings," Walker wrote his own heartfelt, slowly evolving music that blossoms over time with rich melody.

What a poignant way to honor the grandmother he loved so dearly.

Here is George Walker's "Lyric for Strings."

["Lyric for Strings"] Astor Piazzolla was the king of Argentinian tango from the 20th century.

The piece we are about to play is by fellow Argentinian, Osvaldo Golijov, and it's a tribute to the incredible influence Piazzolla had on tango.

It's called "Last Round" from 1996.

And Golijov said the following about his piece, "I composed "Last Round" as an imaginary chance for Piazzolla's spirit to fight one more time."

The piece is conceived as an idealized bandoneon.

There are two movements.

The first represents the act of a violent compression of the instrument, and the second, a final, seemingly endless opening sigh.

It is also a fantasy on the song "My Beloved Buenos Aires" composed by the legendary Carlos Gardel in the 1930s.

But "Last Round" is also a sublimated tango dance.

Two quartets confront each other separated by the focal base with violins and violas standing up as in the traditional tango orchestras.

The bows fly in the air as inverted legs in crisscrossed choreography.

Always attracting and repelling each other, always in danger of clashing, always avoiding it with the immutability that can only be acquired by transforming hot passion into pure pattern.

Here is that hot passion transformed into pure pattern in a complete performance of Osvaldo Golijov's "Last Round."

["Last Round"] Tchaikovsky's "First String Quartet" was completed in 1871.

And it was among the first pieces he ever published.

The quartet's popularity gave a huge boost to his fledgling career.

And the slow movement in particular, the andante cantabile, was an instant hit that led to various arrangements over the years that helped perpetuate its popularity.

We are going to hear the version for solo cello and strings of that famed andante cantabile.

At one performance of the quartet, Tchaikovsky was seated next to none other than one of the greats of Russian literature, Leo Tolstoy.

Tchaikovsky said, "I was never so flattered in my life, nor was my pride as a composer so stirred as when Leo Tolstoy, sitting beside me, listening to the andante for my "First Quartet" dissolved in tears."

Here is Nicholas Canellakis to play an arrangement of Tchaikovsky's andante cantabile for solo cello and strings.

["String Quartet No.

1," Andante Cantabile] [elegant classical music] We have now come to the end of our program and we would like to leave you with a complete performance of one of the finest works ever written for string orchestra.

It's by English composer Edward Elgar, and it is titled "Introduction and Allegro" from 1905.

Like some of the other works we have performed for you on these concerts, it is a concerto grosso where Elgar pits a smaller group of musicians, in this case, a string quartet, against the rest of the string orchestra.

The interplay between these two groups creates a wonderful variety and an opportunity for Elgar to show off the virtuosity of his musicians, and, indeed, of his own imagination and skill.

I love how this music perfectly balances the stately craft of a great composer with the spirit of the Romantic age into one passionate, very English piece of music.

Our solo quartet in this performance includes Emily Cornelius and Jonathan Moser, violins, James Rhodes, violist, and Erica Snowden-Rodriguez, cellist.

["Introduction and Allegro"] On behalf of everyone at the Erie Philharmonic, thank you for joining us and supporting us this past season.

We certainly miss seeing you in person, but we couldn't be more proud of bringing music into your home.

And, of course, we owe a great debt to our friends at Edinburgh University and WQLN PBS for making these broadcasts possible.

If you've enjoyed the philharmonic in your living room, we hope to see you this summer when we bring the music to your own neighborhood.

We'll be transitioning from concerts in your home to in your hometown with a summer-long series of free music throughout the region.

We can't wait to have a live audience for concerts, and we're very excited to announce that we are planning to take the stage in December 2021 at the completion of the major stage renovations to the orchestra's home, the Warner Theater.

The season will be filled with celebrations and special moments.

With world renowned guests and exciting film concerts, to the debut of a brand new Steinway piano and a 1500-piece pipe organ, this season will be worth waiting for.

Here's the very first look at our upcoming season and our triumphant return to our home, the Warner Theater.

["The Firebird"] ["IV.

Tempo Allegro, Molto Agitato"] ["Symphony No.

2 in C Minor"] ["The Hills Are Alive"] ["Live and Let Die"] ♪ Live and let die ♪ Oh, supercalifragilisticexpialidocis ♪ ♪ Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious ♪ ♪ If you say it loud enough you'll always sound precocious ♪ ["Star Wars Main Title"] I'm music director Daniel Meyer, and on behalf of everyone here at the Erie Philharmonic, thank you for your support and passion for great music in our community.

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