Symphony doubles up on Brahms
It is rare that symphony programs feature more than one major concerto, and rarer still more than one concerto soloist.
But the Spokane Symphony’s “Brahms Blast” on Friday will feature Jennifer Frautschi in Brahms’ Violin Concerto and pianist Arnaldo Cohen in the composer’s Piano Concerto No. 1.
“We were thinking about the success of the Beethoven Bash of last year: How do we reproduce the success and enthusiasm of that event with a composer that is neither Beethoven nor Mozart,” says Eckart Preu, the symphony’s music director.
“Brahms came to mind because he shares certain qualities with Mozart and Beethoven, and the idea of having more than one concerto on a program was once fairly common. Both of the soloists Friday have been in my mind to have here for some time, and this was our chance to have both.
“I find the combination of these two concertos attractive,” Preu adds, “because the Piano Concerto No. 1 shows Brahms very early in his career and the Violin Concerto shows what he has become 20 years later. Then if you add the Requiem, which we will do here in three weeks, you have three decades of Brahms.”
Pianist Cohen has been heard twice in Spokane in past seasons, while violinist Frautschi will be making her first appearance here.
Cohen was born in Brazil, where he completed his studies at the Federal University in Rio de Janeiro with honors both in piano and violin while also studying for an engineering degree.
After playing violin in the opera orchestra in Rio, Cohen won first prize in the 1972 Busoni Piano Competition. He developed an international career as a recitalist, orchestral soloist and chamber musician, and has recorded works by Schumann, Brahms, Liszt and Rachmaninoff.
A resident of England for 23 years, Cohen lives in Bloomington, Ind., and is on the faculty of Indiana University.
Frautschi, who grew up in Southern California, began violin lessons when she was 3. She attended the University of Southern California, where she studied with Robert Lipsett, and the Juilliard School, where she studied with Robert Mann.
She has been awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant and is noted for her advocacy of 20th- and 21st-century works, as well as her performances of the classics standards. Frautschi has recordings on the Artek and Naxos labels.
Preu will begin Friday’s concert with Anton von Webern’s Langsamer Satz, written when the composer was 21.
Originally written for string quartet, the Langsamer Satz lay unperformed from its composition in 1905 until it was rediscovered by Spokane musicologist and Webern biographer Hans Moldenhauer and performed at the International Webern Festival in Seattle in 1962.
Friday’s performance, a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Moldenhauer’s birth, is the first in a series of works from the Moldenhauer Archives this season.
“This work really shows where Webern was coming from, and that was from Brahms and Mahler,” Preu says. “This music is very romantic, at times sounding almost like Samuel Barber.”
Soloists Cohen and Frautschi will discuss Brahms’ concertos with host Verne Windham at Classical Chats, the symphony’s pre-performance conversation, today at 12:15 p.m. in the council chambers at City Hall. The 30-minute program will be televised on City Channel 5.
On Friday, Preu will lead a discussion of the music on the program as part of the Gladys Brooks Pre-Concert Talks series in the INB Performing Arts Center auditorium at 7 p.m.
“We will give a free ‘Brahms Blast’ T-shirt to every ticket holder under 30 as long as supplies last,” says Annie Matlow, the symphony’s marketing director.
“If the tickets for the concert sell out, people should still call or drop by the box office Friday evening since we often have tickets returned at the last minute.”