HARRISON — The Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival will return to Deertrees Theatre for its 39th season of chamber music performances on Tuesday evenings during July and August.
Concerts will be performed at 7:30 p.m. on July 12, 19, 26 and Aug. 2, and 9.
Laurie Kennedy, in her 26th year as music director, has arranged a series of concerts for varied musical tastes to be performed by principal chairs in orchestras from Maine to California, musicians in renowned festivals in this country and abroad, and recording artists. Many have returned year after year.
Here is the lineup:
July 12: The season-opener, “Hungarian Connection,” featuring Kodaly’s Intermezzo for String Trio; Bartok’s Duos for Two Violins; Bartok’s virtuosic Rhapsody No. 1 for Violin and Piano; Liszt’s Forgotten Romance for Viola and Piano; and Brahms’ Piano Quartet in G Minor, with the famous Hungarian inspired “Gypsy rondo.”
July 19: “Voice of the Whale,” a 1971 work by American composer George Crumb inspired by recordings of the sounds of humpback whales. The piano, cello and flute are played in unexpected ways to reproduce the sounds of the whales. Theatrical stage lighting creates an oceanic environment and masks on the performers minimize the human element. Also on this program are Beethoven’s String Quartet in E Flat Major, the “Harp,” and the Piano Trio by Rebecca Clark.
July 26: “Mahler Remembered,” presented in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Gustav Mahler’s death. It includes Mahler’s Piano Quartet Movement in A Minor and two arrangements created in Mahler’s native Vienna shortly after his death. The first is Claude Debussy’s haunting “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun,” arranged for 12 instruments. The main work is a full-length performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G Major, arranged for 12 instruments and voice.
Aug. 2: The fourth concert, “Wind Song,” featuring Mozart’s String Quartet in B Flat Major, two Schubert songs with piano and clarinet, and a quintet by romantic Czech composer Zdenek Fibich.
Aug. 9: The fifth and final concert, “Full Circle,” offering works from three major musical periods. The program includes Haydn’s Piano Trio in G Major from the classical era, with its popular “Gypsy rondo” last movement; Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 3, composed in 1945, expressing the pain experienced in the Soviet Union in the aftermath of World War II; and Schubert’s Piano Trio in B Flat Major, a quintessential romantic favorite.
In addition, Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival musicians will present “Discover the Joys of Live Music” at three different venues. The program will include short classical selections, audience participation and “. . . and those seven dwarfs,” a piece for string quartet and narrator, by 30-year-old Connecticut composer Ryan Jesperson.
These performances will be at 7 p.m. Sunday, July 17, at Skye Theatre in Carthage; 1 p.m. Thursday, July 21, at Oxford Hills High School in South Paris; and 7 p.m. Sunday, July 24, at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Bridgton.
Tickets are $20 for individual concerts, $85 for the series of five Tuesday concerts. Tickets for anyone under 21, open seating on a first-come, first-served basis, are free and available at the door. For tickets or more information, call 583-6747 or visit www.sebagomusicfestival.org. Tickets also available at the Cool Moose in Bridgton, Country Sleigh in Naples, Fare Share in Norway and Deertrees Theatre.
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