'Fedotov and Friends' in concert at Dalton Center
March 19, 2003
KALAMAZOO -- "Igor Fedotov and Friends" is the next performance in the Faculty Artist Concert Series at Western Michigan University Sunday, March 30, at 3 p.m. in the Dalton Center Recital Hall.
Tickets are $10 for general admission and $5 for students and senior citizens and are available at the door and through the Miller Auditorium Ticket Office at (269) 387-2300 or toll-free (800) 228-9858.
Clarinetist John Marco is on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin, Platteville, and pianist Gary Hammond is on the faculty of Hunter College, City University of New York. They come together to join their friend and colleague Igor Fedotov, viola professor in the WMU School of Music, for the March 30 concert, which includes works by Bruch, Schulman, Shostakovich and Uhl.
The three pieces for clarinet, viola and piano by Max Bruch (1838-1920) have been selected from the set of eight pieces, Opus 83 for that combination. Written late in the composer's life, they brim with attractively shaped melodies and beautiful scoring, which is characteristic of Bruch's music.
Written in 1937 for three players of the Vienna Philharmonic, "Kleines Konzert" by Alfred Uhl (1909-1992) reflects a joining of various influences of his compositional style. Listeners can find romantic, neoclassical and even 12-tone effects coming together in this rhythmically vigorous work. Cast in three movements, "Kleines Konzert" engages all three instruments equally in its dynamic sweep.
Shostakovich's "Viola Sonata," his last work, is a summing up of the composer's musical and life views in an intense, intimate chamber piece. The last movement, based on Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata, is Shostakovich's attempt to face himself and find peace.
Alan Schulman was an American composer and cellist who recently passed away. His "Variations for Viola" is one of the best American romantic works for the instrument.
Media contact: Kevin West, 269 387-4678, kevin.west@wmich.edu