Performance Today Plays Joachim Raff Trio
A Midsummer’s Music trio was featured on national radio program Performance Today on July 15. The ensemble, comprised of David Perry, violin, Walter Preucil, cello, and Jeannie Yu, piano, performed three movements of Joachim Raff’s Piano Trio No. 2 in G Major, Op. 112, recorded at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Sister Bay.
Introducing Midsummer’s Music, Raff’s piece, and the musicians, Performance Today host Fred Child said, “It’s time for a PT debut, not the first time for a composer or a performer, but in this case, a festival. First time we’ve broadcast a concert highlight from Midsummer’s Music, which takes place in beautiful Door County, Wisconsin. And we’re a little bit late to the party on this one, I have to say. Midsummer’s Music has been around for nearly 30 years, bringing intimate music to sweet little venues scattered all across the peninsula. Door County is on that long spit of land in northeast Wisconsin, stretching up and out into Lake Michigan. So, this single county has more than 300 miles of shoreline and about a dozen little waterfront towns. The music festival has become a favorite for the locals and for the many city folks who go to Door County as a summer getaway.”
Performance Today shows can be streamed for up to 30 days after the first broadcast. To stream the Midsummer’s Music audio, visit https://www.yourclassical.org/programs/performance-today/episodes, and select the July 15 recordings.
Raff was largely self-taught in music, studying the subject while working as a schoolmaster. His first piano compositions were published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1844 and received a favorable review in Robert Schumann’s journal, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, which prompted Raff to go to Zürich and pursue composition full-time. After a period in Stuttgart, he worked as Franz Liszt’s assistant at Weimar, and during this time he helped Liszt in the orchestration of several of his works. Later, he was the first Director of, and a teacher at, the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, where he employed Clara Schumann and a number of other eminent musicians as teachers, and established a class specifically for female composers.
American Public Media’s Performance Today is America’s most popular classical music radio program and a winner of the 2014 Gabriel Award for artistic achievement. The show is broadcast on hundreds of public radio stations across the country. Performance Today features live concert recordings that cannot be heard anywhere else, highlights from new album releases, and in-studio performances and interviews. Performance Today is based at the APM studios in St. Paul, MN, but is frequently on the road, with special programs broadcast from festivals and public radio stations around the country.
Midsummer’s Music was co-founded in 1990 by Jim and Jean Berkenstock, long-time Door County summer residents and principal orchestral players with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. What began as two concerts among friends has become one of the Midwest’s most anticipated chamber music series, bringing thousands of chamber music enthusiasts from around the globe to the magical Door County Peninsula.