Midsummer’s Music Masters Schubert’s ‘Mountain’

Schubert’s Piano Trio in B-flat is one of two monumental trios he wrote at the height of his creativity. It’s a mountain to climb, but the view is worth it!

Midsummer’s Music, Wisconsin’s oldest summer chamber music series, continues its 2023 concert season with a program celebrating one of Franz Schubert’s most monumental trios alongside a rarely heard trio by Ukrainian composer Dmytro Klebanov.

Schubert wrote two complete trio masterpieces for violin, cello, and piano in 1827/28, at the height of his creativity and only weeks before his death. His Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat, D.898, for piano, violin, and cello is a massive composition that demonstrates his structural acumen in holding such a work together. He heard the piece only once at one of his private house concerts. Midsummer’s Music Artistic Director Jim Berkenstock describes it as “a mountain to climb, but the view is worth it!”

Klebanov was born in the city that is now called Kharkiv and studied at the Kharkov Music and Drama Institute, eventually becoming a professor at the Kharkov Conservatory. He suffered under the musical restraints imposed by the Soviet authorities, but perhaps even more so because he was also Jewish and Ukrainian. His Piano Trio No. 2 for piano, violin, and cello is suggestive of Ravel and employs elements of folk music in a personal and unique way. Klebanov’s music is only now becoming more widely known in the West, having been seriously censored during the Soviet era.

The program’s musicians are David Perry, violin, Mara McClain, cello, and Jeannie Yu, piano.

Performances are 7:00pm, July 27, at the Donald & Carol Kress Pavilion in Egg Harbor, sponsored by David & Nancy Borghesi; 7:00pm, July 28, at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Ephraim; 7:00pm, July 29, at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Sister Bay, sponsored by Ross & Loralee Holton; and 5:00pm, July 30, at Hope United Church of Christ in Sturgeon Bay, sponsored by Sandy Zingler.

A complete 2023 summer brochure can be downloaded at www.midsummersmusic.com.

 Tickets are $38 for adults, $17 for students, and children 12 and under are free with an adult. Premium prices apply for special events. Flex-packs of six tickets for the price of five tickets are also available. Tickets can be ordered at www.midsummersmusic.com or by phone at 920-854-7088.

 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.

 For more information visit www.midsummersmusic.com.

High-resolution photos can be downloaded at https://www.midsummersmusic.com/photos/.

David Perry (credit Heidi Hodges): https://midsummersmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/David-Perry-Violin.jpg

Mara McClain: https://www.midsummersmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/mara-mcclain-1.jpg

Jeannie Yu (credit Heidi Hodges): https://midsummersmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Jeannie-Yu-Piano.jpg

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For Calendar Listings:

 Emperor Concerto & Jeannie Yu

Quartet in D Major, Op. 8                                                                                     Bernhard Henrik Crusell

Symphony No. 95 in C Minor (Salomon arr.)                                                 Joseph Haydn

Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73, “Emperor” (Lachner arr.)         Ludwig van Beethoven

July 15, 7:00 pm: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Sister Bay

July 16, 5:00 pm: Hope United Church of Christ, Sturgeon Bay

July 19, 7:00 pm: Donald & Carol Kress Pavilion, Egg Harbor

July 21, 7:00 pm: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Ephraim

 

Haydn (Michael) & Mendelssohn

String Quintet in C Major, P. 108                        Michael Haydn

Phantasy Quartet                                                     Ernest John Moeran

Quintet No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 87                Felix Mendelssohn

July 20, 7:00 pm: Old Gibraltar Town Hall, Fish Creek

July 22, 7:00 pm: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Sister Bay

July 23, 5:00 pm: Woodwalk Gallery, Egg Harbor

July 26, 7:00 pm: Sister Bay Moravian Church, Sister Bay

 

Schubert Trio

Piano Trio No. 2                                          Dmytro Klebanov

Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat, D. 898           Franz Schubert

July 27, 7:00 pm: Donald & Carol Kress Pavilion, Egg Harbor

July 28, 7:00 pm: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Ephraim

July 29, 7:00 pm: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Sister Bay

July 30, 5:00 pm: Hope United Church of Christ, Sturgeon Bay

 

19th Century French Rapture

Quintet in C Minor, Op. 42                      Louis Vierne

Quintet No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 7            Charles-Marie Widor

August 23, 7:00 pm: Hope United Church of Christ, Sturgeon Bay

August 24, 7:00 pm: Donald & Carol Kress Pavilion, Egg Harbor

August 25, 7:00 pm: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Ephraim

August 26, 7:00 pm: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Sister Bay

 

Splendid Stories

Four Two-Bit Contraptions                           Jan Bach

En Saga, Op. 9 (Gregory Barrett arr.)       Jean Sibelius

Quintet in G Major, Op. 77                           Antonín Dvořák

August 27, 5:00 pm: Woodwalk Gallery, Egg Harbor

August 29, 7:00 pm: Björklunden, Baileys Harbor

August 30, 7:00 pm: Mutchler Residence Salon Concert, Sturgeon Bay

August 31, 7:00 pm: Donald & Carol Kress Pavilion, Egg Harbor

September 3, 3:00 pm: The Clearing Folk School, Ellison Bay

 

Celebratory Fireworks!

Piano Quartet in D Minor, Op. 25           Dora Pejacevic

Café Music                                                      Paul Schoenfeld

Piano Quartet in C Minor, Op. 13           Richard Strauss

September 1, 7:00 pm: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Ephraim

September 2, 7:00 pm: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Sister Bay

September 4, 3:00 pm: Labor Day Gala, Björklunden, Baileys Harbor