On Sunday, October 16, the Music at the Mansion Series at Highfield Hall presented works of Brahms, Schubert, Head, Marcello and Handel in the first concert of the 2011-12 season. Pianist-scholar Robert Wyatt, Director of Music at Highfield Hall, was joined by three additional stellar artists—soprano Joan Kirchner, oboist Elizabeth Doriss and cellist Bo Ericsson—to perform solo works and also to play together in an afternoon of chamber music.
Ms. Kirchner chose to open her portion of the program with a group of “water pieces” by Franz Schubert, a composer whose fascination with both nature and literature spawned a new genre of German song writing. The audience was treated to moving renditions of “Liebesbotschaft,” “Der Jüngling an der Quelle,” “Das Fischermädchen,” “Am Meer,” “Auf dem Wasser zu singen,” “Am See” and the popular "Die Forelle," “The Trout” which Schubert expanded into his most famous chamber work for strings and piano. She ended the program in a quartet arrangement of Handel’s Vesper psalm, "Laudate, Pueri, Dominum.”
Benedetto Marcello, a Baroque composer born in Venice the year following J. S. Bach’s birth in Germany, was a younger contemporary of Antonio Vivaldi. Their music shares a distinctive flavor that is enlivening, gracious and richly textured. Elizabeth Doriss performed his three-movement oboe sonata, which is one of the most popular pieces in Marcello’s vast repertoire of concertos, sonatas, oratorios, cantatas and sinfonias.
Bo Ericsson performed Brahms’ popular and evocative Sonata in E Minor, a masterwork of the cello literature. The first of two works for cello and piano, Brahms was careful to point out that the piano "should be a partner—often a leading, often a watchful and considerate partner—but it should under no circumstances assume a purely accompanying role.” Mr. Wyatt joined Mr. Ericsson in this piece that evoked myriad and strong emotions.
A familiar face on the Cape Cod music scene, Betsy Doriss is the principal oboist of the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra, the Simon Sinfonietta and the Cape Sinfonietta. She has played with The Opera Company of Boston, Boston Classical, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Plymouth Philharmonic, Mexico City Symphony and toured Spain with the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra. She attended Boston University where she studied with the former principal oboist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Ralph Gomberg. She has a life-long love of teaching and maintains a studio in West Barnstable.
Bo Ericsson is a native of Sweden and a graduate of Gothenborg Conservatory of Music and the Swedish Radio School of Music. He was principal cellist with the Bergen (Norway) Philharmonic for six years, and was a founding member and cellist with the Berwald String Quartet, with whom he toured extensively throughout Europe. Currently he is principal cellist with both the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra and the Simon Sinfonietta.
Joan Kirchner has appeared regionally as a soloist for oratorio, opera and varied recital repertoire from medieval music to the American songbook. On Cape Cod, she is a frequent soloist with the Chatham Chorale, Woods Hole Cantata Consort, The Meetinghouse Chamber Series, Cape Cod Opera and a variety of recital venues. A co-founder of the Cape Renaissance group OYEZ!, Joan has a strong interest in early music and has sung with the Handel & Haydn Society in Boston and the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir in Toronto, working with leading names in early music such as Ton Koopman, Nicolas Harnoncourt, and Gustav Leonhardt.
Steinway Artist Robert Wyatt has performed throughout the United States and internationally, gathering critical acclaim for sensitive and colorful solo and chamber music recitals. Featured on NPR and PBS broadcasts, Mr. Wyatt has also performed at the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., Steinway Hall in New York, and Boston’s Jordan Hall and the Museum of Fine Arts.
Additional Program Details
A selection of "water songs" by Franz Schubert exhibited, in both the solo voice part and the piano accompaniment, the composer's brilliant melodic techniques for portraying rivers, lakes, brooks, and the sea. The composer of over 600 songs, Schubert is one of the best known writers of the popular German lieder of the 19th century.
A set of music by early 20th Century English composer Michael Head featured pieces for oboe and piano, as well as two of Head's better-known songs. Head's simple and memorable melodies keep him as an enduring favorite of singers.
The program closed with three selections from Handel's "Laudate, Pueri, Dominum," a sparkling setting of a psalm written when the young composer was in Italy in 1707. The work is for chorus, orchestra, and solo soprano. The virtuosic solos were featured for this performance with equally challenging obligatos for the oboe and cello.
The concert took place for a sold-out audience in the beautifully restored parlor of Highfield Hall in Falmouth.