Named after the late pianist Charles Avedis Hagopian, Avedis means good news in Armenian. And the good news here is that Avedis regulars constitute a set of first-rate musicians who perform a wide variety of music, all of it grateful to the ears of an average concertgoer. And the Saturday matinee timing is perfect for working people, as well as retirees.
Avedis’ artistic director, the flutist Alexandra Hawley, arranges programs that include her instrument in most pieces, which takes Avedis’ repertory a little off the beaten path. She and cellist Stephen Harrison, of the Ives Quartet, are both on the music faculty at Stanford University, while pianist/violist Paul Hersh has been a longtime member of the piano department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. These teachers are probably getting a secret kick out of putting Carl Czerny’s Fantasia Concertante on the first Avedis program this year, Feb. 20.
Czerny (1791-1857) was a famous pedagogue who taught both Liszt and Liszt’s rival Sigismund Thalberg, as well as a number of other eminent pianists of the period. Yet most, if not all, serious piano students know (and probably curse) his name because he was the author of The Art of Finger Dexterity and The School of Velocity, two indispensible sets of études (studies) that earned their author a large part of his fortune.
Czerny also gave the Vienna premiere of his friend Beethoven’s “Emperor” Piano Concerto, though he hated performing and made his living from his teaching. Unfortunately, the composer Czerny suffered from the performer Czerny’s reticence, and later generations have just assumed that, were his music worth anything, it would have gotten out there. Well, now we come to discover that old Carl did write some pretty fine music, though you won’t hear it much in the big-prestige venues.
Similarly, Albert Roussel (1868-1937) is a fine composer who is overshadowed by his greater, better-known contemporaries Debussy and Ravel. And Katherine Hoover (1937-), who is a flutist, is also a well-respected, but less-often-played, composer with a pleasingly eclectic style. And then there’s this Haydn fellow who’s reputed to be a pretty good composer, too.
In sum, this is a nicely balanced program, with unusual but good music, played by some of the best musicians in the area. And you can probably grab a ticket at the door after having a nice walk through the Legion park. Who wouldn’t take advantage of that?