The award-winning Gold Coast Chamber Players celebrate 20 years of bringing the finest in chamber music to Lafayette. The third concert in this landmark season of five programs, Czech Marks, begins at 7:30 PM on January 25, 2020, at the Don Tatzin Community Hall in the Lafayette Library, 3491 Mt. Diablo Blvd. in Lafayette. The program repeats at 4 PM on Sunday, January 26, 2020, at the Piedmont Center for the Arts, 801 Magnolia Ave. in Piedmont. Musicologist Kai Christiansen provides a pre-concert talk 30 minutes prior to each performance.
Czech Marks presents the chamber music of Dvořák, Novák and Janáček for a stunning concert steeped in Czech and Moravian influences, check marks on any good list of essential Classical music. Lesser-known works by these great composers provide an unusual opportunity to explore this rich musical culture. Janáček’s Violin Sonata begins the program, followed by Dvořák’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 23. This piano quartet, while very popular during Dvořák’s lifetime, is often overlooked in favor of his second piano quartet. Vitezslav Novák, a student of Dvořák’s, is virtually unknown to American audiences. His Piano Quintet, Op. 12 finishes the program resplendent in all its Slavic romanticism.
Violinist Axel Strauss leads an all-star ensemble of local Bay Area musicians when he returns to the Bay Area from his position at McGill University in Montreal. The first German artist to ever win the international Naumburg Violin Award in New York, Axel Strauss also won the silver medal at the Enescu Competition. He is joined by members of his San Francisco Piano Trio, cellist Jean-Michel Fonteneau and pianist Jeffrey Sykes, along with GCCP violist Pamela Freund-Striplen and violinist Liane Bérubé from the Delphi Trio.
Tickets are $45/ $40 senior (65+)/ $15 students.
Tickets online https://www.gccpmusic.com/
Tickets by phone: (925) 283-3728. Concerts sell out quickly. Reserve today.