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Where Music Meets Ideas

C LOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC stands at the intersection of music, art, and the vast richness of Western culture. Entertaining, erudite, lively commentary puts the

composers and their times in perspective to enrich and enlighten your concert experience.

Join our community of friends and patrons as we celebrate our 28th season of bringing together sublime chamber music, distinguished performers, and musical commentary, all in convivial settings.

Whether it is commissions of major works by famous composers, children’s educational projects, an international summer festival and residency, a weekly radio show on WAMC-FM designed to attract new classical music listeners, collaborations with prominent arts organizations including Jacob’s Pillow, Norman Rockwell Museum, The Mount, Olana, The Frick, The Clark, Hudson Opera House and many more, we look back at past accomplishments with pride and pleasure and forward to the next round of cultural adventures.

2019-20 kicks off with the much anticipated American premiere of Andre Hajdu’s Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) for four cellos, narrated by Sam Waterston. We celebrate Beethoven at 250, introduce the renowned Borromeo String Quartet and present a work melding the music of tabla and cello with the vocals of a rap artist. Boston’s GRAMMY-nominated a cappella group Skylark will take us on an adventure through the hidden symbols, secret codes, and long-forgotten historical connections buried in manuscripts of choral music over the centuries; and, we see the return of favorite artists in programs featuring Arensky, Saint-Saëns, Debussy, Schubert and Brahms! We also offer two superstar speakers to complement the musical offerings (see Conversations With panel).

Bringing to life the music selected this season are acknowledged masters of their instruments: pianists Inna Faliks, Max Levinson, and Michael Chertock; violinists Irina Muresanu, Peter Zazofsky and Xiao Dong Wang; We introduce tabla player Avirodh Sharma, the outstanding Skylark vocalists, many more CEWM returning favorites, as well as brilliant performers making their debuts. From October to June, it’s a season you cannot miss!

C LOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC presents six concerts this season at the landmark Mahaiwe

Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington and a seventh at the newly renovated Saint James Place.

Join the growing number of culture enthusiasts who converge from the Berkshires, Hudson Valley, Northwest Connecticut, New York City, and Boston for

each Close Encounters event! We are pleased to invite all ticket holders to an “Afterglow” reception following each performance October through May.

Contributing Patrons are invited to a special Gala reception following the June concert (see Ticket Order Form).

CONVERSATIONS WITH... Intimate & Stimulating Conversations about Music & Ideas

Sunday March 29 3 PM | The Mount, Lenox, MA

Concetta Tomaino—Music and Medicine!

C LOSE COLL ABOR ATOR of Dr. Oliver Sacks, author of the breakthrough book Awakenings

(made into a movie starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams), Concetta Tomaino has done groundbreaking research on the uses of music in the neurological rehabilitation of patients living with the effects of autism, dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, as well as stroke and trauma. She is executive director of the Institute for Music and Neurological Function and a faculty member at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Her work has been featured in A Matter of Dignity by Andrew Potok, The Mozart Effect by Don Campbell, Sounds of Healing by Mitchell Gaynor and Age Protectors (Rodale Press) and covered on the BBC and CBS News. She is the recipient of numerous awards, most notably the Award of Accomplishment from Music Therapists for Peace at the UN; the Touchstone Award from Women in Music, and the Zella Bronfman Butler Award for “outstanding work on behalf of individuals with physical, developmental or learning disabilities.”

$20 includes light refreshment

For further information and to make reservations: 800.843.0778 or cewmusic@aol.com.

“To experience the finest music presented by the leading musicians of our day, in the inviting

atmosphere of the Berkshires, is the best of all possible worlds. . .The quality of Lincoln Center with an intimacy that exceeds it.”

—YEhudA hAnAni | Artistic Director

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CloseEncounters

WithMusic

800.843.0778www.cewm.org

2019-2020

“CEWM patrons have learned that sooner or later they’ll be blindsided by a performance so sublime it will defy explanation.”

—THE BERKSHIRE EDGE

Yehuda Hanani—ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

—The New York Times

28 th Season

in the Berkshires

Three Gentlemen of Vienna—Beethoven, Schubert and Mahler

Melinda Haas

MuSiC SPEAKS the language of the irrational, and it

cannot, as Freud frustratingly found, be intellectualized or rationally explained. Musician and analyst, Melinda Haas is ideally suited to explore the interface between music and psyche. In her research, she has focused on the “inner other”—displace-ment, isolation and outsider status as a rite of passage that accompanies the creative act. Seen through the prism of Jungian analysis, with Vienna as the fraught backdrop for all three of these musical giants, she takes special note of their late music. Beethoven, Schubert and Mahler—each composer juxtaposes drama and joy, suffering and elation in their end-of-life oeuvres, endowing posterity with transcendent beauty. Haas will share highlights of a paper she recently presented in Vienna for the International Association of Analytical Psychology Congress. Before becoming a Jungian Analyst, Melinda Haas was accompanist for the Graham and Limón Dance Companies. Seven Hills Inn is one of the first grand Berkshire cottages, whose frequent guests included Leonard Bernstein, Beverly Sills, Seiji Ozawa, and Dave Brubeck.

$20 includes light refreshment

Sunday November 10 3 PM | Seven Hills Inn, Lenox, MA

&CELEB R AT ION D I SCOVERY

Close Encounters at the Mahaiwe

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Hanani

Mahaiwe

Close Encounters With MusicP.O. Box 34 | Great Barrington, MA 01230 | 800/843-0778www.cewm.org | e-mail: cewmusic@aol.comAlso available at the Mahaiwe Box Office | 413/528-0100 or14 Castle Street | Great Barrington, MA 01230

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All Close Encounters With Music events are wheelchair accessible.

Sunday October 27 5 PMMahaiwe Performing Arts Ctr.

American Premiere of Andre Hajdu’s Masterpiece

“Kohelet”

E cclES IaSTES , Latin for the Hebrew KOHELET, is no less

than an exploration of the meaning of life and mortality, as well as an affirmation of joy and wisdom. Hajdu’s world view and artistic aesthetic were influ-enced by Samuel Beckett, whom he befriend-ed in Paris, and his musical schooling was in the modern Hungarian models of Bartók and Kodály. The 1950s French milieu of Milhaud and Messiaen can also be heard in many of his compositions. Overall, Hajdu’s music refuses categorization, much the same as the book attributed to King Solomon, the wisest of men.

Star of stage, film and television, Sam Waterston takes on the role of the philosopher king, traversing the proverbs, aphorisms and familiar passages that have entered our collective lexicon. He is accompanied by a quartet of cellos. KOHELET has received performances in Germany, Holland, France and Israel—and now is heard in the U.S. for the first time.

Sam Waterston, narrator; Yehuda Hanani, Kivie Cahn-Lipman, Michael Nicolas, Do Yeon Kim, cello

Saturday February 22 6 PMSt. James Place, Great Barrington

Grand Piano Trios—Schubert and Brahms

T WO EnduR inG treasures of the chamber music canon lift us into the

realm of the transcendent and channel the Viennese tradition: Schubert’s Trio in B flat Major and Brahms’ in B Major were both written or rewritten towards the end of the composers’ lives. Both display masterful sculpting of heavenly melodies coupled with passion and heady romanticism. Brahms makes use of the piano to create a symphonic sweep, and is in the best of hands with pianist Max Levinson (“Brilliant…He uses his wide spectrum of pianistic mechanics for altogether poetic ends, touching the listener deeply and often”—Los Angeles Times), violinist Peter Zazofsky and cellist Yehuda Hanani (“The sonatas came bounding to life in vital interpretations rich in imaginative detail and virile strength….Rightly rewarded with cheers from the audience.”—New York Times). Schubert’s trio, despite having been written in the difficult last year of his life, conveys tenderness and triumph. As Robert Schumann aptly observed, “One glance at Schubert’s trio and the troubles of our existence vanish, the world takes on fresh luster.”

Max Levinson, piano; Peter Zazofsky, violin;Yehuda Hanani, cello

Saturday April 25 6 PMMahaiwe Performing Arts Ctr.

SKYLARK A Cappella Vocalists:

Hidden Symbols, Secret Codes

W hAT MiGhT happen if Robert Langdon, acclaimed professor

of Symbology at Harvard University (and fictional hero of Dan Brown’s best-selling novels, including The Da Vinci Code), were enlisted to explore hidden symbols, secret codes, and long-forgotten historical connections buried in manu-scripts of choral music over the centuries? Join GRAMMY nominated Skylark to find out. Featuring video introductions by author Dan Brown and stunning new music by Gregory W. Brown, musical selections will be drawn from the ancient to the modern, including works by Giuseppe Jannacconi (who wrote in the style of Palestrina), Franco-Flemish Renaissance composer Guillaume du Fay, Benjamin Britten and Sarah Rimkus, whose works have been featured on BBC Radio and performed at Buckingham Palace and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Boston-based Skylark is one of the leading vocal ensembles in the U.S., praised for their “gripping” performances (Times of London) and their “original, imaginative, and engrossing” programming. Gramophone has called them

“passionate…radiant…exquisite…ehereal…thrilling…stunning.”

Skylark Ensemble; Matthew Guard, conductor

Saturday June 13 6 PMMahaiwe Performing Arts Ctr.

Café Music—Jazz, Rap and World Premiere!

P AuL SChOEnf iELd ’S runaway classical hit, Café Music for piano trio, sets the

tone for this celebration of summer. Combining ingredients of classical music, jazz, klezmer and whimsy, Café Music is irresistible and full of energy—caffeine-fueled music at its most entertaining. Claude Bolling’s classical/jazz musings in the Suite for Cello and Jazz Trio (double bass and percussion) offer up interpolations of boogie-woogie and ragtime with Baroque underpinnings, not to mention sizzling panache. Gershwin, who

“made an honest woman of jazz,” is represented with his Three Preludes for Piano. Close Encounters continues its commissioning program with the unveiling of a new work by Tamar Muskal for tabla drums, cello and rap artist, featuring Avirodh Sharma, who has performed at Lincoln Center, the Joseph Papp Public Theater, the Joyce, Harlem Stage, and Joe’s Pub. Of Muskal’s music, the Chicago Tribune has written: “The ripples and shimmers that filled Muskal’s post-minimalist score were as evanescent as swirling, digitized visuals—dissolving into one another with kaleidoscopic beauty…high-tech music theater at its most inventive and fascinating.”

Michael Chertock, piano; Xiao-Dong Wang, violin; Avirodh Sharma, tabla; Artie Dixson, percussion; James Cammack, double bass; Yehuda Hanani, cello

Saturday March 21 6 PM Mahaiwe Performing Arts Ctr.

The French Connection—Saint-Saëns, Debussy, Fauré

T T hE GR E AT E S T period of creativity among French composers coincides

with the emergence of Impressionist art. Attempting to define that French “je ne sais quoi” is as elusive as describing a bottle of Château Petrus. But, as exemplified by the music of Fauré (Piano Quartet No. 1), Debussy (the prophetically daring cello Sonate), Saint-Saëns (Rondo Capriccioso) and Lili Boulanger (D’un matin de printemps), tension between elegance, restraint and intense fervor is a hallmark of the French aesthetic. There is passion, powerful emotion and a remarkable level of concentration. The mood is sensuous, pleasure-oriented, delicately colored and shimmering with élan. Refinement is balanced with brilliant instrumental display in what is one of Fauré’s rare virtuoso pieces, in Saint-Saëns’ violin showpiece and Debussy’s 1918 captivating master work for cello. For sheer glamour and artistic vitality, late 19th and early 20th century Paris has not been surpassed and gave rise to lasting new isms and musical portraitists who created some of the best loved classical music of today. It’s the magic that was Paris.

Rachel Lee Priday, violin; Dov Scheindlin, viola; Mikael Darmanie, piano; Yehuda Hanani, cello

Sunday May 3 12 PM The Lenox Club, Lenox, MA

Annual Luncheon Musicale Benefit

C ELEBR AT E T hE SA LOn in the Gilded Age elegance of the Lenox

Club, a venerable Berkshire presence since 1864! The scintillating atmosphere of the 19th century institution that

helped promote artists, painters and musicians as the intelligentsia gathered to exchange ideas, enhanced by gaiety and ambience. Savor a superb lunch and support Close Encounters With Music. La vie est belle!!!

Saturday December 14 6 PMMahaiwe Performing Arts Ctr.

Great StringsTHE BORROMEO QUARTET

A n TOn A R nE SK Y ’S Quartet in A Minor for two cellos, a personal

tribute to his beloved friend Tchaikovsky, is considered one of the finest Russian string quartets ever written, with the second movement being a set of variations on a Tchaikovsky theme. Meanwhile, in conversations across time, melodies ricochet from Beethoven to Arensky (as well as Mussorgsky, Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky) as Arensky paraphrases a celebratory Russian folksong associated with the coronation of the Tsar—used by Beethoven in his Quartet Op. 59 No. 2, one of the famous works commissioned by Count Razumovsky. The quartet will be played by the charismatic Borromeo, hailed for its

“edge-of-the-seat performances” by the Boston Globe. The program also features J.S. Bach’s Four Preludes and Fugues from the Well Tempered Clavier, arranged for string quartet. Yehuda Hanani joins in Arensky’s best known work to enhance the remarkably rich, deeper sonorities of Russian liturgical chant.

The Borromeo String Quartet: Nicolas Kitchen, violin; Kristopher Tong, violin; Mai Motobuchi, viola; Yeesun Kim, cello, with Yehuda Hanani, cello

“Great music played with great heart.

There’s a palpable mystique about

Close Encounters concerts. The

evening never failed to fascinate!...”—BERKSHIRE EaGlE

Close Encounters With Music is a non-profit organization.

Partial funding provided by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.Printed by Qualprint | 800.547.7468

Saturday May 23 6 PMMahaiwe Performing Arts Ctr.

BEETHOVEN@250!

Celebration of an Immortal Genius

T hE PROTOTYPE of the romantic artist who overcomes adversity,

the composer’s composer, and exemplar of artistic freedom and bold expressive power, Beethoven left an indelible mark that forever altered the landscape of classical music. This program will chart three stations in a glorious history: Sonata No. 2 Opus 5 for Cello, where he is still following a historic trajectory as a student of Haydn; the Violin Sonata No. 7 in C minor Opus 30 from his Middle period as he moves towards his zenith; and the Olympian “Archduke” Trio. Each is a sublime masterpiece representative of his career from young composer-performer to the start of his struggle with deafness and the cruel end of his own performing career. Apart from his dynamic energy and compositional genius, we are also drawn to Beethoven the man, with his musical expression of a utopia where people live together in harmony and his political aspirations for humankind. Ludwig van Beethoven turns 250 in December 2020, but is forever contemporary, relevant and fresh.

Inna Faliks, piano; Irina Muresanu, violin; Yehuda Hanani, cello

Ticket Order FormSubscribe now at a 30% savings and enjoy guaranteed Orchestraseating at the Mahaiwe and Saint James Place. (If you must miss a concert, tickets make a perfect gift.)

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“Kohelet” Sun, Oct 27, 5 PM @($62) @($38)

Great Strings Sat, Dec 14, 6 PM

Grand Piano Trios Sat Feb 22, 6 PM N/A

French Connection Sat, Mar 21, 6 PM

SKYLARK Sat, April 25, 6 PM

Beethoven@250 Sat, May 23, 6 PM

Café Music Sat, June 13, 6 PM

I would like to further support Close Encounters with a tax-deductible contribution: ________________

Borromeo String Quaertet

Waterston

Levinson The Lenox Club

Rachel Lee Priday

SKYLARK Ensemble

Inna Faliks

Avirodh Sharma

St. James Place