English Blog

Duo Recital at FUMCPasadena on Sat.May 11 at 2pm 5/8/13

May 8, 2013

My husband and cellist, David Garrett, and I have been performing our annual recitals at First United Methodist Church of Pasadena for the last several years. We called ourselves as The Belrose Duo. Mainly, we like to perform duo repertoire, but also we like to help the music program at FUMC. A free-will offering at the recital will be donated to Friends of Music Fund. This Fund helps special music programs and the music department at the church. This year, we will be performing the program of Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924): Sonata No2. for cello and piano, Op. 39, Frank Bridge (1879-1941): Elegie and Scherzo, Frederick Delius (1862-1934): Sonata for violoncello and piano, Gabriel Faure (1845-1924): Apres un reve, Op. No. 1 and Papillon, Op. 77, and David Popper (1843-1913): Autumn and Dances of the Gnomes from “In the Forest”, Op. 55,  and Concert-Polonaise No. 2, Op. 28.

We will start the program with an Irish composer, Stanford, whose musical style is typical Romantic, like Brahms. Each 3 movement in his Sonata has different character to offer, and especially I like the lyricism in the 2nd movement. After Stanford, we will move into Bridge’s short character pieces.  Elegie is beautiful, and Scherzo is fun and mischievous. After the intermission, we will play another English composer, Delius, whose music is impressionistic and imaginative, no structure to hold on to, and flows freely. Then we will play “Encore pieces”, planned in the program (!). 2013 makes David Popper’s centennial year. He was a Bohemian cellist and composer. Also he was a super virtuoso cellist and respected teacher in European music scene in 19th-20th century. He taught Adolf Schiffer who was a teacher of late Janoz Starker. (Popper was married to a pianist, Sophie Menter, a pupil of Liszt, and their marriage did not last… )

The church is located in the heart of Old Town Pasadena, and its sanctuary has a fabulous acoustic. I hope you can join us for Saturday afternoon concert,  May 11 at 2pm, and you may enjoy strolling Colorado Blvd afterwards. The church website is: fumcpasadena.org