By Laurie O’Neill – [email protected]
Among the many arts events honoring the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution this winter and spring will be a concert by the Concord Chamber Music Society on March 9 that is billed as “a celebration of the American spirit.”
Wendy Putnam, violinist and artistic director of the CCMS, and pianist Vytas Baksys will “pay homage to the unique musical heritage of our nation and tip their hats to the American Revolution,” says spokesperson Leon Golub. They will perform works by P.D.Q. Bach, Aaron Copland, Florence Price, and Henri Vieuxtemps.
A violinist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1997, Putnam, who lives in Concord, founded the CCMS in 2000. Baksys, a Quincy resident, is a frequent keyboardist with the BSO and the Boston Pops and has served as faculty pianist with the Fellowship Conducting Program at Tanglewood since 1989.
Putnam says the upcoming concert holds “a deep meaning” for her, in part because it will be her last performance for CCMS as artistic director. The program includes a composition by Florence Price, Andante con Expressione. The composer “is especially inspiring to me,” Putnam says.
Price was the first African American woman to have her music performed by a major symphony orchestra — in 1933.“She was a pioneer in American composition and overcame so many obstacles and setbacks during her career,” says Putnam.
Copland to P.D.Q. Bach
Also on the program is Copland’s “Sonata for Violin and Piano,” which the composer wrote “in memory of a close friend who died in the South Pacific during World War II,” Putnam notes. Though it is “a relatively unfamiliar Copland work,” she says, “I think it is one of his finest — and a fitting way to pay tribute to our country and help us all to remember that our freedom and democracy were gained and are protected at a significant price.”
Baksys has chosen to perform the humorous “Short-Tempered Clavier, Preludes and Fugues in All the Major and Minor Keys Except for the Really Hard Ones,” a work for solo piano by P.D.Q. Bach (aka the late Peter Schickele, a composer of musical parodies).
Concluding the program will be Vieuxtemps’ Souvenir d’Amerique (“Variations on Yankee Doodle”). American soldiers, Putnam says, “would often sing or whistle this tune to each other to express defiance or national pride.”The concert will be held in Maxwell Hall at the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum, 33 Marrett Road, Lexington, on Sunday, March 9, at 3 p.m. Tickets are $47-$69, with a limited number of $20 student tickets. Visit concordchambermusic.org for more information
