Pure music often resists words; sometimes it is best understood through metaphor, or through the personalities of those who bring it to life. Threads of Connection and The Fabric of Time seek to depict, in visual and poetic form, something that exists primarily in the aural realm—the glorious rapport between classical musicians. Within this collaboration of distinct individuals emerges a kind of hive mind, ravenously intent on presenting the music at its very best. Each celebrated performer strives to enter fully into the musical world imagined by the composer, melding, sharing, and occasionally tugging against the others in pursuit of a higher artistic calling.

In her work as virtuoso violist, chamber musician, pedagogue, and blogger, Patricia McCarty is a true superstar. Her storied career and unwavering professionalism bring inspiration and a powerful musical anchor to every rehearsal and concert she touches. Gracious to a fault—and never one to rely on talent alone—she treats her virtuosity with deep respect, embodying the work ethic of one of the hardest-working musicians you will ever meet. Performing numerous concerts each year in halls around the world, she chooses to make her home in New Russia, where she frequently shares the stage with a wide array of North Country musicians. She adores and is inspired by the sheer beauty of the Adirondacks, spending her time here honing her craft, hiking, skiing, cooking with friends, and happily frolicking with her two spaniels.

Piano by Nature’s upcoming December concerts are the perfect embodiment of Patricia McCarty’s higher calling—an opportunity to both see and hear a truly great chamber musician at the height of her powers. She will be joined by acclaimed area collaborators Janice Kyle and Rose Chancler, together weaving conversational musical threads into a radiant mélange of passion and brilliance, rollicking the spirit of what has long been called “the music of friends.”

PBN will present two concerts at Elizabethtown’s Hand House — one on Saturday, December 6th at 7PM and the next on Sunday, December 7th at 3PM. Doors will open 30 minutes before the performances, and we recommend arriving early to avoid check-in lines. Admission for concerts at Elizabethtown’s Historic Hand House is $20, with a special $5 rate for children 15 and under. We accept cash or checks at the door. Patrons may also make their donations online through PayPal at pianobynature.org. Look for the PayPal icon at the bottom of any page. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. We recommend that you make your reservations early for these concerts, and you can reserve your spot via email at pianobynature@gmail.com or by phone at 518-962-8899.

Come and enjoy the incredible passion of this glorious music!

Notes about the program

While not so well known today, Georges Onslow was one of the most highly regarded composers in Europe during his lifetime, dubbed on more than one occasion “the French Beethoven.” Berlioz predicted he would carry the Beethoven mantle into the future, and when Schumann heard Mendelssohn conduct Onslow’s First Symphony at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1835, he reported that in the minuet “everything glitters with diamonds and pearls.” Descendant of a long line of British parliamentarians, Georges’ father Edward became embroiled in scandal and fled to France, where he married a member of the French nobility. Young Georges received an upper-class education and was sent to Hamburg and later London for piano study. After returning to France, he became passionate about chamber music, took up the cello, studied composition with Antoine Reicha and began composing a staggering number of string quintets, quartets, and other chamber works.

Adolf Ruthardt was born in the German city of Stuttgart, where his father served as an oboist in the court orchestra. He studied piano and composition in that city before beginning a career as a teacher, composer, and music editor, eventually becoming professor of piano at the Leipzig Conservatory. Most of his compositions are pedagogical works for piano. His Trio for Piano, Oboe & Viola dates from 1890 and is one of his few chamber works. It is in a late romantic era style and already shows some signs of advanced tonalities, passing through many moods from dreamy and reflective to light-hearted and spirited. That the score’s title page lists Piano first of the three instruments hints at the extraordinarily virtuosic writing for this instrument.

During the first two decades of this century, Rebecca Clarke achieved renown both as violist and composer. Although her father was American, she was born and brought up in England, where she studied composition with Sir Charles Stanford and as violist became one of the first women to be admitted to full membership in a professional orchestra in London. Her concert career blossomed after the First World War, and her chamber music partners included Schnabel, Casals, Thibaud, Artur Rubinstein, Percy Grainger, Myra Hess, and George Szell. She was in New York at the outbreak of the Second World War, and was advised by English immigration authorities to remain there, where she later married pianist James Friskin and lived until her death in 1979.

The Viola Sonata was submitted under the pseudonym “Anthony Trent” for the 1919 international composition competition sponsored by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. From a field of seventy-three entrants, the jury remained deadlocked between two works until Mrs. Coolidge cast the deciding vote in favor of Bloch’s Suite for viola and piano. The runner-up was revealed to be Rebecca Clarke’s Viola Sonata, “and you should have seen their faces,” said Mrs. Coolidge, “when they saw it was by a woman!” At the beginning of the work appears a quotation from La Nuit de Mai by Alfred de Musset:

“Poète, prends ton luth; le vin de la jeunesse
Fermente cette nuit dans les veines de Dieu.”

Jerome Phillip Rosen has been described by lexicographer Nicolas Slonimsky as “American violinist, pianist, poet, physicist and polymath nonpareil.” His arrangements of American popular music have been performed by the Boston Pops and other orchestras throughout the U.S. Inspired by the concert fantasy pieces by Sarasate and Liszt based upon popular tunes of their time, Rosen has offered the viola its own contemporary equivalent in Maria, a Paraphrase of West Side Story.