Ligeti & Enescu

Three major 20th-century works kick off the last full week of the Festival, beginning with Bartók‘s Benny Goodman–commissioned Contrasts, which, true to its name, contrasts (captivatingly) the sonorities of its three instruments, played here by violinist Ida Kavafian, clarinetist Carol McGonnell, and pianist Soyeon Kate Lee. Next, Berlin Philharmonic Principal Horn Stefan Dohr, violinist William Hagen, and pianist Kirill Gerstein play Ligeti’s Hommage à Brahms Horn Trio, which the composer declared “cannot be pigeonholed into any neat stylistic category [due to its] odd angles and trick floors.” (Dohr, Hagen, and Gerstein play the Brahms work that inspired the Ligeti on August 11.) To close out the program, violinist Chad Hoopes leads Festival musicians in Enescu’s grand Octet, which, like the Octet composed by his fellow child prodigy Felix Mendelssohn, dates to when Enescu was a teenager. 

BARTÓK Contrasts for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano, Sz. 111  

LIGETI Trio for Horn, Violin, and Piano, Hommage à Brahms  

ENESCU String Octet in C Major, Op. 7 

Kirill Gerstein, Soyeon Kate Lee, piano; William Hagen, Chad Hoopes, Ida Kavafian, violin; Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola; Eric Kim, cello; Escher String Quartet (Adam Barnett-Hart, Brendan Speltz, violin; Pierre Lapointe, viola; Brook Speltz, cello); Carol McGonnell, clarinet; Stefan Dohr, horn 

Approximate length: 1 hour and 50 minutes