Astoria Music Festival presents special concert this Friday

From the Press Release:

Internationally acclaimed cellist Sergey Antonov

GOLD MEDAL WINNER International Tchaikovsky Competition (Moscow)

Internationally acclaimed pianist Ilya Kazantseva

GOLD MEDAL WINNER Nikolai Rubinstein International Competition (Paris)

Together at the intimate Liberty Theater for an evening of classical music with a dash of cool!

The Astoria Music Festival will present two internationally acclaimed artists in a special concert on Friday, November 4, 2016 at 7:30 pm in Astoria’s Liberty Theater. A gala Artists Reception for patron ticket holders follows the concert at Carruthers, Astoria’s newest gourmet restaurant immediately adjacent the theater.

The concert will feature Sergey Antonov, youngest cellist to win Moscowʼs prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition and an Astoria Music Festival audience favorite, and pianist Ilya Kazantsev, First Prize Winner at the Nikolai Rubinstein International Competition in Paris, the International Chopin Competition in Moscow and two-time winner of the World Piano Competition in Cincinnati.

This performance provides North Coast audiences an opportunity to hear a celebrated international musical team in the intimate surroundings of the Liberty Theater. The pair regularly appear together in the worldʼs finest concert halls and have become popular members of the Astoria Music Festival roster each summer. Sergey Antonov is a longtime favorite of Festival audiences; where his accomplishments have included concertos, chamber music, solo recitals, children’s concerts, and summiting Mt. Hood with Astoriaʼs music-loving radiologist Dr. William Armington and Israel Nebeker, leader of Astoria-based popular recording group Blind Pilot.

The program features sonatas by Saint-Saens and Benjamin Britten, as well as shorter showpieces for cello and piano.

PROGRAM

Camille Saint-Saëns Cello Sonata No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 32
The turbulent Cello Sonata No. 1, which makes full use of the lower registers of both cello and piano, reflects the composer’s sadness at the loss of a beloved family member and at the state of France following Napoleon III’s crushing defeat by Prussia at Sedan in 1870. 

Benjamin Britten Cello Sonata, Op. 65
This sonata is Britten's first of five major works written for Sergey Antonov’s celebrated teacher Mstislav Rostropovich. In the timbre and counterpoint of Scherzo-Pizzicato movement, one can immediately detect indebtedness to the Indonesian Balinese gamelan tradition. The virtuosic Moto Perpetuo final movement uses the “DSCH” motif (D-E flat-C-B natural) as a coded tribute to the name Dmitri Shostakovich, the composer who inspired Britten to write for cello.

TICKETS

Ticket Prices: $40 Patron Reserved Seats and Post-Concert Reception at Carruthers. $25 General Admission. $5 Student.

Ticket are available from the Liberty Theater Box Office, 1203 Commercial Street, Astoria, 97103, Wednesday through Saturday from 2:00PM to 5:30PM, by phone at (503) 325-5922 EXT. 55, or online at http://www.liberty-theater.org

Tickets are also available from TICKETS WEST at (503) 224-8499 or (800) 922-8499. Tickets purchased through Tickets West are subject to a convenience charge and may be held at Will-Call on the night of performance to avoid shipping charge.

For additional information, phone the Astoria Music Festival office at (503) 325-9896 or online at www.astoriamusicfestival.org.