Bridgehampton Chamber Music's BCM Spring Three-Concert Series: April 1, April 29, May 20, 2023
The three Saturday evening concerts take place in the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, the home of Long Island's longest-running classical music festival.
By: A.A. Cristi Feb. 09, 2023
BCM Spring, the spring installment of Bridgehampton Chamber Music's concert season, presents three programs of stellar guest artists and BCM musicians in 2023: the New York Philharmonic String Quartet, comprising four principal members of the orchestra on April 1; Orion Weiss and Gilles Vonsattel, two longtime BCM favorites, performing a dynamic program for piano four hands on April 29; and BCM Artistic Director and flutist Marya Martin leading off a program showcasing two violas, with favorite BCM violists Ettore Causa and Matthew Lipmann, on May 20. The three Saturday evening concerts take place in the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, the home of Long Island's longest-running classical music festival.
The New York Philharmonic String Quartet program on April 1 showcases In Response to Madness, a 2019 work by Joel Thompson, who describes it as an "experiment in compositional process ... a stream-of-consciousness response to the political mayhem, the massacres, the climate, and our seemingly futile attempts at trying to make things better. It is essentially a scream into the void" - bracketed by Mozart's String Quartet No. 19, "Dissonance," and Beethoven's String Quartet No. 11, "Serioso." The young African-American composer Joel Thompson has gained recognition for his 2015 oratorio The Seven Last Words of the Unarmed, a powerful setting of the last words of unarmed Black men before they were shot or killed by the police.
Pianists Orion Weiss and Gilles Vonsattel, longtime BCM artists, join for a blistering program consisting of three works written for four-hand piano - Mozart's Andante and Variations in G major, Fauré's Dolly Suite, and Debussy's Petite Suite - and Stravinsky's monumental The Rite of Spring in the composer's arrangement for piano duet, on April 29. And the final BCM Spring program, on May 20, spotlights violists Ettore Causa and Matthew Lipman in three works; Kuhlau's Quintet for Flute, Violin, Two Violas, and Cello, No. 3 (for which they are joined by Marya Martin); Paul Coletti's Moonlight Journey for two violas; and Brahms's Viola Quintet No. 2 in G major. Also featured on the program are violinists Sirena Huang and Paul Huang, and cellist Oliver Herbert.
BCM Spring Featured Artists
New York Philharmonic String Quartet
Bridgehampton Chamber Music
"This longtime East End festival, directed by the flutist Marya Martin, has flourished by offering concerts both effervescent and distinguished," said The New Yorker. In the 39 years since its founding, Bridgehampton Chamber Music has become known for presenting a broad range of music performed by some of the best musicians in the world in one of the most beautiful seaside settings on the East Coast. With autumn and spring mini-series joining the original summer festival, Bridgehampton Chamber Music offers programs virtually year-round.
BCM Festival: Usually comprising more than a dozen events over four weeks, the summer festival has developed a loyal core audience among local residents and summer visitors since it began with four artists in two concerts in the intimate setting of the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church. The festival is still based in the graceful 1842 church - which boasts glowing acoustics - and has gradually expanded to include other special event venues, including the Channing Sculpture Garden and Atlantic Golf Club in Bridgehampton and the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill.
BCM Spring: Convinced that there were music lovers looking for more opportunities to hear excellent chamber music year-round, BCM introduced its Spring series in 2015, and in 2017 expanded it from two concerts to three.
BCM Autumn: This concert series was launched in the fall of 2021 with two concerts, which in 2022 expanded to three.
BCM Records: In 2012, BCM launched its own record label, BCMF Records. Signifying the festival's commitment to American composers, the label's first recording was BCMF Premieres, a disc of contemporary American music. The label's current discography of 12 releases includes music by Bruce Adolphe, Robert Beaser, Leon Kirchner, Howard Shore, Paul Moravec, Kevin Puts, and Elizabeth Brown, as well as Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, and more.
Bridgehampton Chamber Music has a wide variety of performance videos and online programs from past seasons posted on its website and YouTube channel.
Internationally acclaimed flutist Marya Martin enjoys a musical career of remarkable breadth and achievement. Gracefully balancing the roles of chamber musician, festival director, soloist, teacher, and supporter of musical institutions, she has performed throughout the world in such halls as London's Royal Albert Hall and Wigmore Hall, Sydney Opera House, Casals Hall in Tokyo, and other international venues.
A native of New Zealand, Ms. Martin studied at Yale University, and shortly thereafter moved to Paris to study with flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal. After winning top prizes in the Naumburg, Munich International, and Jean-Pierre Rampal International competitions, and the Concert Artists Guild and Young Concert Artists International Auditions-all within a two-year period-she returned to the U.S. and has since appeared as a soloist with major orchestras and at leading festivals and chamber music series throughout the country.
In 2006 she received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Auckland, and in 2011 received the Ian Mininberg Distinguished Service Award from Yale University. Committed to expanding the flute repertoire, she has commissioned more than 20 new works. She most recently commissioned eight works for flute and piano comprising Eight Visions, an anthology published by Theodore Presser, and recorded them for the Naxos label. In 2011, Albany Records released Marya Martin Plays Eric Ewazen. Ms. Martin has been a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music since 1996.
BCM Spring 2023
Saturday, April 1, 2023, at 5 pm
Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church
BCM Spring: New York Philharmonic String Quartet
W. A. MOZART String Quartet No. 19 in C major, K.465, "Dissonance"
JOEL THOMPSON In Response to the Madness
L. V. BEETHOVEN String Quartet No. 11 in F Minor, Op. 95 "Serioso"
Frank Huang, violin; Qianqian Li, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Carter Brey, cello
Tickets: $75, $50, $10 student ticket
Saturday, April 29, 2023, at 5 pm
Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church
BCM Spring: Rites of Spring - Music for Piano Four Hands
CLAUDE DEBUSSY Petite Suite
W. A. MOZART Andante and Variations in G major, K. 501
GABRIEL FAURE Dolly Suite, Op 59
IGOR STRAVINSKY The Rite of Spring (arr. Stravinsky)
Orion Weiss, piano; Gilles Vonsattel, piano
Tickets: $75, $50, $10 student ticket
Saturday, May 20, 2023, at 5 pm
Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church
BCM Spring: Kuhlau, Coletti, Brahms - Focus on the Viola
FRIEDRICH KUHLAU Quintet for Flute, Violin, Two Violas, and Cello No. 3 in D major
PAUL COLETTI Moonlight Journey for Two Violas
JOHANNES BRAHMS Viola Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 111
Marya Martin, flute; Sirena Huang, violin; Paul Huang, violin; Ettore Causa, viola; Matt Lipman, viola; Oliver Herbert, cello
Tickets: $75, $50, $10 student ticket
For tickets and information, visit www.bcmf.org/spring-concerts
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