Cellist Peter Wiley & Pianist Anna Polonsky

Saturday, February 19, 7:30 pm, Centre Congregational Church, Brattleboro, VT

Program:  Schumann's Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70; Beethoven's Sonata in F major, Op. 5, no. 1; Mendelssohn Song without Words, Op. 109; Franck's Sonata in A major

BMC Chamber Music Series

Tickets $30, $20 $10.

Purchase on-line:  Cellist Peter Wiley & Pianist Anna Polonsky

Or by calling the Brattleboro Music Center at 802-257-4523.

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On Saturday February 19 at 7:30 pm in Brattleboro, concert goers will have an opportunity to hear some of the most-cherished works in the cello and piano literature as the Brattleboro Music Center’s Chamber Music Series presents Peter Wiley and Anna Polonsky performing a program of Schumann, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Franck.

Cellist Peter Wiley enjoys a prolific career as a performer and teacher, and is well known locally as a Marlboro Music Festival performer where he continues his long association dating back to 1971.

Wiley attended the Curtis Institute of Music, at age 13, as a student of David Soyer. After one season with the Pittsburgh Symphony, he was appointed principal cellist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, a position he held for eight years. He was a member of the Beaux Arts Trio, and when his teacher and mentor, David Soyer, left the Guarneri Quartet in 2001, Peter became cellist of that legendary ensemble until its retirement in 2009.

Wiley is a member of the piano quartet Opus One, a group he co-founded in 1998, and currently teaches at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Bard College Conservatory of Music.

Anna Polonsky is widely in demand as a soloist and chamber musician and has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Polonsky made her solo piano debut at the age of seven at the Special Central Music School in Moscow, Russia. She immigrated to the United States in 1990, and attended high school at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. She received her Bachelor of Music diploma from The Curtis Institute of Music, where she worked with the renowned pianist Peter Serkin, and continued her studies with Jerome Lowenthal, earning her Master's Degree from the Juilliard School. Polonsky was a recipient of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in 2003. She is a Steinway Artist.

Polonsky is a member of the Schumann Trio with violist Michael Tree and clarinetist Anthony McGill. She serves on the piano faculty of Vassar College.

In Brattleboro, Peter Wiley and Anna Polonsky will present Schumann's Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70; Beethoven's Sonata in F major, Op. 5, no. 1; Mendelssohn’s Song Without Words, Op. 109; Franck's Sonata in A major.

Robert Schumann wrote the Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70, in 1849, a bumper crop year for him in which he wrote a large number of works for many different instruments and voices. Some have said that he was driven to write important pieces that amateur musicians could play in their homes with other friends, responding to the “Hausmusik” rage in German society. This piece, originally written for the new valve horn (but extremely difficult to execute) was also released by Schumann in versions for ‘cello and violin, probably with an eye towards the sheet music sales. The Adagio, lyrical and soaring, leads into the fast and furious Allegro, which intersperses themes in its rondo form from the first Adagio between the iterations of the primary theme.

Ludwig van Beethoven wrote the sonata Op. 5 in 1796 as a speculative piece to impress Frederic II of Prussia, who employed the famous Duport brothers, fine cellists of the day. This sonata was the first to be a truly collaborative sonata for the ‘cello, although his own virtuosity at the piano shines through his writing. Beethoven did in fact premiere this piece with Jean-Pierre Duport, and as one historian mused, was not going to be overshadowed by a cellist!

Felix Mendelssohn's Opus 109 Song Without Words was published after his death. His last work written for 'cello and piano was intended for a woman cellist (one of very few at the time), Lisa Cristiani. Of the genre of "songs without words," Mendelssohn wrote, "Genuine music fills the soul with a thousand things better than words." One of the most beautiful short pieces in 'cello literature, Mendelssohn structures the more intense middle section between two quietly lyrical sections.

Cesar Franck actually wrote the famous A major sonata for the violin, and later transcribed it for the ‘cello. The first cello version of this composition was created by the famed cellist of Franck's generation, Jules Delsart, although rumors have circulated that Franck originally conceived the work for cello and later designated it for violin after deciding to give it to Eugene Ysaÿe as a wedding present. Whatever the situation, this piece is one of the most-loved pieces of romantic sonata literature.

Cellist Peter Wiley and Pianist Anna Polonsky form the third concert in the Brattleboro Music Center's 2010-11 Chamber Music Series. The remaining concerts include: The Lydian String Quartet, Saturday, April 9, 7:30; Jaime Laredo & Sharon Robinson, Cathy Meng & Keith Robinson, Ida Kavafian & Steve Tenenborn, Friday, May 6, 7:30 pm. All chamber series concerts are held at Centre Congregational Church, 193 Main Street in Brattleboro, Vermont.

Tickets for the Peter Wiley & Anna Polonsky Concert ($30, $20, $10) are available by calling the Brattleboro Music Center at 802-257-4523 or on-line at Brattleborotix: Cellist Peter Wiley & Pianist Anna Polonsky