This fall, the Center for the Arts (CFA) is putting on a series of five concerts to celebrate the bicentennial of composer Frédéric François Chopin’s birth. In addition to the music of Chopin, the concerts also feature works by composers who were influenced by Chopin, including his contemporary Schumann (who also celebrates his bicentennial this year), Béla Bartók, Claude Debussy, Radiohead, John Cage, and Alexander Scriabin. The concerts feature Wesleyan students, alumni, professors, and private lesson instructors.
The first concert, held on Oct. 9, was dubbed “Jazz Views of Chopin,” although it was neither exclusively jazz, nor exclusively Chopin. The concert began with Sam Friedman ’13 improvising reflections on Op. 25 No. 2 (F minor etude) and Op. 38, No. 1 (A flat nocturne). Schumann’s Kinderscenen, Op. 15, was next, played by Sarah Meneely-Kyder, a private lesson teacher at Wesleyan and a Grammy-nominated composer. Kinderscenen, translated as “Scenes of Childhood” is comprised of 13 short movements, totaling about 17 minutes. This piece was followed by the Godowsky arrangement of Chopin’s Op. 10 No. 3, arranged for the left hand only and performed by Andrew Chung ’12. Another student, Dylan Griffin ’12, played Chopin’s Polonaise in C# minor, Op. 26 No. 1.
The first half ended with Noah Baerman, the faculty leader of the Wesleyan Jazz Ensemble, playing his own jazz arrangements of Chopin’s E minor and B minor Preludes, and the “Minute” waltz—so named because virtuosic pianists can play it in under a minute. Baerman’s arrangements were one of the most fascinating parts of the concert, molding the three pieces into something new. Even though the eighth notes were swung, rhythms were syncopated, and the Minute waltz was in 5/4 instead of the typical 3/4, Chopin’s original tunes could still be identified.
The second half of the concert featured David Westfall, co-chair of the Keyboard Department at the Hartt School of Music and a Middletown resident, playing Schumann’s Etudes Symphoniques, Op. 13, a series of etudes that Schumann wrote to impress his girlfriend’s father, and the Funérailles of Liszt, a renowned composer who knew Chopin and wrote the first biography of him.
The second concert, “Chopin as a Polish Folk Musician,” was held on Oct. 10. The concert opened with Kimberly Ingebritsen ’13 playing Chopin’s Second Ballade, one of his most famous pieces. The rest of the first half featured Neely Bruce, a music professor at Wesleyan who teachers a seminar on Chopin and conceived the Chopin @ 200 concerts, playing mazurkas, Polish folk dances in 3/4 that often have accents on the second or third beat. While most of the mazurkas were by Chopin, there was also one by Scriabin and one by Karol Szymanowski. The first half ended with a piece called Lekcja gry na fortepianie, akord Chopin (Piano Lesson, after Chopin) by Michael Kowalski, a Polish-American composer who attended the concert.
The second half of the concert featured Wesleyan piano instructor Lisa Moore playing three pieces: four movements of Schumann’s Waldenscenen, a piece that evokes an image of a forest; Chopin’s Third Ballade; and Piano Piece No. 4, a piece by the Polish-American composer Frederic Rzewski, written in opposition to the 1973 coup d’état in Chile.
The first of the final three concerts is on Friday, Nov. 5 at 8:00 p.m. and is part of the Crowell Concert Series. It will feature Donald Berman ’84, playing several pieces by Chopin, Schumann, Ives, and others, with the accompaniment of the West End String Quartet on Chopin’s La ci darem la mano Variations. The fourth concert will be on Thursday, Nov. 11 at 7:00 p.m., and will feature private teacher Erika Scroth playing the Scriabin Third Sonata, private teacher in jazz piano Fred Simmons, and the “remarkable and unprecedented Nocturne Extravaganza,” featuring works by Chopin and composers influenced by him, played by Wesleyan students and faculty. The fifth and final concert will be held on Friday, Nov. 12 at 8:00 p.m., and will feature Jocelyn Bonadio ’07, Nicholas Luby ’11, Sarah Meneely-Kyder and Chai-Lun Yueh, private teacher in voice, performing Schumann songs, private piano teacher Qi Liu, and Neely Bruce, who will close the show with Chopin’s B minor sonata.
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