Bach's Lunch
Virtual Chamber Music Festival
Au Courante in California
featuring Jeffrey Sykes, piano
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Stephanie and Jeffrey have a free-wheeling
discussion covering food, books, music, and chamber music by African-American composers. Jeffrey explains that Bach's 4th Partita in D Major is one of his favorite pieces to play. He has paired the profoundly beautiful and introspective Allemande with the upbeat, light-hearted, fun, and funny Courante.
Jeffrey says, “recording in your living room poses unexpected challenges. Alameda, the town where I live, is a quiet and calm place, and I think of my neighborhood as being extra quiet and calm. But I found myself having to dodge the sounds of barking dogs (including my own), cat fights (actual fighting cats on the fence behind the cottage), a crow convention, the roofers working on the house behind me, the garbage collector, the street sweeper, the occasional airplane, the freezer going into power mode, the helpful FedEx guy who brought a parcel to my door... I guess it’s not as quiet as I thought!”
A special thanks to Evan Richards for helping us put these videos together and managing our YouTube channel.
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J.S. Bach, Partita no. 4 in D Major, Allemande and Courante
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For your main course, Jeffrey offers you the brilliant Piano Concerto no. 9 in E-flat Major by Mozart, the so-called "Jeunehomme" concerto. He says, "the first movement is grand and exciting, the second one of the saddest movements Mozart ever wrote, and the third a virtuosic romp. I had a blast performing this great concerto with our BDDS artists at Taliesin."
And for dessert, he suggests a performance of William Hirtz's
Fantasy on Themes from "The Wizard of Oz"
for piano four-hands, featuring Jeffrey with Randy Hodgkinson and some very special guests. We hope you enjoy!
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concerto no. 9 in E-flat Major, K. 271, "Jeunehomme," performed in 2019. Recorded by Dave Alcorn.
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William Hirtz: Fantasy on themes from The Wizard of Oz for piano four-hands (c. 2000) performed in the Stoughton Opera House, in 2014. Randall Hodgkinson and Jeffrey Sykes, piano. Recorded by Evan Richards.
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Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at noon, throughout the month of June
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We are channeling the Inextinguishable Flame of BDDS to bring you a fabulous virtual festival entitled
Bach's Lunch
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Our Bach’s Lunch Bento Bachs includes:
• a performance of a short solo work by JS Bach, recorded live in the artist’s living room, just for this series
• a brief interview with the artist, led by Stephanie and Jeffrey
• an archived performance from seasons past featuring the artist
• a little dessert
Next up: Beth Rapier & Anthony Ross on Tuesday, June 16.
We'd love to hear what you think, and even more than that, we'd love to hear what questions
you
might have for these artists! Get your questions to Samantha by clicking
here
and we'll slip them into our interviews if we can and enter you in our couch prize drawing!
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Our virtual festival is FREE and you are welcome to share it widely. If you are able, we invite you to make a donation to ensure BDDS will come back strong in 2021.
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Questions? Email or call
BDDS
608.255.9866
We are doing our best to support one another during this crisis and we thank you for your support and kind thoughts.
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Samantha Crownover | Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society | 608.255.9866 | bachdancing.org
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