Washington Square Music Festival Presents Music & Poetry at St. Mark’s Church Sun. Nov. 24 – Free

Washington Sq Music Festival upstate recently

A special fall performance by the Washington Square Music Festival will take place Sunday, November 24th, 3 p.m., as the esteemed organization presents a free concert of Music and Poetry at St. Mark’s Church in the East Village.

From the Washington Square Music Festival:

Composers W.A. Mozart, Benjamin Britten and Max Reger as well as poets John Keats, William Blake, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson are featured at the Washington Square Music Festival’s free concert Sunday, November 24 at 3 pm in St. Mark’s Church-in the-Bowery, 131 East 10th Street.

This delightful program will be performed by Hélène Jeanney, pianist, tenor Marc Molomot, French hornist Eric Davis, and the Festival String Ensemble.

The Festival Chamber Ensemble:

Eric Davis, French horn
Hélène Jeanney, piano
Marc Molomot, tenor

Max Reger “ Scherzino” for French horn and string ensemble
horn, Eric Davis

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto #12, K414 with string ensemble
piano: Hélène Jeanney

Benjamin Britten Serenade op. 31 for tenor, French horn and string ensemble
tenor: Marc Molomot,
horn: Eric Davis

Britten’s Serenade #31:

This masterly work was written for the combined musical talents of tenor Peter Pears and hornist Dennis Brain. Pears was an English tenor who was Britten’s professional and personal partner for many years. Serenade is framed by a horn solo played on natural harmonics to evoke an atmosphere of far-off, primeval innocence. Serenade is an extraordinary example of Britten’s ability to set an anthology of texts bound together by a similar theme, in this case, the world of night, sleep, and dreams. The twilit atmosphere that characterizes this beautiful and evocative work is offset by the two settings that form its centerpiece, the “Sick Rose” of Blake’s “Elegy” and a nightmarish setting of the anonymous 15th-century “Lyke Wake Dirge”.

Tenor Marc Molomot is possessed of a high-tenor voice and a winning stage persona that comfortably embraces both comedic and dramatic roles. He enjoys an international career in opera and on the concert stage. Originally known for appearances with the world’s leading early music ensembles with conductors including William Christie and John Eliot Gardiner, Mr. Molomot is now praised as “an excellent actor-singer” in repertoire of all eras. Recent opera performances have included Purcell’s The Fairy Queen with Chicago Opera Theater; a COT co-production with Long Beach Opera, Busoni’s Turandot in the role of Truffaldino with Bard Music Festival; Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of us All at Hudson Hall; and Berg’s Wozzeck with the Houston Symphony in the role of Der Hauptmann. The live recording of this performance was the winner of a Grammy Award and an ECHO Klassik Award, both for Best Opera Recording.

Location: St. Marks Church-in-the-Bowery, 131 East 10th Street, corner Second Avenue, Manhattan.
Subway: N, R at 8th St.-NYU; 6 at Astor Place

Visit the website for the Washington Square Music Festival.

Photo: Cynthia Johnson

[from the left: violinists Eriko Sato and Nicholas Danielson, tenor Marc Molomot, cellist Lutz Rath, violist Amadi Azikiwe, and Eric Davis, French horn]

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