The Pacifica Chamber Ensemble (Suzanne Duffy, flute; Laura Hackstein, violin; Ervin Klinkon, cello; Allen Bishop, piano) will play a splendid program of chamber music at the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara sanctuary, 1535 Santa Barbara St., at 3 p.m. Sunday.
These outstanding local musicians will be performing Ignace Josef Pleyel’s “Trio #1 for Flute, Cello and Violin, Opus 73;” Franz Josef Haydn’s “Piano Trio No. 39 in G-Major Hob. XV/25,” the “Gypsy,” from 1795; Robert Schumann’s “Three Fantasy Pieces (Fantasiestücke) for Cello and Piano, Opus 73,” from 1849; Niccolò Paganini’s “Cantabile in D major, Opus 17;” “Eight Pieces for Solo Flute, Opus 59,” by American composer Lowell Liebermann, which premiered in 1998; and Carl Maria von Weber’s “Trio in g-minor for Flute, Cello, and Piano, Opus 63.”
Pleyel (1757-1831) was a student of Haydn who went into business for himself and did very well. He became a Frenchman, bought himself a chateau, and survived eight separate grillings by the Committee for Public Safety during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror by devoting himself to writing patriotic music in support of the revolution. He even managed to hang onto his chateau. He founded a music publishing firm that lasted 39 years and published more than 4,000 works by the likes of Adolphe Adam, Ludwig van Beethoven, Luigi Boccherini, Muzio Clementi and Johann Nepomuk Hummel. Pleyel, moreover, went into piano manufacture, and produced instruments used by Frédéric Chopin, and also ran a concert hall, the Salle Pleyel, where Chopin performed his first — and last — Paris concerts. His own music is pretty, engaging and was wildly popular during his lifetime, but went into near total eclipse after his death.
I blush to admit that I know none of Liebermann’s work, but he certainly looks like an interesting composer.
Tickets to this concert are $15 general admission, $10 for students and seniors, and are available at Santa Barbara Sheet Music, 1036 Santa Barbara St., and at the door. For more information, call 805.969.0037.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributor. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com.