CAMA’s next Masterseries concert takes the stage at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 24, in the Lobero Theatre.
The performer will be the great pianist Peter Serkin — brilliant interpreter of five centuries of keyboard music, from William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons to Messiaen, Schoenberg and Takemitsu, and every major composer in-between.
Serkin will play Wolfgang Mozart‘s “Adagio in b-minor, K.540,” his “Piano Sonata No.17 in Bb-Major, K.570 (1789),” and Johann Sebastian Bach‘s “Goldberg Variations, BWV 988.”
Serkin’s family has played a significant role in modern Western music. His father, the pianist Rudolf Serkin, set the gold standard of Mozart performance for generations of pianists and music lovers.
Together with his father-in-law, the composer-violinist Adolf Busch, Rudolf founded the renowned Marlborough Festival in Vermont. Among many other achievements, Peter co-founded the highly influential chamber ensemble, Tashi.
As with Glenn Gould and Daniel Barenboim, what Peter Serkin plays today becomes standard repertoire in short order. By no means an arbiter, he has something to do with setting our priorities. He has consistently championed modern music, while keeping on the best of terms with the classics.
The concert is co-sponsored by the CAMA Women’s Board, as well as Stephen Cloud, Joanne Holderman, Elizabeth Karlsberg and Jeff Young, and Stephen J.M. and Anne Morris.
Musicians deserved to be paid, so does the owner of the hall, and private supporters play a key role in making that possible. We are all grateful to them. As Prince Feisal (Alec Guinness) says to Lawrence’s retreating back, “What I owe you, I can never repay.”
Tickets to Peter Serkin are $39 and $49. You can purchase them in person at the Lobero Box office, 33 E. Canon Perdido St., by phone at 963-0761 or on line at http://checkout.lobero.com/single/SYOS.aspx?p=9998.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributing writer. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are his own.