Newport Music Festival Concert

The Museum is pleased to host several extraordinary Newport Music Festival concerts again this year. Join us for a memorable concert in the galleries, or one of our Free Outdoor Family-Friendly Concerts on the Museum’s lawn.

About this Concert:

Chopin wrote very few pieces for any instrument other than piano. The delightful Introduction and Polonaise Brillante, Op. 3 for cello and piano is one of the few exceptions. The Polonaise was composed for a lovely young pianist, and her father, who played cello. While Chopin said that the composition was simply a salon piece, he himself played it while on a concert tour and added the Introduction to frame the dance movement.

The Brahms Cello Sonata in E minor was the composer’s first work for piano and solo instrument. He composed the first two movements while in his twenties, on vacation with Clara Schumann and other friends. The piece is heavily romantic and even melancholy at times. Brahms tried to have it published, stating that it was not difficult to play. In reality, the piano and cellos are equal partners in a piece that requires great virtuosity from both.

On the advice of his mentor Brahms, Dvořák sent his Slavonic Dances to a Berlin publisher and received his first significant fee. Hearing the pieces, an influential critic wrote of their “heavenly naturalness” and Dvořák’s “real, naturally real talent.” The public’s interest was aroused, there was a run on the music shops, and Dvořák was suddenly famous.

Camillo Schumann was a well-known organist, teacher, and composer during his lifetime. However, he was committed to his style of composition, which embraced tradition, rather than modernism and, therefore, most of his works were not in vogue during his lifetime and never published. He modeled his pieces, including his Sonata for Cello and Piano, after Brahms, Liszt, and Rachmaninov, and are beautifully lyric and romantic.

Tickets $50

For additional details, and to purchase tickets, visit www.newportmusic.org