"Contrasts" Christopher Kabala, Pianist

Contrasts is the subject of a piano recital to be given by Christopher Kabala at the Round Hill Community Church in Greenwich, on Friday, November 9th at 8:00P.M.

The diverse program will contrast Haydn’s shortest sonata with Beethoven's towering Waldstein Sonata. The contrasts will continue with Schumann's finest set of miniature character pieces, the popular "Scenes from Childhood." Schumann's genius was his ability to vividly depict a child dreaming: riding a toy rocking horse, telling a ghost story or falling asleep. Prokofieff’s Sonata No. 3 in A minor begins with a fiery tarantella, abruptly leaving behind the innocence of the Childhood Scenes. The sonata was composed in 1917, the year of the February Revolution in Russia. The political turmoil and instability forced the composer to leave his home in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg), relocate to the Caucasus, and continue composing there.

The second part of the program will include: “The Alcotts” movement from Charles Ives’ Concord Sonata, the Chopin Barcarolle, and a tour de force arrangement of the Strauss Blue Danube Waltzes. The Concord Sonata celebrates the New England transcendentalists, Emerson, Hawthorne, the Alcotts, and Thoreau. The short “Alcotts” movement depicts the gentle life at Orchard House where Scottish airs and family hymns were sung at the end of the day, and Beth Alcott played at Beethoven's 5th Symphony on a spinet. The work was publicly premiered in Cos Cob, Connecticut in 1938.

The Chopin Barcarolle (from the Italian barca, "boat") was inspired by folksongs sung by Venetian gondoliers, with a rhythm reminiscent of the gondoliers’ stroke, invariably in 6/8 meter. When Chopin completed the Barcarolle, his last work of relatively large scale, he was already weakened by the fatal illness that would take his life three years later. He must have had deep affection for the piece for he included it on the program of a concert he gave in Paris in 1848, his last appearance in his beloved adopted city. On The Beautiful Blue Danube has been one of the most consistently popular pieces of music in the classical repertoire. Its initial performance was only a mild success, however, and Strauss is reputed to have said "The devil take the waltz, my only regret is for the coda - I wish that had been a success!" The specifically Viennese sentiments of the waltz have made it a sort of unofficial Austrian national anthem. It is traditionally broadcast by all public-law television and radio stations there exactly at midnight on New Year's Eve, and on New Year's Day.

Tickets for the concert are $25 ($5.00 for students) and are available at the door. A bounteous wine reception will follow the concert. Round Hill Community Church is located at 395 Round Hill Road in Greenwich.

For reservations call (203) 869-1091 or visit  www.roundhillcommunitychurch.org