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Welte Hall
Central Connecticut
State University
1615 Stanley St. New Britain
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Free admission,
donations welcome.
For more info please call the orchestra
at (860) 331-8757
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Neal
Larrabee, pianist, has concertized extensively in the United States and
Europe. He has performed in major music centers including New York,
Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Berlin, Warsaw and Moscow. His appearances
as recitalist and as soloist with orchestras have won critical acclaim.
Nominated by the United States Information Service for performing under
the auspices of the American embassies, Larrabee has toured Germany,
Russia, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia. In Poland, Larrabee has become a
well-known favorite of the concert-going public. There, his highly
regarded interpretations of Chopin have led to recordings, national
broadcasts on television and radio, and engagements in virtually every
major concert hall. Invited for return engagements in Moscow, he performed
at the Moscow Conservatory's Rachmaninoff Hall, the Moscow State
University, and for the concert series presented at the U.S. Ambassador's
Spaso House. Awarded a Fulbright grant for study at the Moscow
Conservatory under Stanislav Neuhaus, Larrabee became the first American
pianist to study in the former Soviet Union under official government
sponsorship. He also studied with Eugene List at the Eastman School of
Music and with Rosina Lhevinne at the Juilliard School, where he was
awarded the Josef Lhevinne Scholarship. He earned his doctorate from the
State University of New York at Stony Brook under Martin Canin. Larrabee
has won honors in the Fifth International Tchaikovsky Competition in
Moscow and the Ninth International Chopin Competition in Warsaw and was
the first pianist to have been awarded the Artur Rubenstein Medal as
winner of the Young Musician's Foundation Competition in Los Angeles. | |
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Chopin's Bicentennial
Neal Larrabee, piano, Music by Chopin, Beethoven
co-production with the Polish Studies Program
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 7:30 PM - WELTE HALL, CCSU,
NEW BRITAIN
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Watch interview
with Neal Larrabee>>> |
Concert Program:
Chopin: Piano Concerto No.1, Op.11 in E-minor
Beethoven: "Eroica" Symphony No. 3
Dear Friends:
It is my great pleasure to invite you to a performance of Beethoven’s
“Eroica” Symphony, and Chopin’s Piano concerto in E-minor with pianist
Neal Larrabee. Dr. Larrabee is great friend of the Virtuosi, and an
extraordinary artist. We had a chance to speak with Dr. Larrabee in our
studio, and parts of this interview are on the Virtuosi website (www.thevirtuosi.org).
The “Eroica” by Beethoven is not only a one of the greatest symphonies
ever written, but it is also the composer's proclamation of hope and
freedom. Beethoven wrote it as a reaction to
raise and failure of the ideals of the French Revolution and Napoleon
Bonaparte. Beethoven encapsulated in his music the highly charged
emotional reaction to the social change of the time, the work shows that
our music is always connected to the society, to the social issues of the
day, and that creators always somehow react to these issues while drawing
the inspiration from the moment.
The Symphony includes the famous funeral march which became a symbol of
the composer’s resignation, and perhaps a broken promise of the time;
nevertheless Beethoven leaves the dedication of the work: “heroic
symphony, composed to celebrate the memory of a great man", while his hero
fails to live up to the ideals, a “great and heroic man” will, and that is
the hope of the human race.
Chopin’s concerto in E-minor speaks of a different hope, it looks within a
human soul to find a harmony and piece, it does not scream about the
ideals, but it puts these ideals at the altar of beauty and harmony. Music
of Chopin is delicate like a flower, which we will all hold dear, knowing
that one wrong move can destroy its beauty, regardless of who we are.
In a way Chopin answers the Beethoven’s question. If Beethoven asks where
the “great and heroic man” is, Chopin responds: “in the soul of every one
of us”.
I hope that you will attend our concert on February 27th at Welte Hall. It
will be a great occasion to celebrate the 200 anniversary of Chopin’s
birth.
Yours truly,
Adrian Sylveen, Artistic Director
Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra
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