Brian Ganz & Beverly Babcock on Pianos / January 26 at 8pm
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Marc Apter, 301-904-3690
Brian Ganz & Beverly Babcock on Pianos
Perform Mozart and Chopin Masterpieces at SMCM
St. Mary’s City (January 18, 2016) - St. Mary's College of Maryland Musician-in-Residence Brian Ganz and piano faculty member Beverly Babcock will present an evening of works for piano and orchestra on Tuesday, January 26 at 8pm in the Auerbach Auditorium of St. Mary's Hall on the college campus. The program will feature a piano concerto by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and a set of variations for piano and orchestra by Frederic Chopin. Ms. Babcock will play the orchestra part on a second piano. This will be a ticketed event. St. Mary's College of Maryland students will be admitted free of charge; seniors, college faculty and staff, as well as St. Mary's Arts Alliance members, will be charged a $10 admission fee; general admission will be $15. For more information call (240) 895-4498 or visit http://www.smcm.edu/events/organizer/music-department/.
"Mozart's Piano Concerto in D minor, K. 466, is one of his greatest," Ganz said. "It is full of grace and elegance of course, being Mozart, but also displays a powerful depth of feeling and even a sense of tragedy. Beethoven loved this concerto and performed it, and in fact wrote two great cadenzas for it, which I will play. So listeners get to hear both Mozart and Beethoven within the same work!"
Ganz and Babcock will also perform Chopin's early work for piano and orchestra, the Variations on "La ci darem la mano" from Mozart's Don Giovanni, Op. 2. "We played this work a few times last semester, but playing it again along with the Mozart concerto will be a particular pleasure," Ganz continued. "Although on the surface they are quite different from each other, the two composers work well together. Chopin loved Mozart's works and was greatly inspired by them. He even asked that Mozart be played at his funeral."
Ganz recently performed his 6th recital at the Strathmore Music Center in North Bethesda in his decade long journey through the complete works of Chopin, a project he has undertaken in partnership with the National Philharmonic. He began his “Extreme Chopin” quest at Strathmore five years ago in a sold out recital that launched the ambitious endeavor to perform the composer's approximately 250 works. After the recent recital the Washington Post praised the "ravishing sensual beauty of Ganz's sound" and the "elegance of his delivery."
Ganz has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the National Philharmonic, the Baltimore and the National Symphonies, the City of London Sinfonia, and L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo. He has performed in many of the world’s major concert halls and has played under the baton of such conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pinchas Zukerman, Jerzy Semkow and Yoel Levi. A critic for La Libre Belgique wrote of Ganz’s work: “We don’t have the words to speak of this fabulous musician who lives music with a generous urgency and brings his public into a state of intense joy.” Beverly Babcock is the Accompanist-in-Residence at the college and a member of the piano faculty. She maintains a thriving concert schedule throughout the Washington, D.C. metro area.