PROGRAM:
Mozart: Clarinet Concerto
Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht
SOLOIST: Jim Forgey, clarinet
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Fri Oct 20, 2017 7:30pm
First Church of Christ Congregational
830 Corbin Ave, New Britain, CT
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Sat Oct 21, 2017 7:30pm
Cyril and Methodius Church
55 Charter Oak Ave. Hartford, CT
Jim Forgey has been an active performer and teacher in Connecticut since 1992. He holds degrees from Michigan State University and the University of Michigan. His teachers include John McCaw and Kalmen Opperman. Jim is a member of the Connecticut Virtuosi, and The Waterbury Symphony and performs frequently as a freelance clarinetist with orchestras throughout Connecticut.
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Jim has also been a part of many Broadway National tour productions at Hartford’s Bushnell Theater including, “The Producers”, “Ragtime”, “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder”, “Wicked” and “If/Then”.
Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto is one of the most famous in the relatively limited clarinet concerto repertoire. Forgey is very familiar with it of course, and has performed it accompanied by piano for recitals and auditions, but he is excited to perform it with orchestra for the first time at these concerts. “It’s such a high-quality piece; it’s been around so long and has really withstood the test of time. There’s a limited number of [clarinet] concerti, so it’s really rare for [clarinetists] to have a great, great concerto. It’s nice to have Mozart in the mix!”
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On the other half of the concert program, the dense textures and chromaticism, and the Romantic-era emotional expression of Arnold Schoenberg’s “Verklärte Nacht” provide a sharp contrast to the Classical elegance and clarity of Mozart’s Concerto. But beneath the surface, Schoenberg represents a reinvention, or ‘reincarnation,’ of the musical development of Mozart’s time. Mozart is the culmination of the Classical style within the ‘First Viennese School’ of music composition, along with his predecessor Haydn and his successor Beethoven, with Beethoven also driving the transition into the Romantic era. Schoenberg’s early music, including Verklärte Nacht, represents the culmination of the Romantic style. Schoenberg then led the transition into the 20th century, along with his pupils Alban Berg and Anton Webern; together, the three Austrian composers propagated the ‘Second Viennese School.’
“The name ‘Reincarnations’ to me implies change, the reincarnation of the style of the musical idea, going from Mozart to Schoenberg. It’s a reinvention of the Classical” says Virtuosi artistic director Adrian Sylveen. And this theme will be woven throughout the programs of this concert season, which Sylveen has appropriately named ‘Reincarnations.’ “Each concert this year will have something to do with that idea … focusing on some aspect of the development, the reincarnation, of the musical idea.”