Sunday Recital Series Continues with “Musical Larceny”

Mary Baldwin College’s popular Sunday Recital Series continues on February 3 at 3 p.m. with “Musical Larceny,” featuring cellist Beth Cantrell and pianist Lise Keiter.

“Each of the works in this concert is taken in some way from other music,” said Cantrell, explaining the “larceny” title.

The duo will open with a pleasing sonata by J.S. Bach, which is from a set of three works originally composed for viola da gamba and harpsichord. They will also include a chorale prelude (originally for organ), along with Dvorak’s very beautiful “Silent Woods,” which the composer first wrote for piano four-hands, as the fifth part of the cycle From the Bohemian Forest. Rounding out the program is Chopin’s Polonaise Brillante, op. 3.

“This work inspired the program’s theme of ‘musical larceny,’” said Cantrell. “Chopin’s Polonaise Brillante was indeed composed for a particular cellist and a particular pianist: either Prince Antoni Radziwill (the Grand Duke of Posen) and his daughter Wanda, or Chopin himself and a certain young lady of interest to him. In both cases, the cellists are described as ‘aspiring.’ We can infer from the original cello part, which is tuneful and very modest in its technical demands, that the pianist was by far the more accomplished player. Not being in our nature to remain in the shadows, we cellists have been stealing notes from the piano part ever since Emanuel Feuermann (1902-1942) got hold of it. We’ll play an arrangement which includes additions from cellists Feuermann, Leonard Rose, and Bernard Greenhouse.”

Cantrell and Keiter are both members of the Mary Baldwin music faculty. The former principal cellist of the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra, Cantrell regularly plays with the Richmond and Waynesboro Symphonies. She is also a well-known Suzuki Teacher Trainer and has presented workshops for teachers throughout the U.S. Keiter appears frequently in solo and chamber music settings, and also as a soloist with orchestra. She performs both regionally and nationally, and she is in demand as a guest lecturer and masterclass clinician.

All Sunday Recitals are at 3 p.m. in Francis Auditorium in the Pearce Science Center on the Mary Baldwin University campus. Tickets may be purchased at the door and are $5 for the general public and $4 for seniors and students. (Mary Baldwin students attend free of charge.) For more information call 540-887-7294 or visit go.marybaldwin.edu/arts/musicatmbc.php.