Two years in the planning, Georgetown University’s Department of Performing Arts and the Post-Classical Ensemble have joined forces in presenting the Interpreting Liszt festival taking place Friday and Saturday on the university’s main campus.
Through daytime conference events followed by evening concerts, professional artists, music historians and student performers explore, side by side, the great piano and choral works, as well as the enigmatic personality that is part and parcel of the late-19th-century virtuosic pianist Franz Liszt.
“We are so happy about our collaboration with Post-Classical Ensemble because their approach to creating concerts and reaching the general public is very similar to our approach, [by which] we immerse students in the creation of the artwork,” said department Chairwoman Anna Celenza.
The Post-Classical Ensemble is notorious for its highly acclaimed presentations of musical works performed in the context of their cultural heritage. This often includes folk song, dance, film and contemporary popular music.
Friday’s 7:30 p.m. concert presentation, titled Liszt and Italy, highlights the brilliant Ukrainian pianist Mykola Suk performing Liszt’s “Fountains of the Villa d’Este.”
A true multidisciplinary affair, Celenza’s accompanying commentary is part of this illustrated concert featuring visual art by Raphael and Michelangelo and the poetry of Petrarch and Dante read by Georgetown University actors.
Saturday’s 7:30 p.m. concert, titled Angels and Devils, features the Post-Classical Ensemble, Mykola Suk at the piano and the Georgetown University Chamber Singers. Performed works include Liszt’s “Hymne de l’enfant a son reveil” and “Inno a Maria Vergine.”
If you go
Interpreting Liszt festival
Where: Georgetown University, Gaston Hall and McNeir Hall, 37th and O streets NW
When: Friday and Saturday (check Web site for specific times)
Info: 202-687-2787; performingarts.georgetown.edu
The composer’s Totentanz for Piano and Orchestra is also the subject of a pre-concert lecture and slide show. Friday’s conference session runs from 1:15 to 3:30 p.m. and is dedicated to historic Liszt recordings. Saturday’s session runs from 1 to 5 p.m. and welcomes Joseph Horowitz, speaker, author, teacher and co-founder of the Post-Classical Ensemble.
“Liszt made the piano into an orchestra,” he said. “At the keyboard, his larger-than-life presence [and] his galvanizing musical imagination contributed to an overwhelming self-portrait.”
