Gabe Lefkowitz and Friends-- One More Time!

There's a Gabe Lefkowitz and Friends performance fast approaching at the Knoxville Museum of Art, Wednesday and Thursday at 7:00.  It's your last chance to hear Gabe featured on the chamber music series that he initiated upon his arrival in Knoxville six years ago before he concludes his tenure as KSO Concertmaster at the end of the season. Another varied program awaits, with music of Dvorak, Gershwin, Sibelius and Chausson.  Pianist Kevin Class will be a co-soloist with Gabe in the Chausson Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet.

Note: Thursday's performance is sold out, but a few seats remain for Wednesday's performance, tickets here (or call 865-291-3310). Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Gershwin's Three Piano Preludes are jazzy and snazzy staples of the piano literature.  He had originally intended to put out 24 preludes, (one in each of the major and minor keys) like Rachmaninov had done, but the project was abandoned with only three Preludes making it to the publisher.  Gabe and Kevin will be performing Jascha Heifetz' arrangements of the Preludes for violin and piano.  The Sibelius work will be the Valse, originally composed for violin and piano, and Dvorak's ever-popular Humoresque No. 7 will fit neatly between the Gershwin and Sibelius offerings.  You may have heard the tune of the Humoresque as the setting of the warning posted in train restrooms; “Passengers will please refrain from flushing toilets while the train is standing in the station, I love you...”  It was a tune that musical humorist Victor Borge got a lot of mileage out of in his live performances-- I believe he did a bit about it in his appearance with the KSO in April of 1998.  In case you missed that, or even if you didn't, here is a clip of him performing it-- along with a lot of other of his patented silliness.

Ernest Chausson left us with only 39 opus-numbered works before his tragic death in 1899 (at age 44) in a bicycle accident.  He is remembered nowadays mainly for three works: his Symphony in B-flat, his Poème for violin and orchestra, and this Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet, but all of his works are significant and unique.  The concerto is a work that showcases the piano and violin, but also presents many passages of genuine sextet chamber music, bridging the gap between chamber music and concertante literature.  His style is reminiscent of Franck (with whom he studied composition) and Tchaikovsky, but predictive of Faure, Ravel and Gershwin.  As with Gershwin, one can only imagine the potential riches lost due to an untimely death.