I am really excited that we are getting closer to the to the kickoff of the Palladium Chamber Players Inaugural series. The first concert, of three, is happening on Wednesday, Feb. 26, with another on March 19 and April 23.
Tickets are selling briskly (subscriptions are still available for all three shows). Our musicians are arriving next week for rehearsals.
To get you in the mood, check out this excerpt from a great preview story on the series that appeared today – 2-20 – in the Tampa Bay Times. Our thanks to Jon Carter for this great story. To read the whole piece, here’s a link:
http://www.tampabay.com/things-to-do/music/chamber-music-series-kicks-off-in-st-petersburg/2166173
By Jon Carter/Times Staff Writer
When the Palladium Theater asked Jeff Multer, concertmaster of the Florida Orchestra, to start a series of concerts at the downtown St. Petersburg venue, he thought it was the perfect opportunity to return to his chamber music background.
“We are really excited to bring such high quality chamber music to the area,” said Multer, who thinks Tampa Bay could use more intimate and accessible concerts.
Jeffrey Multer
The Palladium Chamber Players has taken great care to program works it thinks everyone will appreciate. There’s even a celebrity guest artist for the second concert: Grammy Award-winning violinist James Ehnes. Ehnes lives in Bradenton and is one of the biggest names in classical music today. He will perform a concerto by Ernest Chausson in which the “orchestra” consists of a string quartet and a piano.
The three concerts of the series are all on Wednesday nights, which Multer considers to be an ideal mid-week musical fix. “We spent a lot of time working on the scheduling,” Multer said. “The concerts are at a slightly early time, so you can grab dinner before or after and still get home at a reasonable hour.”
James Ehnes
Although the ensemble performed a concert at the Palladium Theater last February, this will be its first full season in residence there. Violist Danielle Farina, cellist Edward Arron and pianist Jeewon Park, the other core members of the ensemble, are all based in New York, so Multer typically flies there for rehearsals.
For each program, one member will be spotlighted in a smaller chamber work, typically a sonata. Arron will be featured on the first program, Ehnes has the concerto on the second, and Multer will be the third, performing Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 5, Spring.
On the program at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday is Schubert’s Adagio and Rondo Concertante in F major; Debussy’s Sonata for Cello and Piano; Brahms’ Quartet for Piano and Strings in G minor; and Five Old French Dances, a lesser-known work by Baroque composer Marin Marais.
The other two concerts of the season are March 19 and April 23, also at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $26-36, or $96 for a season subscription. The Palladium is at 253 Fifth Ave. N, St. Petersburg. (727) 822-3590. The Palladium’s website is: www.mypalladium.org.
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