By Chip Chandler — Digital Content Producer
A spotlight on Beethoven's violin sonatas that has lasted more than a year will finally conclude Saturday at Chamber Music Amarillo.
CMA began a series of three concerts featuring Ludwig van Beethoven's violin cycle — 10 sonatas in all — with an April 2016 concert. It continued in October, then was supposed to conclude April 1. That concert was delayed until May 19, then again until Saturday because of an injury suffered by pianist and CMA artistic director David Palmer that restricted his practice time.
The final concert of the cycle — featuring sonatas No. 10, 3 and 7 — will begin at 8 p.m. Saturday in the Fibonacci Space, 3306 S.W. Sixth Ave. A preconcert lecture begins at 7 p.m.
Throughout the endeavor, Palmer has performed on piano with violinist Rossitza Jekova-Goza of the Harrington String Quartet.
"This has been an amazing experience," Palmer said. "Having had this opportunity to work closely with Rossitza ... has given me an invaluable study of Beethoven's collaborative music.
"What I really look forward to is continuing to play this repertoire as I know that the rich tapestry of music will always provide me with a new perspective, no matter how many times I perform it."
Beethoven wrote a total of 10 sonatas for the two instruments, which world-renowned pianist Daniel Tong calls “the most important body of work for violin and piano.”
“As with so many of the genres that he touched, Beethoven set the standard to which all other composes aspired for many years afterwards,” Tong wrote at BeethovenPlus.com, a website for his project of pairing the 10 sonatas with newly commissioned response pieces. “For a violin and piano duo, these works are central to everything we do.”
“I think when you do a cycle like this and delve so completely into this genre with a specific composer, it’s inevitable that if you work as hard as you can, the learning never stops,” Palmer said before the cycle began in 2016.
Tickets for Saturday's concert are $35 for adults and $10 for students. Call 806-236-3545.
Chip Chandler is a digital content producer for Panhandle PBS. He can be contacted at Chip.Chandler@actx.edu, at @chipchandler1 on Twitter and on Facebook.
