Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (Washington, DC)
The Peabody Chamber Players and conductor Rob Kapilow perform Bach's Double Concerto in D minor in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History's Baird Auditorium. Rob Kapilow takes listeners inside the music: he unravels, slows down, and recomposes key passages to hear why a piece is so extraordinary.
Event summary prepared by the Goldstar Editorial Team.
* Additional fees apply.
All offers for What Makes it Great? have expired.
Tell me when more tickets / dates are added
The last date listed for What Makes it Great? was Tuesday November 10, 2009 / 7:00pm. (view all dates)
Most Popular Classical Event Nearby:
Angela Hewitt is internationally acclaimed as one of the world's greatest interpreters of Bach. Named Gramophone's Artist of the Year, her eleven-year project to record J.S. Bach's complete keyboard works was met with superlatives from critics around the world. In this concert at Strathmore, she'll play Bach's Goldberg variations. Learn More
Wonderful program that helps one understand the intricacy major musical work. I plan to attend the next two programs in the series.
One small criticism is that Mr. Kapilow speaks much too fast. Perhaps this is necessary in order to get it all in.
The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) is part of the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s preeminent museum and research complex. The Museum is dedicated to inspiring curiosity, discovery, and learning about the natural world through its unparalleled research, collections, exhibitions, and education outreach programs. Opened in 1910, the green-dom
Website: http://www.wpas.org/tickets/eventholder/kapilow111009.aspx
Bach wrote his concertos as a direct response to Vivaldi’s path-breaking concertos, even admitting that it was Vivaldi who taught him to “think musically.” But even while trying to imitate, he could not help but be original, and there is no more stunning example of this originality than this, his most famous concerto.
From Rob Kapilow, on the origins of What Makes It Great?
During my freshman year at college, I was fortunate enough to take an inspiring art history course with a wonderful professor named Robert Herbert. Before taking the class, I had enjoyed going to museums, liked certain paintings, didn't like others, but overall hadn't given much thought or attention to why. I knew what I liked, and that was enough. In addition to classroom lectures, every Friday we would go to the Yale Art Gallery and spend an entire session on a single painting. These sessions were a revelation to me. I realized that I had never really looked closely at a painting. I was astonished week after week to realize how much I had completely missed in paintings that I thought I knew. Each week, prodded by the professor's careful attention, a painting would materialize before my eyes as if for the very first time. The course began to teach me the difference between looking and seeing. What Makes It Great?© began for me with that course. In some ways music poses even more difficulties than art because it refuses to sit still for us. It happens in real time. And in great music, so much goes by—so quickly—that it requires enormous attention to hear it all. That is what What Makes It Great?© is really about: Listening. Paying attention. Noticing all the fantastic things that might otherwise go by. When you begin to hear the things that make a piece great, it can spring to life as if you have never heard it before. During each What Makes It Great?© program we take a piece of great music, tear it apart, and put it back together again. We rewrite it, sing it, tap it, clap it: in short, we do everything in our power to get inside to see what makes it tick and what makes it great. Then on the second half of the program we hear the piece performed in its entirety—hopefully with a new pair of ears. If my art history class was about the difference between looking and seeing, What Makes It Great?© is about the difference between hearing and listening.
For 40 years Washington Performing Arts Society has created profound opportunities by connecting the community to artists, in both education and performance. Through live events in venues that criss-cross the landscape of the D.C. metropolitan area, WPAS invites all to share lifelong opportunities to deepen their cultural knowledge, enrich their lives, and expand their understanding of the world through the universal language of the performing arts. Established in 1965 by impresario Patrick Hayes, the organization flourished under Douglas Wheeler from 1982 to 2002. Now with the inspired leadership of President Neale Perl, Washington Performing Arts Society continues to be widely recognized as one of the leading presenters of the performing arts in the nation. After 40 years, the organization remains committed to Mr. Hayes' vision of showcasing the complete spectrum of the arts in performances of the highest quality, including classical music, jazz, gospel, contemporary dance, international music and art forms, and works that bend genres in provocative ways. Embracing both the traditions of the past and the vibrant artistry of the future, WPAS is committed to commissioning world premieres on local stages to support artists' creativity. Each year, WPAS presents more than 60 performances on 10 subscription series: Great Orchestras, Stars, Hayes Piano, Kreeger String, Celebrity, Jazz, Dance All Over, On the Edge, World Music and Movement, and American Roots. To make these performances accessible to the widest possible audience, WPAS presents artists in venues throughout the Washington, D.C. region, including The Kennedy Center, The Music Center at Strathmore, The Warner Theatre, Dance Place, DAR Constitution Hall, the George Washington University Lisner Auditorium, the GALA Theatre-Tivoli, and many others. Set in the nation's capital and reflecting a population that hails from around the globe, these abundant offerings both ground us in the great heritages of the world and allow our imaginations to fly, evoking fresh perspectives on life. Complementing each season of performances are dynamic education programs in schools and beyond, which are a hallmark of the institution and a mainstay in our nation's capital. Through such dynamic programs as Concerts In Schools, Embassy Adoption, the Feder Memorial String Competition, and the Children of the Gospel Mass Choir, WPAS touches the lives of more than 100,000 young people each year âe" more than 3 million students since WPAS' inception.
Washington Performing Arts Society
at Music Center at Strathmore (North Bethesda, MD)
on December 3rd