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Classical music lovers are like Oliver Twist, always wanting more.
Those on the East End are no different in this respect. In response to the demand, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival added two concerts in the spring of 2015 on top of its well established summer series. This year, the festival has added yet another performance to the spring component due to the immense popularity of the inaugural spring concerts, named BCMF Spring.
The 2016 series will begin Saturday, February 27, about three weeks before the official start of spring.
2016 marks the 33rd season of the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, making it the longest running classical music event on the East End. It is one of the most prestigious—and largest—chamber music festivals in the country.
Founded in 1984 by flutist Marya Martin and her husband, Ken Davidson, it consisted originally of two concerts with four performers, Ms. Martin, violinist Ani Kavafian, cellist Fred Sherry and pianist Andre-Michel Schub. The festival now offers four weeks of music by 40 world-class musicians. Its roster bristles with prize-winners and principal violinists, cellists, and violists from major orchestras throughout the country, and soloists from throughout the world.
Since its inception, the festival’s home has been the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, but for many years it has also held a free concert on the green of the Bridgehampton Museum, and last year held two concerts at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill. It also holds two fundraisers, the Brian Little Memorial Concert in the sculpture garden at the Channing Daughters Winery and another at the Atlantic Golf Club.
Chamber music has been described as “the music of friends.” With one instrument to a part, it is an intimate experience for both the performers and the audience. Historically performed in homes and drawing rooms, chamber music translates well to the glowing acoustical space of the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church.
“People think of chamber music as an elitist thing. It’s not,” Ms. Martin said in a telephone interview. “It can be enjoyed by anyone. We all react to it. The question is not how much intellectual knowledge you have about music, but, rather, does it give you goose bumps? I don’t care if people come to a concert in jeans, or if they clap between movements. That means that the music is affecting them.” She continued, “I believe in the power of music. Music touches the soul.”
When asked if she ever imagined the festival would become so big and generate such a large audience, she said, “I was young. I didn’t take a long view. I just thought, ‘Wouldn’t this be great?’”
The festival’s executive director, Michael Lawrence, said the spring series is “an investment in the community.”
Ms. Martin echoed that sentiment. “We’re trying to reach out to the community, going to schools, offering reduced price tickets,” she said. “I’m most excited about this spring addition, because I feel we’re reaching a new audience.”
One performer at the February 27 concert has long ties to the East End. Though he now lives in Paris and teaches there and in Geneva, harpsichordist Kenneth Weiss has spent summers in Montauk since he was 12 years old, when his father had a house built there. He came to love Montauk and continues to fish and swim in its waters. In a telephone interview he said, “Montauk has become my home, a place to escape.”
Mr. Weiss began taking piano lessons when he was 8 or 9. Upon graduation from the High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan, he went on to the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio, “where I became fascinated with the sound of the harpsichord. Oberlin has a large early music library, and it was wonderful to see all this music written for the instrument.”
The harpsichord, unlike the piano, is a plucked string instrument. It gave way in concert halls to the fortepiano, the precursor to the piano as we know it, shortly after the time of Bach.
He noted, “Bach and Scarlatti can be played on the piano, but keyboard music before them depends, for its integrity, on the sonority of the harpsichord.”
After Oberlin, he went off to Europe to study with Gustav Leonhardt, a harpsichordist and conductor he called one of the central figures of the early music movement.
Mr. Weiss also studied with William Christie in Paris and served as accompanist and sometimes conductor of Les Arts Florissants, a Baroque musical ensemble. Christie is another great name in the early music world. Les Arts Florissants has brought to life many works that hadn’t been heard for several hundred years.
Mr. Weiss records on the Satirino label and has released to great acclaim Bach’s “The Well-Tempered Clavier” and the “Goldberg Variations,” as well as Scarlatti sonatas and “A Cleare Day: Selections from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book.” The virginal is a keyboard instrument in the harpsichord family.
Mr. Weiss describes the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival as “great fun. I’m proud to be a part of it.”
The theme of the evening on February 27 is “Bach’s World.” As well as a Bach Trio Sonata, the audience will hear a work by Bach’s precursor, Corelli; his contemporaries, Telemann, with whom Bach had a friendly rivalry, and Fasch, whose music Bach admired; and by two of his sons, Carl Philip Emanuel Bach and Johann Christian Bach.
In addition to Ms. Martin and Mr. Weiss, the musicians will include violinist Ani Kavafian, who performed in the very first concert of the festival in 1984; the cellist Edward Arron, a regular at the festival; and the violist Bella Hristova, a newcomer who recently won the Avery Fisher Career Grant and first prize in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, among other prizes.
The second concert of the miniseries, which takes place on April 9, will feature the Miro Quartet, who performed last year in one of the spring concerts. They will be playing one Ginastera and two Beethoven string quartets.
The third concert will be on May 14. Ms. Martin and Ms. Kavafian will be joined by cellist Peter Wiley and Finnish pianist Juho Pohjonen for three trios by Haydn, Mozart and Schubert. Mr. Wiley is a regular with the festival and another Avery Fisher Career Grant winner, who at the age of 20, became the principal cellist of the Cincinnati Symphony. He was also the cellist of the Beaux Arts Trio for several years. Mr. Pohjonen is a pianist to watch. He frequently plays with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has been described by The New York Times as “formidable” and “thrilling.”
BCMF Spring kicks off at 6 p.m. on Saturday, February 27, at the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church. Ticket prices are $50, $40, and $10 for students. A subscription for all three performances is $125. Purchase online at bcmf.org or call (212) 741-9403.
on Feb 21, 2016