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“Harp Fantasy,” the April 13 Bridgehampton Chamber Music concert, will feature harpist Bridget Kibbey. COURTESY BCM
Violist Cong Wu performs in “Harp Fantasy,” the April 13 Bridgehampton Chamber Music concert. COURTESY BCM
Violinist Kristin Lee performs in “Harp Fantasy,” the April 13 Bridgehampton Chamber Music concert. SOPHIE ZHAI
Flutist and BCM founder Marya Martin performs in “Harp Fantasy,” the April 13 Bridgehampton Chamber Music concert. COURTESY BCM
Cellist Mihai Marica performs in “Harp Fantasy,” the April 13 Bridgehampton Chamber Music concert. COURTESY BCM
BCM Spring, the annual series from Bridgehampton Chamber Music, Long Island’s longest-running classical music festival, welcomes spring in 2024 with three Saturday evening concerts on April 13, May 4 and May 18. All three concerts begin at 5 p.m. and the line-up includes a harp program, delectable French repertoire, and Mozart gems featuring some of the finest chamber musicians performing today.
The April 13 concert, “Harp Fantasy,” puts the harp at center stage with music by 19th- and 20th-century French composers Jean Françaix, Camille Saint-Saëns and Albert Roussel, alongside a rarely heard sonata by Italian Nino Rota (composer of the score of “The Godfather”). On May 4, “Mozart’s Spirit” includes a work for winds and piano by young New Zealand composer Salina Fisher which joins Mozart’s “Quintet for Piano and Winds” and Francis Poulenc’s “Sextet for Piano and Winds.” And on the May 18 “Masters at Work” program, great piano quartets by Mozart and Dvořák bookend another early-20th-century French gem by Philippe Gaubert.
Led by flutist and BCM’s artistic director Marya Martin, the series’ musicians include Bridget Kibbey, harp; Stewart Rose, horn; Peter Kolkay, bassoon; James Austin Smith, oboe; Jose Franch-Ballester, clarinet; Chad Hoopes and Kristin Lee, violin; Hsin-Yun Huang and Cong Wu, viola; Mihai Marica and Paul Watkins, cello; and Inon Barnatan and Michael Stephen Brown, piano.
The three Saturday evening concerts take place at BCM’s home venue, Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, at 5 p.m.
In the 40 years since its founding, Bridgehampton Chamber Music has become known for presenting a broad range of music performed by some of the best musicians in the world in one of the most beautiful seaside settings on the East Coast. Convinced that there were music lovers looking for more opportunities to hear excellent chamber music year-round, BCM introduced its spring series in 2015, and in 2017 expanded it from two concerts to three. With autumn and spring mini-series joining the summer festival, Bridgehampton Chamber Music now offers programs almost year-round.
Tickets for each BCM Spring concert are $75 and $50 ($10 students) at bcmf.org. Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church is at 2429 Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton.
Staff Writer on Feb 4, 2024