St. Mary's College of Maryland Musician-in-Residence Brian Ganz and fellow music department faculty member Beverly Babcock will continue their popular noon concert series on Tuesday, April 2 in the Auerbach Auditorium of St. Mary's Hall on the College campus. They will offer a brief discussion and full performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, the "Emperor." The program is free of charge and open to the public. Call (240) 895-4498 for more information or visit http://www.smcm.edu/events/organizer/music-department/.
“Beethoven's 'Emperor' Concerto is one of the noblest works to come out of his middle or ‘Heroic’ period,” Ganz said. “And it demonstrates beautifully that heroism can stand side by side with tenderness, as the radiant second movement is one of Beethoven's most intimate and heartfelt creations.”
Ganz has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the National Philharmonic, the Baltimore and the National Symphonies, the City of London Sinfonia, and L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo. He has performed in many of the world’s major concert halls and has played under the baton of such conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pinchas Zukerman, Jerzy Semkow and Yoel Levi. A critic for La Libre Belgique wrote of Ganz’s work: “We don’t have the words to speak of this fabulous musician who lives music with a generous urgency and brings his public into a state of intense joy.”
Earlier this year Ganz performed his ninth recital at the Strathmore Music Center in North Bethesda in his decade long journey through the complete works of Chopin, a project he has undertaken in partnership with the National Philharmonic. He began his “Extreme Chopin” quest at Strathmore in January of 2011 in a sold-out recital that launched the ambitious endeavor to perform the composer's approximately 250 works. The tenth recital in the series, Chopin and the Growth of Genius, will take place on February 1, 2020. Tickets and more information are at www.nationalphilharmonic.org
Beverly Babcock, one of the Washington, D. C., area's leading accompanists, is the college's Accompanist-in-Residence and a member of the piano faculty.
