Themes for the 2011-12 concert season at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. include Franz Liszt’s bicentenary, a BachFest, and a celebration of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The library will also inaugurate its new Dina Koston and Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music with a theater-and-music evening featuring Samuel Beckett’s Ohio Impromptu; a chamber-music evening featuring pianist Leon Fleisher; and a John Cage centennial celebration with performances by violinist Irvine Arditti and pianist Steven Drury. The Franz Liszt Bicentenary Project will include pianist Louis Lortie performing the Années de Pèlerinage, baritone Martin Bruns and forepianist Christoph Hammer in a 200th-birthday Liederabend, late chamber music featuring cellist Tamás Zétényi, plus a program entitled “The Liszt Legacy and Béla Bartók,” featuring soloists from the Budapest Festival Orchestra and pianist Jenö Jandó. The library’s BachFest in April will include performances of J.S. Bach works by Juilliard Baroque , Concerto Köln, viola da gambist Paolo Pandolfo, and baroque cellist Tanya Tomkins; Daniel Boomhower from the Library’s Music Division will speak about “The Many Rooms of Bach’s Suites,” and there will be a screening of Michael Lawrence’s two-hour documentary Bach & Friends. “BABALU! Celebrating the Library’s Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz Collection” on October 15 will feature children Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr. with Raúl Esparza, Valarie Pettiford, and the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, performing orchestrations of the Desi Arnaz Orchestra from the 1940s and ’50s.
Posted August 24, 2011
