6:00 pm – Concert in Leo Rich Theater – Open Seating
6:45 pm – Food, open bar, and mingling with the musicians on the plaza
6:00 – 8:00 pm – Silent Auction in the lobby

This fundraising event features the opportunity to mingle with the Festival musicians in a relaxed and festive atmosphere. Masks required in the lobby and theater. No mask required outdoors. Proof of vaccination required for all guests.

Includes a special live concert, delicious food by James Beard award-winning chef Janos Wilder, and open bar.

Advance reservation required. Please purchase your ticket no later than March 10th.

MENU
Street Vendor’s Corn, Tomatillo Salsa, Barrio Bread
Griddled Green Corn Tamale Pie, Guacamole La Roca, Chiltepin Salsa
Cochinita Pibil Tamalitos, Achiote Vinaigrette
Arizona Winter Squash Soup + Roasted Corn Crema
Mini Rib-Eye Tacos, Frijoles Maneados, Blackened Tomato Salsa, Chiles Rajas
Mini Lamb Barbacoa Blue Corn Tacos, Smoked Poblano Crema, Pickled Onions
Mango Crema with Corn Cookie Crumble
Chocolate Chile Colorado Truffles

FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809–1847)
Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 20

Allegro moderato ma con fuoco
Andante
Scherzo: Allegro leggierissimo
Presto

The musicians will rotate parts as follows:
Movement I:
Tessa Lark, violin 1
Axel Strauss, violin 2
Joel Link, violin 3
Bryan Lee, violin 4
Dimitri Murrath, viola 1
Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola 2
Edward Arron, cello 1
Camden Shaw, cello 2

Movement II:
Axel Strauss, violin 1
Joel Link, violin 2
Bryan Lee, violin 3
Tessa Lark, violin 4
Dimitri Murrath, viola 1
Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola 2
Edward Arron, cello 1
Camden Shaw, cello 2

Movement III:
Joel Link, violin 1
Bryan Lee, violin 2
Tessa Lark, violin 3
Axel Strauss, violin 4
Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola 1
Dimitri Murrath, viola 2
Camden Shaw, cello 1
Edward Arron, cello 2

Movement IV:
Joel Link, violin 1
Tessa Lark, violin 2
Axel Strauss, violin 3
Bryan Lee, violin 4
Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola 1
Dimitri Murrath, viola 2
Camden Shaw, cello 1
Edward Arron, cello 2

“It must be played staccato and pianissimo. All is new and strange … one feels near a world of ghosts, lightly blown aloft. At the end the first violin flutters upward, light as a feather—and all vanishes away.”

—Fanny Mendelssohn, on the Scherzo of her brother’s Octet

PROGRAM NOTES
The sixteen-year-old Mendelssohn wrote his Octet during the summer and fall of 1825. Considered to be the most outstanding chamber composition ever written by one so young, the Octet honored the 23rd birthday of Eduard Rietz, Mendelssohn’s violin teacher. It premiered to great acclaim at one of the weekly Mendelssohn family musicales.

In his Octet Mendelssohn, who had been composing for only five years, achieved his own unique idiom, one that develops romantic ideas within a classical framework. All four movements follow sonata form, the established eighteenth-century framework heard in the works of the great classicists. Yet Mendelssohn succeeds in conjuring a romantic landscape, particularly in the fanciful scherzo movement.

The first movement develops two themes, a soaring motif in the first violin and a more lyrical theme heard first as a violin and viola duet. Tremolos and syncopations contribute to the rich, orchestral texture. After a development and recapitulation that offers intriguing variants of the ideas, a fiery coda concludes the movement. The serene Andante, moving in a lilting siciliano rhythm, varies its folklike themes with animated interweaving of the motifs.

The magical Scherzo is the romantic highlight of the Octet. Mendelssohn is believed to have been inspired by a passage from Goethe’s Faust: “Trails of cloud and mist brighten from above; breezes in the foliage and wind in the reeds—everything is scattered.” Mendelssohn’s sister Fanny explains the movement: “It must be played staccato and pianissimo. All is new and strange … one feels near a world of ghosts, lightly blown aloft. At the end the first violin flutters upward, light as a feather—and all vanishes away.” The Scherzo theme returns, together with new ideas, in the eight-part fugato of the finale.
Notes by Nancy Monsman