Recital Commemorates Composer Anniversaries

by Richard Veit

The Keyboard Division of the Baylor University School of Music will commemorate the anniversaries of composers Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms in a recital at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 22, in Roxy Grove Hall.
This year is the bicentennial of Schubert's birth, the sesquicentennial of Mendelssohn's death, and the centennial of Brahms' death.
The commemorative program will open with pianist Brian Marks playing two of the four impromptus in Schubert's Opus 90 collection: No. 1 in C Minor and No. 4 in A-flat Major. Dr. Marks is lecturer in piano on the Baylor music faculty.
Mendelssohn wrote his famous overture to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1826, when he was only 17 years old. Later, he arranged this orchestral work for piano duet-the version that will be heard as part of Wednesday's commemorative recital. It will be played by Terry Lynn Hudson, lecturer in piano, and her husband, Andrew Hudson, who is a member of the continuing education faculty.
Another composition for piano, Brahms's early Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, will come next. This work dates from 1861, when Brahms was 28 years old, and was written in memory of the composer's friend and colleague Robert Schumann, who had died five years earlier. John Cozza, assistant professor of piano, will join Brian Marks in the performance.
The final portion of the program will be devoted to vocal music of Schubert. Soprano Robin Fisher, assistant professor of vocal studies, will sing five of the composer's best-known songs, each of them accompanied by her husband, Dr. Cozza. Included will be "Im Abendrot," "An die Nachtigall," "Ständchen," "Du bist die Ruh" and "Litanei."
This recital is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Baylor School of Music at 710-3991.