Truly, Madly, Deeply, a Valentine concert

Mistral Music continues its 23rd season in 2020 with its annual tribute to Love, Truly, Madly, Deeply. It will offer three performances on the first week-end of February: in the founders’ Brookline home on Friday, Feb. 7, at West Parish Church in Andover on Saturday Feb. 8, and at St. Paul’s Church in Brookline on Sunday Feb. 9.  The program includes the ever-beloved Brahms Liebeslieder (Love Songs) Waltzes for a quartet of acclaimed singers (baritone David McFerrin, tenor Stephen Carroll, mezzo Krista River, and soprano Kristen Watson), and two pianists (Gloria Chien and Sophie Scolnik-Brower) sharing the keyboard. Also on the program will be a selection of opera arias by Rossini, Mozart, and Lehár that will make you laugh one moment and weep the next. And to mix things up a bit, a jazzy fantasy-rag called The Serpent’s Kiss, for four-hand piano by the American living composer William Bolcom, that will have you dancing in the aisles. An entirely charming program, perfect for Valentine’s Day.

All four singers are well known to opera lovers in the Boston area from appearances with Handel and Haydn, Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Pops, Emmanuel Music, as well as national companies like Santa Fe Opera, Glimmerglass, Ravinia, Carmel Bach Festival, and many others.

Pianist Gloria Chien, who performs frequently with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, is known also as a concert presenter and educator, as Director of the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo, and is Co-Artistic Director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont. Pianist Sophie Scolnik-Brower has made frequent appearances in chamber music circuits, and is well known to Mistral audiences, most recently from her performance of Brahms Piano Quintet in last year’s Valentine concert.

BRAHMS Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op. 52

BOLCOM The Serpent’s Kiss (Rag – Fantasy) for four-handed piano

LEHAR Dein ist mein ganzes Herz for tenor & piano

BISHOP Lo Here a Lark from The comedy of Errors for flute, soprano & baritone

ROSSINI Zitto Zitto, Piano Pian from La Cenerentola (Cinderella)

S. Scolnik-Brower, piano; G. Chien, piano; K. River, Soprano; D. McFerrin, baritone