Piano Duettists Helen & Paul Baumgartner
Piano duettists Helen and Paul Baumgartner, faculty emeriti of the Department of Music at Gustavus Adolphus College, will present a recital Sunday, November 22, beginning at 3:30 p.m. in Jussi Björling Recital Hall. This program includes only works written by Felix Mendelssohn or his sister Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel and celebrates the 200th anniversary of the birth of Felix Mendelssohn. It is free and open to the public.
Sunday’s All-Mendelssohn piano recital opens with the Overture to the oratorio St. Paul and features Bach’s Advent carol Wachet auf (Sleepers Awake). The program continues with a piano trio, Songs Without Words, Op. 62, composed in 1844 for England’s Queen Victoria. It is one of several works with this title that Mendelssohn wrote following the marriage of the Queen. The Andante and Allegro assai vivace, Op. 92 concludes the first half of the recital.
Following intermission, Helen and Paul Baumgartner open with Three Pieces for Four Hands by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. It was undoubtedly written for one of her Sunday concerts but was never prepared for publication. It has only recently been discovered. The program concludes with Felix Mendelssohn’s Andante and Variations, Op. 83a.
Sunday’s four-hand piano recital by long-time members of the Department of Music at Gustavus, Helen and Paul Baumgartner, is free and open to the public. A reception for the recitalists will be served in the recital hall lobby following the performance.