Library Of Congress Concert Series In 2006-07 To Explore Convergences Of European Western Classical Music And Other Traditions And Genres

"My plea for modern music is not that we should like it, nor necessarily that we should even understand it, but that we should exhibit it as a significant human document."

-- Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge

"Western classical music is changing radically from its European roots as a result of the convergences of other traditions and genres. New ways of composing and listening arise, forms and genres morph into shifting shapes. Over the next few seasons Concerts from the Library of Congress, in performances and other presentations, will explore various aspects of musical transformation in an increasingly global society changes.

Several concerts will feature works whose autograph scores are in the Library's Special Collections: Mozart's Gran Partita, Schoenberg's Third String Quartet and Ginastera's String Quartet no. 2 (both Coolidge commissions), and Korngold's String Quartet no. 3.

This season we are presenting the world premiere of a work by Daniel Bernard Roumain commissioned by the McKim Fund in the Library of Congress, the North American premiere of Zemlinsky's recently-discovered Cello Sonata, and the East Coast premieres of Armando Bayolo's Ludi for string octet, Ezequiel Viñao's The Wanderer for a cappella male ensemble, and Virginia-born Tania Gabrielle French's String Quartet no. 3."

2006-2007 Schedule of Performances & Lectures















Historical classical music multi-culturalism was highlighted last season -- 2005-06 --in a concert by the Czech Nonet featuring Novák's Balleti à 9, Mozart's Oboe Quartet, K. 370, and Brahms's Serenade in D Major, op. 11 (original version reconstructed by Alan Boustead).

Photo credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.