Check out the complete program for the 2009 Autumn Classics

You are not going to want to miss any of this year's Autumn Classics! You may order your season tickets now and single tickets will go on sale to the general public (via CenterTix in the middle of August -- approximately Aug 15). Please check out this year's full program:

Friday, September 18

Saint-Saens Piano Trio No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18

Taneyev String Quartet No. 4 in A Minor, Op. 11

Saturday, September 19

Beethoven Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Minor, Op. 23

Schubert Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Major, Op 162

Taneyev String Quartet No. 1 in B Flat Minor, Op. 4

Sunday, September 20

Beethoven Notturno for Viola and Piano, Op. 42 S

Bach Sonata No. 1 in G Major for Viola and Piano

Taneyev String Quartet No. 2 in C Major, Op. 5

Friday, September 25

Mozart Duo for Violin and Viola in G Major, K. 423

Taneyev String Quartet No. 5 in A Major, Op. 13

Mendelssohn Piano Trio in D Minor, Op. 49

Saturday, September 26

Taneyev String Quartet No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 7

Rachmaninoff Sonata for Cello and Piano in G Minor, Op. 19

Tschaikowsky Valse sentimentale, Op. 51, No. 6

Tsintsadze Georgian Melodies for Cello and Piano

Sunday, September 27

Bach Partita No. 4 in D Major for Piano Solo

Brahms Intermezzi for Piano Solo, Op. 118

Taneyev String Quartet No. 6 in B Flat Major, Op. 19

All six String Quartets by Sergei Taneyev will be showcased in two incredible weekends!

On behalf of all the musicians playing in this year's Autumn Classics I welcome you to an extraordinary musical adventure!

The six String Quartets by Sergei Taneyev form one of the most remarkable groups of compostions I have ever encountered. So imaginative in conception are they, and so skillfully realized for the demanding idiom of the String Quartet, that I have not felt as though I had discovered such another fascinating and astonishing world since first making the acquaintance of the music of Beethoven's last period.

From the outset of the First Quartet, which is dedicated to Taneyev's teacher, Tschaikowsky, composed in 1890 when the older master was still alive, to the dizzying conclusion of the last Quartet, from 1905, Taneyev explores an enormous variety of ideas, motives and inventions, for which he creates forms and sonorities that challenge and please us in ways that we've seldom or never seen before.

All of the performerfs in this year's Autumn Classics series have had occasion to marvel at and delight in learning other wonderful music by Taneyev. The idea of coming to know the six canonic Quartets (there exist three others, youtthful compositions which Taneyev declined to publish in his lifetime) followed naturally from this admiration. After ten exhilarating Spring days together in Southern California devoted to the exploration of this music, we are now thrilled to have the opportunity to share our discoveries and our passsion with our Anchorage audiences.

I don't know when, if ever, these Quartets have been performed all together in one series of concerts. It would be interesting to know about that but, in any case, the works are virtually unknown in our concert halls and the chance to play them and to hear them is definitely a very rare experience and, I'm sure you will agree, a richly satisfying one.

The other music on the programs for this year's Autumn Classics is being presented in such a way that you may meet the performers on grounds of their choosing. This I arranged by the simple expedient of asking them: What would you enjoy playing? And since they will enjoy performing it, I am confident that you will enjoy listening to it.

Thank you for coming to share these very special weekends of music with us!

Paul Rosenthal