Sunday 2pm 12 October 2025 Carl Banner virtuoso pianist, Musica Viva DC; POTLUCK dinner buffet. 93/44

Sunday 2pm 12 October 2025 Carl Banner virtuoso pianist, Musica Viva DC; POTLUCK dinner buffet. 93/44

Program, 2 30-40 minute sets with intermission; 2-3pm buffet open:

-Brahms Variations in D, Op. 21#1
-Chopin Ballade #3 in Ab, Op. 47
... Intermission...
-Alban Berg Sonata in Bm, Op. 1 (1909)
-Stravinsky Sonata (1923)

NEW: see program notes** below ...
2:35-3pm artist discussion with Q&A

PotLuck Dinner Buffet 2-3PM & during intermission& following performance. Host will provide two hot hors d'oeuvres & punch for potluck reception during intermission & beginning, when doors open 2pm. Guests are encouraged to bring food/wine to share/potluck; if considering a sweet, think about fruit instead of processed sugar. Music begins at 3pm, please be on time, 2 sets with 1 short intermission, rarely one longer set. Guests most welcome and encouraged to bring dish/drink to share/potluck, please consider bringing wine if you use it. Stemware/Ice Buckets/Filtered Water Provided.

Advance payment REQUESTED (pay thru GroupMuse or the PayPal Link) NO CASH at EVENT--illegal in MD. All guests will be seated in Music Room. Accessibility note: 3 steps walkway to entry hall, 30 inch doors inside.

Arrivals 2-2:30pm ...
-potluck dishes dining room
-wine, beverages: bar in galley
-important: coats and bags upstairs please
-arrivals: 2pm for social hour and POTLUCK DINNER buffet
- Artist discussion/Q&A 2:30-3pm PROGRAM NOTES** BELOW
-concert seating opens: 3pm, music begins; 2:30pm for those attending artist discussion
-OK To take food/ wine into Music Studio
-outdoor cats live here
-2 upstairs galleries open, 2 upstairs lavatories, open in addiction to main lavatory rear of studio

Your safety is paramount: covid vaccinated/booster guests preferred, or PCR tested (honor system). Please consider the newly released Flu and current covid vaccine.

** PROGRAM NOTES ... artist discussion w/Q&A 2:30-3pm in music studio:

Johannes Brahms - Variations in D, Op. 21#1
Brahms wrote these Variations on an Original Theme in D major, Op. 21 No. 1 in 1861, when he was 28 years old. The Theme is in two parts, 9 bars each, divided into 4 and 5 bar sections. The 5 bar section gives a kind of extended or stretched out feeling to the theme. Each Variation follows this pattern, except for a 12th variation, which is like a climactic coda. Brahms makes use of archaic contrapuntal devices, like “canon in moto contrario” and lengthy pedal tones, as well as considerable use of duple vs. triplet figures and hemiola (a six beat figure that can be read as 3,3 or 2,2,2 or both together). Nevertheless, this is a highly emotional and intimate work.

Alban Berg - Sonata in B minor, Op. 1 (1909)
Alban Berg was a 24 year old student of Arnold Schoenberg when he composed this one movement work in 1909. From Wikipedia: “Although the piece has the nominal key of B minor, Berg makes frequent use of chromaticism, whole-tone scales, and wandering key centers, giving the tonality a very unstable feel, which only resolves in the final few bars.” The feeling of the music may be considered in the context of German Expressionism, represented in painting by Emil Nolde, Egon Schiele, and Oskar Kokoschka.

[Intermission]

Frédéric Chopin - Ballade #3 in Ab, Op. 47
Chopin’s third Ballade, in Ab, Op. 47, was composed in 1841, when the composer was 31. It is a sunny and smiling affair, with an obvious nod to horse and buggy rhythm.

Igor Stravinsky Piano Sonata (1924)
Igor Stravinsky’s Piano Sonata, from 1924, a work in three movements, is written in a “neoclassical” style. That is, structurally and to a degree harmonically, it follows the traditions of the classical period piano sonata. However, in spirit, it is more related to contemporary cultural movements like Picasso’s “cubism”, or even Dada.

  2025-2026 SOLOX schedule:

Victorian Steinway B78949 Music Room Concert Grand (restored to factory new in 2017)

https://www.groupmuse.com/hosts/192379

SOLOX an Art Salon of Washington DC
WoodAcres off Massachusetts Av near Glen Echo Park

What's the music?

Carl Banner

Attendees

Wendy A.

Rosanne G.

+1

Jeremy S.

+1

Ellen G.

KAREN F.

Barbara W.