Saturday March 22 8:00 PM

William Bolcom
  Frescoes (1971) for two pianos, harpsichord & harmonium 70th Birthday
Olivier Messiaen
  Interstellar Call (1974)
  Theme and Variations (1931)
  Visions of Amen (1944) 100th Birthday

Double Edge, Edmund Niemann & Nurit Tilles, keyboards
Richard Todd, French horn
Sarah Thornblade, violin
Vicki Ray, piano

Kyle Gann of The Village Voice called Double Edge "one of the century's best piano duos...their sonority is big, their ensemble perfect, their repertoire wild." The dramatic Frescoes requires drama, wit, imagination and dexterity to perform on four instruments. The monumental Visions of Amen, a post war celebration of life, death and rebirth demands intelligence, power and generosity of spirit.

In between these tours de force, is the haunting and plaintive song of a solo horn lost among the stars. Says the Los Angeles Times, Mr. Todd possesses "astounding clarity and accuracy, [a] heroic" quality perfect for this brief tribute to the death of a young Messiaen student. While Visions was written to be performed with his wife-to-be pianist Yvonne Loriod, Theme and Variation was written for him to accompany his first wife, violinist Claire Delbos. The "musical thoroughness and technical panache" (Los Angeles Times) of Ms. Ray is ideal support for the "rapturously winning" (Los Angeles Times) lyricism of Ms. Thornblade.