Le Due Muse – Sunday July 23, 2017 at 4 pm

Sarah Hong, cello; Makiko Ooka, piano
with special guest Jiwon Evelyn Kwark, violin

Rachmaninoff Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G minor
Myaskovsky Sonata No. 2
Shostakovich Trio No. 2

Le Due Muse is a cello and piano duo team formed by the bay area cellist, Sarah Hong and her long time duo partner, Japanese pianist, Makiko Ooka. They return to the concert series with to share the most romantic and passionate cello and piano works by Russian/Soviet composers (more about the performer, visit www.cellistsarahhong.com) This unique program combines the works of Rachmaninoff whom was considered to be the last of the great Russian Romantic composer, Myskovsky, who is the bridge between Russian Romantic Composers and the Soviet modernist Composers, and Shostakovich, one of the greatest Russian composers of the Soviet period in the 20th Century. The twentieth century was a very dynamic period in the history of Russia. Russia’s music is imbued not only with the country’s great suffering, but also of the joys and hopes brought by rare moments of peace and prosperity. The program is a journey reaching backward, from the familiar, harsh realities of the Soviet Union to the age of a gilded Russian aristocracy and unrestrained creativity. “There is an indispensable measure of suffering even in the happiness of the Russian people, for without it, its happiness is incomplete.” (Fyodor Dostoevsky)