Langley Community Music School opens their season of Concerts Café Classico concerts this Sunday, Sept. 24 with a performance from renowned pianist Bruce Vogt.
Vogt’s one-man show, titled Beethoven and Debussy: Purgatory Mates, will begin at 2:30 p.m. with a pre-concert conversation, hosted by LCMS artistic director Elizabeth Bergmann, to learn more about the inspiration behind this unique performance.
There will be a short break with coffee and refreshments, before the performance from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.
The show is inspired by poet W. H. Auden’s parlour game called “Purgatory Mates,” and features Vogt playing as himself, and as representations of Beethoven and Debussy. To achieve this, Vogt uses “no props, no costumes, only subtle changes of register,” he said.
“The programme is in three parts with the dialogue in the form of a play. There will be a short break and then comes Debussy’s Images: Book 2. Then another short break followed by Beethoven’s last sonata, No. 32, Op. 111.”
Vogt is an internationally celebrated musician and current professor at the University of Victoria’s school of music.
“This is going to be a very intriguing performance,” Bergmann said. “While the music is sure to be impeccable, this unique play-like dialogue adds a whole new dimension into the performance.”
Tickets are $18 for adults, $15 for seniors and $10 for students. Season and flex passes are also available for purchase. Call the box office at 604-534-2848.
The Rose Gellert Hall is located at 4899 207 St.
CONCERT LINE-UP 2017-2018
The Concerts Café Classico season includes:
• Sept. 24 — Bruce Vogt, piano, performs Beethoven and Debussy: Purgatory Mates;
• Oct. 29 — Clayton Leung, viola, and Lisa Tahara, piano, perform Bruch, Gershwin and more;
• Nov. 19 — LCMS contemporary faculty and vocalists perform contemporary music drawn from jazz and pop;
• March 4, 2018 — Joan Blackman, violin, Francois Houle, clarinet, and Jane Hayes, piano, perform Sea and Sky, a program inspired by dance and folk-song;
• April 29, 2018 — British cellist Michael Kevin Jones with Bruce Vogt, piano, perform The B’s of Classical Music — Bach, Beethoven and Brahms; and
• May 25, 2018 — Rose Gellert String Quartet performs the Concerts Café Classico season finale.
The Rose Gellert Hall concert season includes:
• Oct. 14 — Borealis String Quartet performs Bohemian Sounds, and are joined by the Bergmann Piano Duo;
• Jan. 27, 2018 — Gryphon Trio performs chamber music ranging from traditional to contemporary;
• Feb. 17, 2018 — Jan Lisiecki, piano, performs Chopin, Schumann and Ravel; and
• April 14, 2018 — The Brad Turner Trio performs jazz from Turner’s masterful new CD.