STOCKBRIDGE — How many Berkshire music lovers know how lucky they are to live in the same neighborhood as retired Boston Symphony Orchestra librarian John Perkel? (John’s face is certain to be familiar to Tanglewood fans who witnessed him, year after year, setting parts on music stands across the Shed stage prior to BSO performances.) They are lucky, because Mr. Perkel and violinist Natalie Kress have been organizing chamber music performances in the Berkshires the last few years to benefit the Stockbridge Library. But what Perkel is pulling off this year is unprecedented.
First, Perkel learned that Stanley Benson, a former longtime BSO violinist in the Boston area, and his wife Clara, also a violinist, were in possession of Leonard Bernstein’s autograph manuscript of “Music for String Quartet,” a piece written in 1936, when the composer was 18 years old. Next, he sought and received permission from the Bernstein family’s publishing company, Amberson, to present the first-ever public performance of the piece Saturday, Nov. 6, at 7:30 p.m., in Studio E of Tanglewood’s Linde Center for Music and Learning.
Perkel tells the story in a statement on the Stockbridge Library’s website: “Ever since the approach of the Leonard Bernstein Centennial, I was determined to make this amazing event a reality. When I finally received the authorization to perform the Bernstein string quartet, I went into action and engaged these fine musicians and chose repertoire closely associated with Bernstein.”
And the musicians he has engaged are likely to be familiar to you, as they work frequently in the Berkshires:
- BSO first violinist Lucia Lin
- Violinist and co-organizer Natalie Rose Kress
- BSO violist Daniel Kim
- Ronald Feldman, former BSO cellist and music director of the Longwood Symphony in Boston and Berkshire Symphony at Williams College
- Pianist Melvin Chen, deputy dean of the Yale Music School
Lin and Kim are current members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and are frequent collaborators in community chamber music concerts. Kress was a Tanglewood Music Center fellow from 2010–2012 and is currently pursuing her DMA degree at the University of Maryland. Feldman is artist-in-residence at Williams College, and Chen is director of Yale’s Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.
Also on the program will be Bernstein’s rarely performed “Piano Trio” (for violin, cello, and piano), Aaron Copland’s “Elegies” for violin and viola, Mozart’s Piano Quartet in G minor K. 478, and Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E flat, op. 44. “Elegies” is an unpublished work that the group will perform by special permission of The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., copyright owner and successor to Aaron Copland.
Tickets for the world premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s “Music for String Quartet” are $125 and include a dessert reception in Cindy’s Café, adjacent to the Linde Center. Tickets are available from the BSO website, in person at the Stockbridge Library, or by calling 888-266-1200. Masks and proof of vaccination are required.
Proceeds from this concert will benefit the Stockbridge Library, Museum & Archives.
