CCHK Salon: Prelude To A Sonata: Katherine Balch & Brahms' Cello Sonata in E Minor, Op. 38

Name: CCHK Salon: Prelude To A Sonata: Katherine Balch & Brahms' Cello Sonata in E Minor, Op. 38
Start: 2025-10-17T17:00:00-04:00
Location: A. D. White House

Schedule

Fri, 17 Oct, 2025 at 05:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

A. D. White House | Ithaca, NY

Cello-piano duo Annie Hyung and Ariel Mo will perform and discuss Katherine Balch's Prelude and its companion piece, Brahms' E Minor Cello Sonata, featuring the CCHK's enigmatic 1857 Streicher piano, similar to one that Brahms owned. Balch's Prelude was composed to proceed attacca into the Brahms, providing a shocking antithesis that asks us to listen anew to Brahms as subjects rooted in the 21st century, rather than reenacting the 19th. Likewise, the Streicher piano, while featuring a Viennese action, differs remarkably in touch and tone from other pianos of its time--but was this the original intent, or the result of over a century of posthumous intervention? Is this “historical keyboard” an artifact of the past, or does it, too, like Balch’s Prelude, reimagine Brahms for our own time?