Setzer and the Sound of Dreams

There’s an elusive logic that occurs only in dreams, that nocturnal state where the human mind processes the flood of impressions and information it takes in every day, sifting and sorting without interruption from the waking world. In this very special and wide-ranging program, Manchester Music Festival artistic director Philip Setzer is our guide through a vivid, varied dreamscape in sound—a journey epitomized by composer Paul Epstein’s appropriately titled Dreamsonata, which leaps from Viennese ballroom sounds to midwestern ragtime in the blink of an ear. The rest of the program blazes a similarly unlikely yet ultimately harmonious path, from the courtly String Quartet of Benjamin Franklin (yes, really) to Samuel Barber’s elegiac Adagio for Strings, by way of Scott Joplin, Amy Beach, and Carlos Simon.
Program:
Benjamin Franklin String Quartet
Paul Epstein Dream Sonata
Amy Beach Serenade
Carlos Simon Sleep Well
Scott Joplin Maple Leaf Rag & The Entertainer Rag
Samuel Barber Adagio for Strings
Philip Setzer, violin • Paul Epstein, piano • Festival Young Artists