Harpist Ceysson returns to Palm Beach to close Chamber Music Society season
The music of France in the late Romantic era will fill the space Thursday evening at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea as the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach wraps up its 2023-24 season.
The featured artist is the French harpist Emmanuel Ceysson, who has performed on the series in previous years. Ceysson, who is the harpist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, played opera in the pit orchestras of the Paris National Opera and the Metropolitan Opera for 15 years before getting the Los Angeles job in 2020.
He will be joined by four leading chamber musicians: Violinists Jennfer Frautschi and Kristin Lee, violist Paul Neubauer and cellist Clive Greensmith.
“Palm Beach has a special place in my heart, and of course so does French music," Ceysson said in a prepared statement. "It is my fourth time being presented in Florida, and I am particularly excited to share the stage with such a fine team of musicians."
The program includes the “Danse sacrée et danse profane” of Claude Debussy, a two-part suite written for harp and string orchestra in 1904 on commission from the Pleyel instrument-manufacturing company, which had recently unveiled a new harp that made it easier for performers to play the new music of the day.
Also on the program is a work for harp and violin by an older French master, Camille Saint-Saëns. His 1907 Fantasie in A major for Violin and Harp (Op. 124) was written for the Eissler sisters, natives of what is now Czechia who had won a following for their violin-and-harp recitals in England and France.
A lesser-known work, Marcel Tournier’s “Féerie” (Fairyland), will likely introduce audiences to the work of Tournier, who was a legendary French harpist and teacher in the first part of the 20th century. This work, written in 1912, can be performed solo or with strings.
"One of the things I hear surprises audiences the most is to realize how powerful and versatile the instrument is: It is capable of the most angelic whisper, but also of strong percussive stances," Ceysson said of the harp.
The quartet will get its own moment in the spotlight with the String Quartet in F major of Maurice Ravel, one of the greatest quartets in the literature. This work from 1903 is distinguished not only by the elusive loveliness of its melodies and harmonies, but by Ravel’s astonishing variety of tone colors. This gives the quartet an extra lure in sheer sonic inventiveness.
The concert begins at 7 p.m. Thursday at the church, 141 S. County Road. Tickets are $75. They are available through the website at www.cmspb.org or by calling 561-379-6773.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: French music on the menu Thursday for harp concert at CMSPB
