Theater and more. Page B2

CALENDAR

GHOST HUNTINGVentfort Hall will host programs featuring paranormal and ghost tales — B4

This Week Section BBERKSHIRE RECORD • OCTOBER 19-25, 2012

EvEnt

THE INVISIBLE WARThe Triplex will show the film on sexual abuse followed by a panel discussion — B4

Book REading

Continued on B3

DINING OUTNewly expanded guide about where to dine out in the area — Page B7-8

Continued on B3

Music

Photos contributedCellist Yehuda Hanani is to perform with guitarist Eliot Fisk (left and bottom right). Above right, Hanani with violinist Yehonatan Berick and pianist and composer Joan Tower.

By David Scribner

The Berkshires are home to distinguished cultural events, but none so brilliant, perhaps, as the chamber music series,

Close Encounters with Music, that opens its 21st season this Saturday at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington. True to its tradition of presenting the unexpected, the October 20 CEWM program focuses on a rarely heard format: piano works for four hands. On the program are works by Schubert, Milhaud, Mozart, Chopin and Corigliano, performed by the Russian-born duo, Vassily Primakov and Natalia Lavrova, both winners of prestigious international competitions. The Close Encounters series is the brainchild of Israeli-born cellist Yehuda Hanani, and it is precisely what its name implies – an intimate encounter with a stunning array of musical traditions from a variety of cultures and eras. But it is also an encounter with the intellectual and artistic contexts in which music was composed and treasured. Before each concert begins, Hanani takes to the stage to deliver his witty, informed and insightful commentary on the theme of the music the audience is about to experience. And his remarks, replete with information about the music and the composer (“Beethoven’s student Carl Czerny worked on four or five pieces at once, and lived alone with nine cats.”) are delicious hors d’oeuvres to the musical feast to follow.

“We pioneered the thematic concert format. Music shouldn’t exist in a vacuum,” Hanani observes, speaking from his home in Spencertown, N.Y. “It takes place in a much larger cultural experience. I try to connect the dots, and make the link between painting, the arts, literature and the evolution of thought in the West. By putting music in context, it becomes a mirror of our life.” A professor of violincello at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory, international soloist and master class teacher, Hanani infuses his students with the same embrace of what the music represents in the wider cultural milieu. “When I have my students learn Debussy, for instance, I send them to the museum to study impressionist paintings, to absorb the aesthetic concepts that, with Debussy, were expressed with music rather than pigment.” When he was 19, Leonard Bernstein heard Hanani perform, and persuaded Israeli officials to have him released from military duty so that he could attend Juilliard where he studied with Leonard Rose. His approach for the Close Encounters chamber music concert series seems to have struck a chord with music lovers -- in fact, by attendance figures for chamber music they are hugely popular. Close Encounters attracts audiences of 400 to 500 at the Mahaiwe performances. “Our objective is to have a blend of classical, contemporary and cutting-edge music,” Hanani observed. “Our audiences are responding very well. We try to have the

quality of performances that you would hear at Lincoln Center, with an intimacy that exceeds the New York experience. In New York, you are doing well to get 400 people for a chamber music concert, but it’s amazing that in the rural Berkshires we regularly get that size audience. We are informal and friendly. It’s like a family, and it feels as if you are playing for friends.” Close Encounters with Music programs are indeed an eclectic exploration of musical styles. In the past year, concerts offered the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin; a celebration of Franz Liszt (“Lisztomania”); the Grand Piano Quartets of Schumann and Brahms; an exploration of China’s influence on music that included the American premiere of a piece for pipa and cello; string quartets by Beethoven, Schubert and Berg; and an array of compositions from the Roaring Twenties. This season, the lineup is just as diverse. It includes a documentary film, “Shadows in Paradise,” to be shown at the Little Cinema in Pittsfield; a baroque festival with the Tragicomedia Baroque Ensemble; two concerts of Grand Piano trios; an evening with the baritone Benjamin Luxon, offering observations on opera, to be held at the Lenox Club; Nordic Lights, an examination of the music of Edvard Grieg; and a concert of music for soprano, guitar and cello, featuring Eliot Fisk on guitar, Jennifer Zetland, soprano, and Hanani on cello. “We try to think globally,” Hanani explains. “We like to bring the world to Great Barrington.”

Close Encounters offers classical to cutting edge

FALLS VILLAGE – Every day China is in the news. Its power has grown s i g n i f i c a n t l y in recent years, and it is deeply integrated into the world economic system. Is China’s rise good for United States interests or does it represent a

looming threat? James F. Hoge,

Jr. will present “The Rise of China and the Challenge to America” at The Salisbury Forum on Friday, October 26. He will speak about the benefits and risks of China’s rise within the dynamic Asian region and the challenge it presents to the United States. The program will begin at 7:30 pm at the Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Falls Village, CT and admission is free. Mr. Hoge is the chairman of Human Rights Watch and the former editor of Foreign Affairs, a bi-monthly magazine of analysis and commentary on international affairs and U.S. foreign policy.

LENOX – A special Halloween reading of a brand new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein will be presented for one night, Wednesday, Oct. 31 at 7:30 p.m. in the Elayne Bernstein Theater.

Adapted and directed by Jonathan Croy (Director of The 39 Steps), Frankenstein tells the unsettling tale of Victor Frankenstein and his experiment to create a living creature—an experiment that goes terribly awry when

the creature escapes and begins to plot his revenge. Tickets can be purchased online at www.Shakespeare.org, or by calling the box office at (413) 637-3353.

LENOX – Join Star Wars enthusiast and host Peter Struzziero for an evening featuring all things Star Wars on Friday, Oct. 19 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Lenox Library. Participants may come dressed as a character for the costume contest, bring show-and-tell items, join in a trivia contest, play video games, learn about the history of Star Wars, and more. This event is free and registration is not required. The program is intended for ages six and older, and children younger than 13 must be supervised by an adult. For more information, call 637-0197 ext. 105.

Calling all Star Wars fans

‘Frankenstein’ reading planned for Halloween

Author will discussChina’s global power

GREAT BARRINGTON – Bach Chamber Music Concerts will be at Zimmermann’s Coffeehaus in Leipzig on Oct. 28. The program will feature members of the Berkshire Bach Ensemble along with renowned harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper.

Berkshire Bach to performat Zimmermann’s in Leipzig

Photo contributedRenowned harpsichordist Kenneth Cooperwill lead the Berkshire Bach Ensemble.

James F. Hoge, Jr.

Music that illuminates

Photo contributedA brand new adaption of Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ will be read at Shakespeare & Co. on October 31 at 7:30 p.m.