SLLMF artists perform during a concert from the festival’s 2023 season. From left, Keiko Tokunaga, violin; Yuri Funahashi, piano; Bonnie Thron, cello; and Matthew Sinno, viola. Submitted photo by Mark Silber

Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival will hold the fourth concert of the 52nd season featuring works by composers Franz Schubert and John Harbison at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 6, at Deertrees Theatre in Harrison. Camp Encore-Coda will perform on the lawn before this concert from 6:30-7:15 p.m.

The program includes:

SCHUBERT: Fantasie for Piano Four-Hands, D.940
HARBISON: “November 19, 1828” for Piano Quartet
SCHUBERT: Piano Trio No. 1 in B-Flat Major, Op. 99

Musicians are Keiko Tokunaga, violin; Matthew Sinno, viola; Bonnie Thron, cello; Yuri Funahashi, piano; and Mihae Lee, piano.

This program features two late-Schubert favorites plus an intriguing 20th-century homage to his work by Harbison.

Fantasie in F Minor for Piano Four-Hands, D.940. While classical music was heard mainly in the homes of the aristocracy, by Schubert’s time music was being taken up by the bourgeoisie. Middle-class families often included members who played instruments, households frequently had a piano, and domestic musical evenings flourished. Schubert’s amiable band of friends – they called themselves the Schubertians – gathered frequently to hear his music, in evening get-togethers that became known as Schubertiads. There were also many solo works for the piano, including marches and duets for four hands. In May 1828, Schubert and the composer Franz Lachner performed the composition that one critic called the “crowning glory” of Schubert’s piano duets: The Fantasie in F Minor.

Board member Ted Gerber remarked, “Mihae Lee and Yuri Funahashi’s performances for Four-Hands are extremely popular with SLLMF audiences. The duet has performed them almost yearly over the past decade.  This is the first time they will play Schubert for us.  I’m sure it will be outstanding.”

“November 19, 1828” for Piano Quartet. Schubert died on November 19, 1828. In this ingenious homage, John Harbison – the eminent and prolific American composer of everything from jazz to symphonies to opera – imagines him on a musical journey into the afterlife on the day of his death. Harbison incorporates elements of Schubert’s style throughout the four-movement work. What is striking is how seamlessly Schubert’s harmonies blend with Harbison’s dissonances. In Harbison’s words, “The piece asserts Schubert’s relevance to our present rather than any nostalgia for the past.” Throughout the work, Harbison imagines Schubert listening to sounds that are both familiar and strange.

Piano Trio No. 1 in B-Flat Major. Benjamin Britten called the last year and a half of Schubert’s life arguably “the richest and most productive eighteen months in our music history.” Despite being in the painful final throes of the disease that soon would kill him, during this period Schubert wrote some of his sunniest works, including his great B Flat Major Piano Trio. It is one of his most radiant compositions, overflowing with the rich harmonies, ingratiating melodies, and rhythmic inventiveness that make Schubert’s work instantly recognizable.

All those 21 and under are admitted free of charge at all SLLMF concerts at Deertrees Theatre. Monday Open Rehearsals held from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at Deertrees Theatre continue throughout the festival season and are free and open to the public.

Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival performs Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. at Deertrees Theatre in Harrison for the next two weeks, Aug. 6 and 13. For more information about the festival and to order tickets, go to sebagomusicfestival.org/concert-tickets-2024. Tickets can also be purchased the evening of the concert at the box office.