St. Matthew’s Music Guild Concert to Feature Pianist Inna Faliks

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

The Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew’s will be joined by Ukrainian-born pianist Inna Faliks for its March 24 program, which begins at 8 p.m.

“Chicago’s PBS station, WTTW, called Faliks ‘the high priestess of the piano, a concert pianist of the highest order as dramatic and subtle as a great stage actor,’” according to a press release from Music Guild. “She has presented concerts at the Ravinia Festival, National Gallery of Art, Wallis Annenberg Center, and in tours of China, Mexico and Israel.”

She has also performed recitals at Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Salle Cortot in Paris and Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall.

The concert will open with “Overture in C Major” by Fanny Mendelssohn, according to the Music Guild website.

The program will feature Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major,” which was composed in 1808, according to the press release. Its premiere marked the final concert Beethoven would conduct.

“At the height of his powers as a composer, his hearing loss permanently forced Beethoven to retreat from performing as pianist or conductor,” the press release continued. “The concerto is both eloquent and spirited. The understated opening, with the pianist playing a simple melody accompanied by sustained chords, gives way to a work full of virtuosic flair and dance-like rhythms.”

The program will also feature “Two Pieces for Small Orchestra,” composed by Frederick Delius in 1911-12, and “Molly on the Shore,” composed by Percy Grainger—“best known for his treatment of folksongs from the British Isles that are staples of the literature for wind ensembles”—as a birthday present for his mother.

“As miniature tone poems, ‘On hearing the first cuckoo in spring and Summer night on the river’ call to mind myriad images of those seasons,” the press release shared about Delius’ work. “‘On hearing the first cuckoo in spring uses a folksong amidst the familiar song of the cuckoo while Summer night on the river’ is a study in English impressionist harmony. Delius considered it one of his best works.”

St. Matthew’s Music Guild—under the direction of Dwayne Milburn—is on its 38th season of concerts. All concerts take place at St. Matthew’s Church, located at 1031 Bienveneda Avenue.

Tickets are $35 or can be purchased as part of a Music Guild season pass, which are now available starting at $75 for the remaining concerts of the season.

For more information, or to purchase tickets/season passes, visit musicguildonline.org or call 310-573-7422.