Cellist Feigelson celebrates Mendelssohn’s bicentennial

MILFORD, PA — Acclaimed cellist Yosif Feigelson will perform music by Felix Mendelssohn at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 7 at Delaware Valley High School. He and pianist Peep Lassmann are playing the Complete Works for Cello and Piano, an all-Mendelssohn program they will also perform at the National Gallery in Washington, DC.

Dubbed the Gentle Genius, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-47) is well known in the United States for the grand wedding march from “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” played now at virtually every wedding; the rousing Scottish Symphony; and the Italian Symphony, featured in the bicycle-racing movie, “Breaking Away.”

Mendelssohn also wrote great vocal music chamber music, including the four pieces Feigelson and Lassmann will perform at this Kindred Spirits-sponsored concert: Variations concertantes, Op. 17; Sonata No. 1 in B Major; Song without Words, Op. 119; and Sonata No. 2 in D Major.

“If there’s fire in the music Feigelson will stoke it; if there’s treasure he will unearth it,” said The Washington Post of Feigelson. “Noted for his extremely large sound and remarkable technique,” (The New York Times), the cellist comes from a family of musicians in Latvia—his mother was a violinist and his father, an opera singer.

Pianist Peep (“pa-ap”) Lassmann studied with legendary musician Emil Gilels. A citizen of Estonia, Lassmann is rector of the prestigious Estonian Music Academy and a busy performer.

The Delaware Valley High School is at 252 Route 6 and 209. See www.dvsd.org/dvworld/ for directions. Admission costs $12 for adults, and children under 12 are admitted free. This concert is sponsored in part by the Hotel Fauchere.

For more information visit kindredspiritsprograms.org .