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• October 1, 2009
  Music for keyboard, four-hands
  Presented by The Boston Athenæum
  Sylvia Berry and Shuann Chai, harpsichord
   
  Sylvia Berry joins keyboardist Shuann Chai for a lunchtime concert at the beautiful Boston Athenæum, a National Historic Landmark. Program features keyboard duets by J.C. Bach, Mozart, and Clementi.
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• October 11, 2009
  Master and Heir Apparent: Music of Haydn and Beethoven
  Presented by the “Music and Art” series at Taylor House
   
  In celebration of “Haydn Year 2009”, Sylvia Berry performs a program of works by Haydn and Beethoven that reveals the connection between these musical titans. Beethoven was only briefly Haydn’s pupil, and in some ways their relationship was a troubled one; however, it is quite clear that the works of the elder master were an important source of inspiration for the young genius. Soon after moving to Vienna Beethoven was seen as Haydn’s heir apparent, and this program shows why.
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• October 18, 2009
  Master and Heir Apparent: Music of Haydn and Beethoven
  Presented by the First Parish Cohasset Concert Series
   
  In celebration of “Haydn Year 2009”, Sylvia Berry performs a program of works by Haydn and Beethoven that reveals the connection between these musical titans. Beethoven was only briefly Haydn’s pupil, and in some ways their relationship was a troubled one; however, it is quite clear that the works of the elder master were an important source of inspiration for the young genius. Soon after moving to Vienna Beethoven was seen as Haydn’s heir apparent, and this program shows why.
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• October 24, 2009
  Haydn at the Keyboard: Four Sonatas from Four Decades A lecture recital by Sylvia Berry (harpsichord, fortepiano)
  Presented by Clark University
   
  While Haydn is often called the “Father of the Symphony,” and perhaps more rightly so, the “Father of the String Quartet,” his great achievements as a composer of keyboard music remain relatively overlooked. Only a handful of Haydn’s keyboard works are performed regularly, which limits our sense of the vast stylistic terrain that his oeuvre encompasses. Haydn’s works span an approximately forty-year period during which many changes in aesthetics and instruments took place, and his sonatas were always in the vanguard. Published throughout Europe during his lifetime, Haydn’s keyboard works were just as instrumental in securing his fame as his work in other genres.

  In this presentation, Sylvia Berry will discuss and perform sonatas from four successive decades in order to illustrate that no matter the style (Galant, “Sturm und Drang,” Classical, or early Romantic), Haydn’s singular creative stamp is always present. In the process, we will discover that this is spectacular music brimming not only with ingenuity and wit, but with fire and passion as well.