SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music will host a faculty recital featuring Franz Schubert’s masterpiece song cycle, “Die Schöne Müllerin (The Beautiful Maid of the Mill),” on Friday March 2 at 7:30 p.m., in the Sara M. Snell Music Theater.
Pianist Eugenia Tsarov and tenor Donald George, both members of the Crane faculty, will present the full song cycle in this special recital.
In this masterpiece, Schubert set Wilhelm Müller’s poems to depict the relationships between a miller, the narrator and the miller’s daughter, whose love ultimately leads the narrator to suicidal despair.
The cycle’s protagonist, a journeyman miller, sings of the joys of his lifestyle, wandering from town to town, taking work at a mill and moving on, just like the babbling waters of the brook, which is his constant companion. The piano depicts the motions of the mill-wheel, the rippling water and the miller’s turbulent emotional state throughout the gripping drama, even ending the tragedy after the death of the hapless protagonist in a moving lullaby to the miller rocking in its depths.
About the performers:
Renowned Russian-born pianist Eugenia Tsarov earned her diploma with distinction from the St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music. As a first-prize winner of the Soviet National Piano Competition, she subsequently worked as a pianist for the Moscow State Philharmonic Society. She has toured extensively throughout Russia, Yugoslavia, Italy, France, Sweden, Spain, the United States and Canada. Since immigrating to the U.S., Tsarov has continued to perform around the country and internationally, including appearances at Mekin Concert Hall and the United Nations in New York City. She has also appeared on television and radio in the U.S., Italy, Sweden and Russia. Combining her solo performances with a distinguished collaborative career, Tsarov was honored as the best accompanist at the Zagreb International Violin Competition and the International Paganini Competition. She is a professor of piano at SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music.
Donald George has performed at La Scala, the Paris Opera Bastille, Kennedy Center, the State Operas of Berlin, Hamburg and Vienna, the Festivals of Salzburg, Buenos Aires, Jerusalem, Istanbul, Perth and Blossom USA. He has sung with Leonard Bernstein, Vladimir Jurowski and Simone Young, and recorded for Sony, Naxos, Phillips Classic, Teldec, Delos and Bavarian Radio, among others. Reviews speak of his “pleasing tenor sound, vocally reliable in all challenges” (Metropolitan Opera News). His recordings of the songs of Margaret Ruthven Lang (1868-1972), “Love is Everywhere,” Volumes I and II, were nominated for Grammy Awards. The review, by Music Web International, of the recording of “Return to Old Ireland” described his singing as “splendid.” The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reviewed his recording of Schubert’s “Die Schöne Müllerin,” praising it as “a splendid visiting card of his artistry… an absolute must.” He is a professor of voice at The Crane School of Music.
This concert is free, and the public is invited to attend.
This concert will be broadcast live on the Crane School of Music YouTube channel at the performance time. To view the program and see other upcoming streaming performances, visit www.potsdam.edu/academics/Crane/streaming.
For more information about SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music, please visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.
Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures and concerts presented by faculty, students and guests each year. The Crane School of Music is the State University of New York’s only All-Steinway institution.
Arts & Culture