The Alexander Paley Music Festival, in which the Moldovan-born pianist will perform with his wife and duo/4-hands partner, the Taiwan-born pianist Peiwen Chen, and two principals of the Richmond Symphony, violinist Daisuke Yamamoto and cellist Neal Cary, will be staged in evening concerts on Jan. 10 and 11 and a matinee on Jan. 12 at St. Luke Lutheran Church, 7757 Chippenham Parkway.
This season’s festival will feature Paley and Chen in Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” in the composer’s arrangement for piano 4-hands, as well as 4-hands and duo works by Schubert and Bizet. Paley and the string musicians will play sonatas by Beethoven, Franck and Shostakovich, and Rachmaninoff’s “Trio élégiaque” No. 2. Paley will round out the festival as solo pianist in Liszt’s “Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude” from “Harmonies poétiques et religieuses.”
Admission is free, with a suggested donation of $20 per concert.
For more information, visit http://paleymusicfestival.org
The 2025 festival programs:
Jan. 10 (7:30 p.m.)
Rimsky-Korsakov: “Scheherazade”
Alexander Paley & Peiwen Chen, piano 4-hands
Rachmaninoff: “Trio élégiaque” No. 2 in D minor, Op. 9
Alexander Paley, piano
Daisuke Yamamoto, violin
Neal Cary, cello
Jan. 11 (7:30 p.m.)
Franck: Violin Sonata in A major
Daisuke Yamamoto, violin
Alexander Paley, piano
Shostakovich: Cello Sonata in D minor, Op. 40
Neal Cary, cello
Alexander Paley, piano
Bizet: “Jeux d’enfants”
Alexander Paley & Peiwen Chen, piano 4-hands
Jan. 12 (3:30 p.m.)
Beethoven: Violin Sonata in G major, Op. 30, No. 3
Daisuke Yamamoto, violin
Alexander Paley, piano
Schubert: “Divertissement à la hongroise,” D. 818
Alexander Paley & Peiwen Chen, pianos
Liszt: “Harmonies poétiques et religieuses” – “Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude”
Alexander Paley, piano