The Potomac Guitar Quartet and pianist Jeffery Watson continue Strathmore’s series A Celebration of the Piano: From Bach to Boogie-Woogie and Beyond with a look at popular music from the 19th century. The program features songs by well-known American composers Stephen Foster, Louis Gottschalk, Carrie Jacobs Bond and John Philip Sousa, as well as Europeans who wrote for the guitar and the piano.
Phil Mathieu, Brian Litz, Jeff Meyerriecks and Peter Fields are classical guitarists who have performed as soloists and with various ensembles for many years. Upon joining forces three years ago for a Christmas concert, their pleasant camaraderie inspired them to found the quartet.
Their program opens with a sonata by Italian Fernando Carulli, one of the earliest composers who wrote for the guitar. Following Heinrich Albert’s 1914 arrangement of the Carulli work for guitar and piano, the quartet will play its own arrangement of the allegro movement of Vivaldi’s Concerto for 2 Mandolins for four guitars and piano.
“Some of the most interesting pieces we’ll perform are by Francis ‘Frank’ Johnson, the first African-American composer to have his works published,” Mathieu says. “He played the coronet, the violin and the piano, and wrote ‘Battle of New Orleans,’ ‘Virginia Cotillion’ and ‘The Princeton Grand March.’ They were all arranged for us by Pete [Fields], who also arranged a medley of Civil War music sung during that period in history.”
Prior to the concert, Georgetown University professor Patrick Warfield will discuss the popularization of American music during the 19th century as it traveled from one end of the new nation to another and gradually moved from small gatherings around a drawing room piano to widening venues, eventually the concert hall.
One segment of the concert focuses on music by Stephen Foster. Foster grew up near Pittsburgh, but visits to relatives in Kentucky soon inspired him to write the tuneful, rhythmic melodies served well by the banjo or guitar. Mathieu arranged Foster’s first published song, “Open the Lattice Love,” for the quartet. His subsequent melodies delighted listeners everywhere and quickly became the standards of their era. Those remembered in the concert are “Oh Susanna,” “Little Belle Blaire,” “Beautiful Dreamer” and “Camptown Races” transcribed for the piano.
“We close with Sousa’s ‘Stars and Stripes Forever,’ everyone’s favorite,” Mathieu says. “The guitars on the melody and the piano on the piccolo part make a very different sound than when it’s played by a concert band. Our objective is to introduce the audience to unfamiliar composers and new ways of hearing old favorites. We love playing together and hope they enjoy this look at the music of the 19th century.”
If you go
The Potomac Guitar Quartet and pianist Jeffrey Watson
Where: Strathmore Music in the Mansion
When: 3 p.m. Sunday, preconcert lecture at 2 p.m. (free with concert ticket)
Info: $25, 301-581-5100, strathmore.org
