By Kathy-Ann Gobin
DANBURY – Musical masterpieces from the 19th century Romantic period will be celebrated with a piano performance at St. Joseph Parish in Danbury this Friday
The free concert at the Robinson Avenue church will feature Felix Mendelssohn, César Franck, Johannes Brahms and Edvard Grieg as performed by St. Joseph’s Director of Music Robert Fertitta.
Fertitta said he wants to share the beauty of the music from these great composers with the parish community and the Greater Danbury community.
“It’s all about the music,” Fertitta said. “It’s about hopefully getting other people to be in awe of it and to wake up to beauty, the beauty of music.”
Fertitta will give a brief talk before the concert about the miracle of music.
“The piano is very unique,” he said in its arrangement of black and white keys. “It is idiomatic for the instrument. It is a multi-level.”
Included on the program are the seldom heard, ‘Prelude, Aria et Final’ by Franck and the ‘Sonata in E minor’ by Grieg. Works by Brahms (four Intermezzos) and Mendelssohn (three Songs Without Words) will round out the program
“The master composers were the ‘rock stars’ of their day,” Fertitta said. “In musical society and in general, they were national treasures.”
“I truly believe that music is miraculous,” Fertitta said.
There is not only an art of playing music, Fertitta said, but there is also an art to listening to it and appreciating the melody, harmony, rhythm, favorite moments and ‘accompaniment patterns.’
“I decided to pick a program that is all in the keys of either E major or E minor,” Fertitta said. “There are a total of twenty-four keys, each in its own universe.”
“As performers you have to play with honesty,” said Fertitta, who shared that he has been playing the piano since the age of five as a student in Catholic school. When he heard the organ at age 10, he said that he knew he wanted to learn that instrument as well.
Fertitta has been the Director of Music at Saint Joseph Parish since 2022.
Note: The free concert will be held at 7:30 pm on Friday, November 15 at St. Joseph Parish, 8 Robinson Ave, Danbury. All are welcome.
