The Goldbergs transcribed

continued

"The biggest difference," he continues, "is that a string trio is less intimate than a pianist. When it's a trio, it's more conversational, with more give and take between the instruments. Plus, of course, there's the sustaining quality that string instruments have, their ability to hold a line, that makes the transcription a really different musical experience — not a better or worse experience, a different experience."

That experience will be available in Ann Arbor for the first time with this show — the transcription has never been performed here before. "I hesitate to say it adds anything to the original for fear of offending a keyboard player," jokes Berofsky. "What we'll add will be the joy and pleasure we bring to it."

Also on the program are baritone Daniel Washington and pianist Arthur Greene, who perform Mussorgsky's bleakly magnificent memento mori Songs and Dances of Death.

[Review published January 2008]