Concert to highlight composers

The program for the next NOVA Chamber Music Series concert will present the music of two prominent conservative 20th century composers, together with a composer not normally associated with tonality and tradition.

Ron Beitel, Utah Symphony French horn player; violinist Jennifer Bogart, from the Utah Chamber Orchestra; and pianist Jed Moss, of the Paradigm Trio, will be playing horn trios by Gyorgy Ligeti and Lennox Berkeley today at 3 p.m. in the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. Bogart will also play George Rochberg's Solo Caprices for Violin. Tickets are $15 for general admission, $12 for senior citizens and $5 for students.

Berkeley and Rochberg are noted traditionalists who never rejected the musical values of the 19th century, although Rochberg's early works were directly influenced by the 12-tone principals of Arnold Schoenberg. Rochberg's Caprices, from 1970, were inspired by Paganini's celebrated solo pieces.

Ligeti, on the other hand, made a conscious break with the past in his voluminous oeuvre. His Horn Trio, though, written in 1982, is modeled on Brahms' Horn Trio, op. 40, and was one of the works commissioned to celebrate Brahms' 150th birthday. It was premiered by noted French horn player Hermann Baumann.

Berkeley wrote his trio in 1953 on a commission by pianist Colin Horsley. The horn part was written with the legendary Dennis Brain in mind, who premiered it with Horsley the year it was composed.