Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/108313
Sarasota News Leader February 8, 2013 Page 101 ROMANTIC REVOLUTIONARIES TO FEATURE BEETHOVEN AND SCHUBERT Faith Lutheran Church in Sarasota is offering a concert that will cap this year's Valentine weekend "with the highly romantic — and revolutionary — music of two composers whose private passions inspired some of the greatest music of all time," the church has announced. "The extraordinary music of Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert" will be presented at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 17, featuring Rachel Assi, mezzo-soprano; Joseph Assi on French horn; and Joseph Holt and Michael Stuart on piano, a news release says. A meet-the-artist reception will be held afterward in the Fellowship Hall. "Beethoven and Schubert bridged the gap between the Classical and Romantic eras in music," says Holt, Faith's music director, in the release. "The selections to be performed in this concert will offer a lush and fittingly romantic end to the Valentine weekend," he adds. "Rachel Assi will sing some of the most beloved lieder by Schubert, and her husband, Joseph Assi, will play Beethoven's unique composition for horn and piano — the rarely performed Horn Sonata in F Major," Holt notes. Stuart and Holt will play Military Marches by Schubert as well as Beethoven's entire Symphony No. 1 as arranged for piano, four-hands. Rachel Assi has performed with several opera companies, including the St. Petersburg Opera, the New Jersey Opera Theatre and Rutgers Opera at Rutgers University, the release points out. In addition to her singing activities, she is the grants officer for the Sarasota Opera. Faith Lutheran Church Music Director Joseph Holt/Contributed photo