Andrew Sun, a 2009 graduate of High School North and a life-long West Windsor resident, presented the world premiere of Johannes Brahms’ recently discovered “Albumblatt in A Minor” on WPRB Princeton on January 19. Sun, a junior at New York University, is a student of Eduardus Halim.
“I have a particular affinity for the repertory of the 19th century,” says Sun. He has performed solo and ensemble repertoire in Alice Tully Hall and Weill Recital Hall. While a student at the 2008 Boston University Tanglewood Institute, he was a featured performer during Tanglewood On Parade.
Sun has soloed with the Westfield Symphony Orchestra, the Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra, and recently performed the seldom-heard Piano Concerto in G minor of Antonin Dvorak with the NYU Symphony. He has hosted broadcasts on WPRB Princeton since September, 2008.
The one page composition is untitled but bears the tempo marking ‘Allegro con espressione’ and lasts about two minutes. Circumstantial evidence suggests that it was during a visit to Gottingen, Germany, in 1853, that the then-20-year-old Brahms entered this miniature into the autograph album of Arnold Wehner, then the director of music at the University of Gottingen. The Albumblatt is an early and alternate version of the central section of the ‘Scherzo’ of the Trio for Horn, Violin, and Piano, Op. 40, which Brahms finished in 1865. The Wehner autograph album is in the collection of Judith M. and William H. Scheide of Princeton.
Elianna Wydra, 16, of West Windsor received honorable mention in the competition to perform in a master class with Bonnie Hampton, a cellist and faculty member at Juilliard. The class took place February 16 at the JCC Thurnauer School of Music.
