Concert Based on the Robert Owen Lehman Collection at the Morgan Library on Dec. 2

New York, NY — In 1972, Robert Owen Lehman placed his renowned music manuscript collection on deposit at the Morgan Library & Museum. To celebrate his eightieth birthday, the Morgan will host a dazzling concert of piano works from his collection this Friday, December 2. Beginning at 6 PM, a selection of music manuscripts from the Lehman Collection will be on view in Pierpont Morgan’s Library. At 7:30 PM, pianist Jenny Chen will perform in Gilder Lehrman Hall compositions by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Ravel, Debussy, and Stravinsky. The concert launches a year-long display of manuscripts from Mr. Lehman’s archive of more than two hundred music autographs by composers from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries. The installation—part of an ongoing rotation of works drawn from the Morgan’s collections called Treasures from the Vault—will change continuously throughout the 2016-17 season.

The first rotation of Lehman Collection manuscripts in Treasures from the Vault showcases J. S. Bach’s Prelude and Fugue for organ in B Minor, BWV 544; Beethoven’s Rage Over the Lost Penny, Brahms’s First Piano Concerto (score for piano solo); Haydn’s last string quartet; Liszt’s B Minor Sonata; and Stravinsky’s Petrushka  (1911). Two further installations will highlight works by Mozart, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Debussy, Ravel, and Rachmaninoff and Schumann, Puccini, Richard Strauss, Schoenberg, Prokofiev, and Mahler. The breadth and quality of the collection is astounding, and without a doubt, it is the greatest collection of music autographs in private hands today. Each item on display will be accompanied by an audio excerpt, available on the Morgan’s Audio Guide which is free with museum admission, so that viewers can hear the compositions they are seeing.

The December 2nd concert features Beethoven’s Rage; Mendelssohn’s Rondo capriccioso; Chopin’s Etudes, op. 10, nos. 3 and 9, and Nocturne, op. 48, no.1; Ravel’s Jeux d’eau; selections from Debussy’s first book of Preludes; and ends with Stravinsky’s formidable Three Movements from “Petroushka.” Pianist Jenny Chen meets the myriad challenges of these works with confidence, artistry, and passion. Born in Taipei, she began her musical training at age six. She has since worked with Eleanor Sokoloff at the Curtis Institute and recently completed a music master’s degree at the Yale School of Music. Currently, she is a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate at the Eastman School of Music where she studies with Douglas Humpherys. Winner of numerous competitions and appearing in major venues in the United States and abroad, she recently performed in the Brahms Piano Quintet in F Minor, op. 34 at the inaugural Chamber Music Encounters program sponsored by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.