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FREE CONCERT
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Join us for a spectacular evening of chamber music at our first ever FREE classical concert on July 11 at 7:30 pm! This unforgettable performance features two of the most beloved works in the classical repertoire: Schubert's Piano Trio in E-flat Major, D. 929 and Beethoven’s String Quintet in C Major, Op. 29 ("The Storm"). Schubert’s Piano Trio in E-flat Major is a stunning example of his late-period brilliance, weaving together beautiful, sweeping melodies with deep emotional depth.
The Uptown Blanco Ballroom: Great Music, Up Close
New to BPA?
Located in the heart of the Texas hill country, in a beautifully renovated historic building on the town square in Blanco, BPA offers world class music and small town soul to audiences from across the region. Located only 45 minutes north of Loop 1604 we encourage you to join us for an unforgettable evening - dinner at the Uptown Restaurant, followed by a concert upstairs in the Uptown Ballroom. We present five classical concerts from September-April, and a free outdoor community concert every June.
Located in the heart of the Texas hill country, in a beautifully renovated historic building on the town square in Blanco, BPA offers world class music and small town soul to audiences from across the region. Located only 45 minutes north of Loop 1604 we encourage you to join us for an unforgettable evening - dinner at the Uptown Restaurant, followed by a concert upstairs in the Uptown Ballroom. We present five classical concerts from September-April, and a free outdoor community concert every June.
RESERVE TICKETS
Make an Evening of It
Join us for a pre-concert 3 course pre-fixe menu at Uptown Blanco Restaurant, downstairs from the Ballroom.
Reservations required. Click for more information.
Reservations required. Click for more information.
Uptown Blanco Restaurant
About Cactus Pear
Founded in 1997 by Stephanie Sant'Ambrogio, former Concertmaster of the San Antonio Symphony, the Cactus Pear Music Festival (CPMF) is a premier chamber music festival based in San Antonio, Texas. Over its 28 seasons, CPMF has been renowned for its innovative programming, spotlighting lesser-known works and celebrating female composers. Following Sant'Ambrogio's tenure, Artistic Director Jeffrey Sykes has continued this tradition, leading the festival into its 27th and 28th seasons with dynamic performances that honor the festival's legacy of excellence and creativity.
About the Concert
From the grandeur of the first movement to the playful energy of the third, this work is filled with rich textures and profound lyricism. The incredible ensemble of musicians--Sojin Kim and Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio on violin, Aurelien Pederzoli on viola, Jonah Kim on cello, and Jeffrey Sykes on piano—will bring this exquisite piece to life with passion and precision.
After intermission, prepare to be swept away by Beethoven’s String Quintet in C Major, Op. 29, also known as “The Storm.” Known for its dramatic contrasts and emotional intensity, this piece will transport you through turbulent storms and moments of lyrical calm. The powerful combination of strings, with the addition of a second viola, creates a uniquely rich and resonant sound, while the virtuosic playing of the musicians will leave you on the edge of your seat.
With Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio, Jonah Kim, and Jeffrey Sykes being audience favorites, this is an evening you won’t want to miss. The concert is free, but tickets are required—reserve yours now and be part of this exciting Cactus Pear debut in the beautiful ballroom setting. It’s an evening of music, passion, and artistry that promises to be truly unforgettable.
About the Concert
From the grandeur of the first movement to the playful energy of the third, this work is filled with rich textures and profound lyricism. The incredible ensemble of musicians--Sojin Kim and Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio on violin, Aurelien Pederzoli on viola, Jonah Kim on cello, and Jeffrey Sykes on piano—will bring this exquisite piece to life with passion and precision.
After intermission, prepare to be swept away by Beethoven’s String Quintet in C Major, Op. 29, also known as “The Storm.” Known for its dramatic contrasts and emotional intensity, this piece will transport you through turbulent storms and moments of lyrical calm. The powerful combination of strings, with the addition of a second viola, creates a uniquely rich and resonant sound, while the virtuosic playing of the musicians will leave you on the edge of your seat.
With Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio, Jonah Kim, and Jeffrey Sykes being audience favorites, this is an evening you won’t want to miss. The concert is free, but tickets are required—reserve yours now and be part of this exciting Cactus Pear debut in the beautiful ballroom setting. It’s an evening of music, passion, and artistry that promises to be truly unforgettable.
Program Notes for "Count On It"
A co-presentation of Blanco Performing Arts and Cactus Pear Music Festival
Program notes ©2025 by Jeffrey Sykes, artistic director of Cactus Pear Music Festival
In a world that often feels unpredictable, some things are worth relying on: the power of great music, the chemistry of outstanding musicians, the welcoming embrace of a good concert hall. This co-presentation by Blanco Performing Arts and Cactus Pear Music Festival brings together two organizations with a shared commitment to musical excellence, thoughtful programming, and community connection. We’re delighted to join forces for an evening of chamber music you can count on—beautifully crafted, richly expressive, and deeply rewarding.
Franz Peter Schubert (1797–1828) Piano Trio in E-flat Major, D. 929
Composed November 1827 | Vienna, Austria
In the fall of 1827, Franz Schubert composed two of the greatest works in the piano trio repertoire: the lyrical Trio in B-flat Major, D. 898, and the more expansive Trio in E-flat Major, D. 929. Contemporary audiences often favor the charm and relative concision of the B-flat Trio, while critics have sometimes found the E-flat Trio unwieldy in length. But in the 19th century, it was quite the opposite. Robert Schumann praised the E-flat Trio as “spirited, masculine, and dramatic,” preferring it to its companion. The truth is that both are radiant masterpieces—intimate and expansive, lyrical and searching—by a composer only thirty years old and at the height of his powers.
And that power was hard-won. At the time of writing, Schubert was battling illness, financial uncertainty, and a sense of artistic isolation. He had recently suffered the death of Beethoven—his musical hero—and knew that his own health was declining. Yet 1827–28 proved to be the most astonishingly productive period of his life, yielding not only the two piano trios but also the F minor Fantasy for piano four-hands, Winterreise, Schwanengesang, the last three piano sonatas, the sublime String Quintet in C Major, and so much more.
Schubert himself regarded the trio highly enough that he chose it as the centerpiece of the only public concert devoted entirely to his music during his lifetime. Held at Vienna’s Musikverein on December 26, 1827, the concert was organized by a circle of friends and was received with genuine enthusiasm—an all-too-rare moment of recognition for Schubert. The trio was also the only one of his works to be published beyond Austria while he was still alive.
The first movement begins boldly, with all three instruments stating the opening motive in unison—a commanding gesture that launches a sonata form filled with drama, warmth, and contrapuntal richness. Schubert’s lyricism is always close at hand, but here it’s tempered by drive and direction. Still, the music never rushes. As critic James Keller notes, Schubert rarely gives the impression of being in a hurry. Schumann famously described Schubert’s music as being of “heavenly length”—not to suggest bloat, but rather a kind of suspended time in which ideas blossom slowly and fully.
The second movement is widely considered one of Schubert’s most sublime creations: a somber, impassioned “song without words.” In fact, the music is rooted in a literal song. Schubert’s friend Leopold Sonnleithner claimed the melody was inspired by the Swedish folksong Se solen sjunker (“The Sun Has Set”), which Schubert heard at a recital earlier that year. Though the claim was long dismissed, musicologist Manfred Willfort rediscovered the song in 1978, confirming its striking resemblance. Schubert didn’t quote the song directly, but its octave leaps and its tread-like accompaniment became the foundation for a movement of quiet gravity and expressive depth—one that seems to meditate on loss, remembrance, and the fading of light.
The scherzo that follows is tightly constructed, rhythmically agile, and full of contrapuntal wit. Its trio section offers welcome repose, but the canonic interplay in the outer sections keeps the momentum crisp. The final movement is vast—nearly 750 measures—and unusually free in form. But the scale is purposeful: a broad, rhapsodic landscape where themes are introduced, developed, revisited, and transformed. Chief among them is the Swedish-inspired theme from the second movement, which is transformed near the end of the movement in a luminous major key. This final statement lends the work a sense of catharsis—an emotional release that feels both intimate and transcendent.
Though rooted in classical structures, Schubert’s approach is unmistakably his own. He stretches traditional forms not for effect, but because his lyricism demands it. His music unfolds like a journey without a fixed destination—one that invites you to follow its path without expectation, discovering beauties both grand and intimate along the way. This trio offers clarity, depth, and emotional truth spanning memory, loss, joy, and renewal.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) String Quintet in C Major, Op. 29 for two violins, two violas, and cello
Composed 1801 | Vienna, Austria
The works of Ludwig van Beethoven are perhaps the best-known and most often performed music in the classical tradition. His thirty-two piano sonatas, eighteen string quartets, and nine symphonies are cornerstones of the Western canon—so foundational, in fact, that they became the genres by which future composers would be measured. With rare exceptions—Schubert, most notably—it’s not until Liszt that we encounter a piano sonata on the level of Beethoven’s; not until Brahms that the symphony reaches comparable stature; and, dare we say it, not even Bartók or Shostakovich surpass him in the string quartet.
But Beethoven’s artistic legacy extends well beyond these pillars. He also made extraordinary contributions to the sonata for violin and piano, the sonata for cello and piano—a genre he essentially invented—the piano trio, and even opera. Yet his enormous success in traditional and commercially viable forms can sometimes overshadow his forays into more unusual or “experimental” genres. Beethoven wrote dozens of works in these “experimental” genres that are less frequently performed but no less revealing of his inventiveness and spirit. Among these is his only original, full-length string quintet: the String Quintet in C Major, Op. 29, composed in 1801.
Written on the cusp of his so-called “middle period,” this work mostly looks back toward Haydn and Mozart rather than forward to the bold new path Beethoven would soon blaze. The instrumentation—two violins, two violas, and cello—mirrors that of Mozart’s own quintets and allows for an especially rich middle texture. The work is sometimes nicknamed “The Storm” for its finale: murmuring tremolos suggest distant thunder, while rapid violin figures evoke flashes of lightning. But this is no tempest on the scale of Beethoven’s later symphonic storms. It is a storm in classical proportions, more reminiscent of Haydn’s The Seasons—dramatic, certainly, but tightly structured and ultimately decorous.
Some scholars have speculated that this more conservative approach reflects Beethoven’s personal situation at the time. Around 1801, he was beginning to accept that his hearing loss was not temporary, but permanent—a terrifying realization for a composer. Perhaps this quintet represents a brief retreat to familiar terrain before he forged ahead with the bold, emotionally charged works that would define his middle period.
In the opening movement of the quintet, Beethoven crafts a spacious musical landscape where flowing themes and delicate textures evoke both intimacy and grandeur. The second movement, Adagio molto espressivo, is poised and inward, unfolding a long, singing line over restrained accompaniment—a striking contrast to the extroverted outer movements. The third movement, an unstoppable Scherzo, features rhythmic play and interplay among the parts that showcase Beethoven’s delight in musical wit and conversational dialogue. The finale, “The Storm,” sizzles with energy.
The quintet was dedicated to Count Moritz von Fries, a generous patron who also received the dedications of Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas Op. 23 and 24. A long and tangled copyright dispute followed when Fries, believing (correctly) that he had the right to do so, sold the work to the publisher Artaria—unaware that Beethoven had already arranged to publish it with Breitkopf. The result was a tangle of conflicting claims, two competing editions, and Beethoven’s public accusation that Artaria’s edition was riddled with errors. The matter was eventually resolved, thanks again to Fries, who negotiated a compromise: Beethoven would write a second quintet to be published solely by Artaria. That second quintet, however, never materialized.
Thus, the Op. 29 Quintet remains unique in Beethoven’s output. His earlier Op. 4 quintet is a reworking of his Octet for winds, and Op. 104 is an arrangement of a piano trio, revised by a student and lightly edited by Beethoven. A brief fugue (Op. 137) and an unfinished late fragment (WoO 62, believed to be Beethoven’s last work) round out his sparse contributions to the string quintet genre. One wonders: had he completed that final quintet, would he have redefined the genre as he had the quartet? We’ll never know. But in the year following Beethoven’s death, Franz Schubert—himself in the final year of his life—would do exactly that with his own String Quintet in C Major, a pinnacle of the chamber music repertoire.
This quintet invites us to rediscover a quieter corner of Beethoven’s genius. It may not blaze with the defiance of his symphonies or the intensity of his later quartets, but it offers something just as essential: music you can count on to be elegant, expressive, and deeply moving.
A co-presentation of Blanco Performing Arts and Cactus Pear Music Festival
Program notes ©2025 by Jeffrey Sykes, artistic director of Cactus Pear Music Festival
In a world that often feels unpredictable, some things are worth relying on: the power of great music, the chemistry of outstanding musicians, the welcoming embrace of a good concert hall. This co-presentation by Blanco Performing Arts and Cactus Pear Music Festival brings together two organizations with a shared commitment to musical excellence, thoughtful programming, and community connection. We’re delighted to join forces for an evening of chamber music you can count on—beautifully crafted, richly expressive, and deeply rewarding.
Franz Peter Schubert (1797–1828) Piano Trio in E-flat Major, D. 929
Composed November 1827 | Vienna, Austria
In the fall of 1827, Franz Schubert composed two of the greatest works in the piano trio repertoire: the lyrical Trio in B-flat Major, D. 898, and the more expansive Trio in E-flat Major, D. 929. Contemporary audiences often favor the charm and relative concision of the B-flat Trio, while critics have sometimes found the E-flat Trio unwieldy in length. But in the 19th century, it was quite the opposite. Robert Schumann praised the E-flat Trio as “spirited, masculine, and dramatic,” preferring it to its companion. The truth is that both are radiant masterpieces—intimate and expansive, lyrical and searching—by a composer only thirty years old and at the height of his powers.
And that power was hard-won. At the time of writing, Schubert was battling illness, financial uncertainty, and a sense of artistic isolation. He had recently suffered the death of Beethoven—his musical hero—and knew that his own health was declining. Yet 1827–28 proved to be the most astonishingly productive period of his life, yielding not only the two piano trios but also the F minor Fantasy for piano four-hands, Winterreise, Schwanengesang, the last three piano sonatas, the sublime String Quintet in C Major, and so much more.
Schubert himself regarded the trio highly enough that he chose it as the centerpiece of the only public concert devoted entirely to his music during his lifetime. Held at Vienna’s Musikverein on December 26, 1827, the concert was organized by a circle of friends and was received with genuine enthusiasm—an all-too-rare moment of recognition for Schubert. The trio was also the only one of his works to be published beyond Austria while he was still alive.
The first movement begins boldly, with all three instruments stating the opening motive in unison—a commanding gesture that launches a sonata form filled with drama, warmth, and contrapuntal richness. Schubert’s lyricism is always close at hand, but here it’s tempered by drive and direction. Still, the music never rushes. As critic James Keller notes, Schubert rarely gives the impression of being in a hurry. Schumann famously described Schubert’s music as being of “heavenly length”—not to suggest bloat, but rather a kind of suspended time in which ideas blossom slowly and fully.
The second movement is widely considered one of Schubert’s most sublime creations: a somber, impassioned “song without words.” In fact, the music is rooted in a literal song. Schubert’s friend Leopold Sonnleithner claimed the melody was inspired by the Swedish folksong Se solen sjunker (“The Sun Has Set”), which Schubert heard at a recital earlier that year. Though the claim was long dismissed, musicologist Manfred Willfort rediscovered the song in 1978, confirming its striking resemblance. Schubert didn’t quote the song directly, but its octave leaps and its tread-like accompaniment became the foundation for a movement of quiet gravity and expressive depth—one that seems to meditate on loss, remembrance, and the fading of light.
The scherzo that follows is tightly constructed, rhythmically agile, and full of contrapuntal wit. Its trio section offers welcome repose, but the canonic interplay in the outer sections keeps the momentum crisp. The final movement is vast—nearly 750 measures—and unusually free in form. But the scale is purposeful: a broad, rhapsodic landscape where themes are introduced, developed, revisited, and transformed. Chief among them is the Swedish-inspired theme from the second movement, which is transformed near the end of the movement in a luminous major key. This final statement lends the work a sense of catharsis—an emotional release that feels both intimate and transcendent.
Though rooted in classical structures, Schubert’s approach is unmistakably his own. He stretches traditional forms not for effect, but because his lyricism demands it. His music unfolds like a journey without a fixed destination—one that invites you to follow its path without expectation, discovering beauties both grand and intimate along the way. This trio offers clarity, depth, and emotional truth spanning memory, loss, joy, and renewal.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) String Quintet in C Major, Op. 29 for two violins, two violas, and cello
Composed 1801 | Vienna, Austria
The works of Ludwig van Beethoven are perhaps the best-known and most often performed music in the classical tradition. His thirty-two piano sonatas, eighteen string quartets, and nine symphonies are cornerstones of the Western canon—so foundational, in fact, that they became the genres by which future composers would be measured. With rare exceptions—Schubert, most notably—it’s not until Liszt that we encounter a piano sonata on the level of Beethoven’s; not until Brahms that the symphony reaches comparable stature; and, dare we say it, not even Bartók or Shostakovich surpass him in the string quartet.
But Beethoven’s artistic legacy extends well beyond these pillars. He also made extraordinary contributions to the sonata for violin and piano, the sonata for cello and piano—a genre he essentially invented—the piano trio, and even opera. Yet his enormous success in traditional and commercially viable forms can sometimes overshadow his forays into more unusual or “experimental” genres. Beethoven wrote dozens of works in these “experimental” genres that are less frequently performed but no less revealing of his inventiveness and spirit. Among these is his only original, full-length string quintet: the String Quintet in C Major, Op. 29, composed in 1801.
Written on the cusp of his so-called “middle period,” this work mostly looks back toward Haydn and Mozart rather than forward to the bold new path Beethoven would soon blaze. The instrumentation—two violins, two violas, and cello—mirrors that of Mozart’s own quintets and allows for an especially rich middle texture. The work is sometimes nicknamed “The Storm” for its finale: murmuring tremolos suggest distant thunder, while rapid violin figures evoke flashes of lightning. But this is no tempest on the scale of Beethoven’s later symphonic storms. It is a storm in classical proportions, more reminiscent of Haydn’s The Seasons—dramatic, certainly, but tightly structured and ultimately decorous.
Some scholars have speculated that this more conservative approach reflects Beethoven’s personal situation at the time. Around 1801, he was beginning to accept that his hearing loss was not temporary, but permanent—a terrifying realization for a composer. Perhaps this quintet represents a brief retreat to familiar terrain before he forged ahead with the bold, emotionally charged works that would define his middle period.
In the opening movement of the quintet, Beethoven crafts a spacious musical landscape where flowing themes and delicate textures evoke both intimacy and grandeur. The second movement, Adagio molto espressivo, is poised and inward, unfolding a long, singing line over restrained accompaniment—a striking contrast to the extroverted outer movements. The third movement, an unstoppable Scherzo, features rhythmic play and interplay among the parts that showcase Beethoven’s delight in musical wit and conversational dialogue. The finale, “The Storm,” sizzles with energy.
The quintet was dedicated to Count Moritz von Fries, a generous patron who also received the dedications of Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas Op. 23 and 24. A long and tangled copyright dispute followed when Fries, believing (correctly) that he had the right to do so, sold the work to the publisher Artaria—unaware that Beethoven had already arranged to publish it with Breitkopf. The result was a tangle of conflicting claims, two competing editions, and Beethoven’s public accusation that Artaria’s edition was riddled with errors. The matter was eventually resolved, thanks again to Fries, who negotiated a compromise: Beethoven would write a second quintet to be published solely by Artaria. That second quintet, however, never materialized.
Thus, the Op. 29 Quintet remains unique in Beethoven’s output. His earlier Op. 4 quintet is a reworking of his Octet for winds, and Op. 104 is an arrangement of a piano trio, revised by a student and lightly edited by Beethoven. A brief fugue (Op. 137) and an unfinished late fragment (WoO 62, believed to be Beethoven’s last work) round out his sparse contributions to the string quintet genre. One wonders: had he completed that final quintet, would he have redefined the genre as he had the quartet? We’ll never know. But in the year following Beethoven’s death, Franz Schubert—himself in the final year of his life—would do exactly that with his own String Quintet in C Major, a pinnacle of the chamber music repertoire.
This quintet invites us to rediscover a quieter corner of Beethoven’s genius. It may not blaze with the defiance of his symphonies or the intensity of his later quartets, but it offers something just as essential: music you can count on to be elegant, expressive, and deeply moving.
