Russian poetry, music under Music@Menlo spotlight

The Music@Menlo chamber music festival presents a program, "Art Under a Tombstone," on Thursday and Friday, Nov. 7 and 8, that "explores Russia's artistic transformation from the Romantic era through the period of Soviet oppression," according to a press statement from the festival.

On Thursday, a "behind the music" discussion is on the program, with pianist and conductor Ignat Solzhenitsyn reading poetry by his father, the Nobel Prize-winning writer and Russian dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The reading will be accompanied by a performance of excerpts of works by Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich. The program, at 7:30 p.m., will be held at Martin Family Hall at Menlo School, 50 Valparaiso Ave. in Atherton.

The following evening's program, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., will feature the works from the Thursday program, and will also include Shostakovich's Seven Romances on Poems of Aleksandr Blok, performed by soprano Hyunah Yu. Cellist David Finckel, co-founder of Music@Menlo, will also perform, as will other acclaimed artists. The Friday event will be at St. Bede's Episcopal Church, 2650 Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park.

Tickets from $15 are available at musicatmenlo.org or by calling 650-331-0202. Ticket discounts are available for those under age 30.