A musical performance is a marriage between three elements: the performers, their instruments and the composition they are bringing to life.
"A great performance should sound as if you invented that music at that moment," said violinist Maria Benotti, founder and music director of the North Shore chamber music ensemble Music at Eden's Edge, which is offering a concert tomorrow night, "Beethoven Endorses Music at Eden's Edge."
Considering the elements that will contribute to the concert, it is easy to believe that this performance will be special.
First, there is Paul Orgel, who will play piano in a program of three Beethoven sonatas. Orgel has appeared with Music at Eden's Edge since shortly after its founding in 1982. He teaches at the University of Vermont and has performed throughout the United States and Eastern Europe.
He will be accompanied on one sonata by Benotti, who has taught at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School since 1977 and also plays for the Handel and Haydn Society orchestra.
And then there is the rare, recently restored Mason and Hamlin concert grand piano provided by arts patron John Archer, who is also donating the use of his home in Danvers for the performance.
"The sound is not to be duplicated," said Archer, who paid $44,000 to have the piano restored.
Even for a grand piano, this "CC" model, as it is named, is extra large, measuring 9 feet and 4 inches in length and several inches wider than other concert grands.
Archer's was the first "CC" piano the factory made — around 1900 — and all the evidence points to its having been owned and played by Harold Bauer, a master classical pianist who toured throughout the Northeast, taking his Mason and Hamlin with him wherever he played.
Bauer, who died in 1951, played a repertoire featuring composers like Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Liszt, whose works are perfectly suited to the uniquely "broad, heavy, deeper" sound, as Archer described it, of the "CC" model piano.
"When you play a good instrument," Benotti said, "you almost think what you want. If you have the technique, (the instrument) allows it to happen."
The piano's restoration was done by East Coast Piano Rebuilding of Chester, N.H., which is owned by Beverly native and former Hamilton resident Brian Grindrod, who plans to attend the concert.
Orgel is excited to play the Mason and Hamlin piano, and will also give the audience a brief introduction to Beethoven's sonatas, of which there are 32.
"The Beethoven sonatas are the greatest body of music pianists have," Orgel said.
Orgel will play the "Tempest" sonata, which was composed in 1802, as the composer was starting to lose his hearing. He will also play Opus 110, a late work, which he described as one of Beethoven's "most profound and beautiful pieces."
The sonata for piano and violin that Orgel and Benotti will play together — the "Spring" sonata — was chosen partly as a tribute to the concert's date, the day before the new season begins.
In addition to listening to beautiful music, those who attend the free concert can add the pleasure of doing good.
"Beethoven Endorses Music at Eden's Edge" is a fundraiser for two Music at Eden's Edge programs, which provide free concerts to seniors, and bring free music instruction to nine elementary schools in six North Shore communities.
Donations will be accepted, and a silent auction will be held for the painting "Vernal Breezes," an abstract watercolor collage by artist and Music at Eden's Edge musician Stephen Bates.
If you go
What: "Beethoven Endorses Music at Eden's Edge," concert of Beethoven piano sonatas and sonata for piano and violin
When: Tomorrow, 8 p.m.
Where: 10 North St., Danvers
More information: Free, donations requested, with silent auction and raffle. Visit www.edensedge.org or call 978-270-4463.
Benefits: Music at Eden's Edge programs that bring free concerts to seniors and free music instruction to North Shore schools
