...then you must attend the KSO Chamber Classics concert on April 3rd at 2:30 at the Bijou Theatre.
Henry Cowell’s groundbreaking Mosaic Quartet, written in the KSO’s inaugural year of 19 and 35 opens the program and will include an aleatoric sequence referendum, aka the audience will determine in which order the five texture chorale movements are to be performed.
The Knoxville Symphony Woodwind Quintet will then play Samuel Barber’s 1956 work Summer Music for woodwind quintet. If it stays cold, we are going to need summer music bad. If not, then it will be the perfect mood music for a spring day. Sadly, this is Barber’s only chamber work for winds.
I have known principal oboist Phyllis Secrist and principal clarinetist Gary Sperl since before me days here in Knoxville; we all played the Spoleto Festival of Two Words on Charleston SC and Spoleto Italy in 1985. Gary played bass clarinet in Puccini’s Fanciulla del West under Christian Badea, and Phyllis and I drank way too much café latte. Phyllis had the distinct pleasure of having her ridiculously talented daughter Rachel return to Knoxville (on spring break from Northwestern) to play violin on the Prokofiev 5 concert with Kirk Trevor this past weekend.
The remaining two works are prime examples of the phenomenon of a work’s glory not hinted at in its title. The Quartet will join clarinetist Gary, flutist Nadine Hur and harpist Cindy Hicks in the Introduction and Allegro by Ravel. Three words here should be all you need to know- flute, harp, and Ravel. After this wave of impressionism has subsided, the Principal Quartet will play Beethoven’s op. 59 #1 quartet, the first Razumovsky quartet as it is known to some. Classical music insiders say “59 number 1" and there’s nothing more needs to be said. The joyous opening movement, the quirky scherzo second movement, the tragic third movement and rowdy finale are standards of the quartet literature. Come find out why.
1 comment:
As one that grew up listening to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra I have found a new home with the KSO and its conductor who has done a supurb job.
That said, the chamber music program on 4/3 was most notable for the shuffling of the chairs. I found the music mostly boring and a waste of my time. Never thought I'd see the time I would be glad to see a Beethoven piece end.
Bob Doeden
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