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chamber music concert preview summer festivals

preview: willamette valley chamber music festival – week two

After a well-deserved day off, the musicians of the festival are back this morning for the first rehearsal of week two. What’s on tap for this weekend? Some really tasty music, that’s what!

Works for two instruments are some of the hardest pieces to write effectively. There’s no much time for either instrument to rest, first of all, since the piece is called a duo, and not a solo. Additionally, finding contrast of textures with two like instruments can also be a challenge. There are a handful of pieces for two instruments that I think are masterpieces, including Ravel’s Duo for Violin and Cello, Martinu’s Two Madrigals for Violin and Viola, and the piece on this week’s program, Prokofiev’s Sonata for Two Violins.

Violist-composer Kenji Bunch returns to the festival to perform in his string quintet String Circles. It’s a reimagining of the traditional string quintet, but instead of using classical Western music as a basis, it plumbs the music of Americana instead. There’s funk and bluegrass in the mix, and it’s delightful!

Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel wrote a string quartet. Did you know that? Did you also know that it’s a really good piece of music? Yep. It is. It’s a major four movement piece that uses the string quartet instrumentation to great effect, and it’s a piece that should be in the standard repertoire. Thanks to a recording by the fantastic Quatour EbĂ©ne, it has gotten greater exposure, which is well-deserved. You may have heard local quartet Mousai REMIX play it a few seasons ago – it’s worth another listen, so come on out and hear us play it, and the other works on this program, at J. Christopher Wines on Saturday and Sunday, August 18-19. Tickets are available here.