There has been a lot of chamber music in my life lately, and that isn’t likely to change soon. And that’s a very good thing!
Last Sunday, the Arnica String Quartet played our first concert with founding cellist Heather Blackburn back in her rightful spot. It was for the wonderful Camerata Musica series in Salem, Oregon. We played music of Mozart (two of his final “Prussian” quartets) and Arriaga (his first quartet). When we originally planned this season’s programs, we decided to do some of what we thought would be less challenging repertoire. Mozart is hardly less challenging in some ways, especially musically, but technically it can be a bit less demanding than late Beethoven, Bartók, or contemporary pieces. It made for a nice way to gradually get the quartet back into the swing of things after a couple years without all of our regular members present.