The program opens with a familiar work of Mozart, his Quartet in F Major, K370, for Oboe and strings. This work is playful for the most part, but includes a soulful adagio movement. The oboist performing virtuoso tricks, is every bit as impressive and exciting as the tightrope walker on the high wire. Featured is renowned oboist, Stephen Taylor, solo oboist with the Lincoln Center Chamber Players and co-principal with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

The next set is pure fun. Three Street Pieces for Clarinet and Double Bass (think buskers) by the young American composer, Philip Salathé, are interspersed with two pieces from Morton Gould’s Benny’s Gig, also for clarinet and double bass, composed for swing band great, Benny Goodman. Clarinetist, Alan Kay, co-principal of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, is joined by Volkan Orhon, virtuoso bassist and head of the String Department at the University of Iowa.

Then comes the true circus music — Prokofiev’s Quintet, Op. 39, scored for the unusual combination of violin, viola, oboe, clarinet and double bass. This work, brimming with humorous excitement, was originally written as a ballet, called “Trapeze,” which depicted life in a traveling circus.

Rounding out the program is the ultra-romantic, and highly charged, String Sextet in D Major, composed by 17-year-old musical genius, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, who later became famous for his swashbuckling Hollywood film scores.

The last movement of this sextet, which sounds like it is right out of the circus, will be a rousing finale for the season. The magic music-makers in the sextet are: violinists Timothy Lees, and Gerry Itzkoff, concertmaster, and first violinist of the Cincinnati Symphony; violists Maureen Gallagher, co-principal of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Laurie Kennedy, SLLMF music director; and cellists Bonnie Thron, principal of the North Carolina Symphony, and Lindy Clarke, a founding member of the Claring Chamber Players.

Tickets for the series at Deertrees are $25. Tickets for anyone 21 and under are free. Tickets can be purchased at www.sebagomusicfestival.org, at the box office, by mail, local outlets, or call 207-583-6747.

All tickets are for open seating and will be held at the front entrance box office. Tickets are available concert nights starting at 6:45 p.m. Reserved tickets must be picked up by 7 p.m.

Copy the Story Link