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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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Twos, Threes, and Fours
Chamber music doesn’t have the scale and grandeur of the symphony and the opera, nor does it have the glamor of recitals by world-class solo instrumentalists and singers. Still, TCU’s Mimir Chamber Music Festival has enough beautiful music to win over non-fans of this intimate form.
Ten musicians will form duos, trios, quartets, and quintets and take the stage this week to play wide-ranging programs. Thursday evening’s concert features the jewel-like hues of Ravel’s becalmed Piece in the Form of a Habañera and Beethoven’s First String Quartet, an attempt by the composer to fit his querulous genius into the conventions of his time. Saturday’s program is all 20th-century music, with John Cage, C. Curtis Smith, and Paul Schoenfield sharing the bill with Shostakovich and the vastly underrated Bohuslav Martinu. Tuesday’s recital spotlights Brahms’ Second String Quintet, a warmhearted and emotionally direct piece that should counter the popular notion of Brahms as a dour, pedantic, ultra-serious musical mind. Bookending the quintet are two pieces by French composers: Pièces en Concert by the Baroque master François Couperin, and a sextet by Ernest Chausson, whose reputation might be as large as it deserves today if he hadn’t died in a bicycle accident at age 44. The final concert on July 19 juxtaposes Debussy’s enigmatic, furiously compressed Sonata for Cello and Piano with Brahms’ Piano Quintet, well known to followers of the chamber music portion of the Van Cliburn Piano Competition. At a time when the other classical music organizations have gone quiet, the Mimir is the game in town this week.
The Mimir Chamber Music Festival runs Jul 11-19 at TCU’s PepsiCo Recital Hall, 2800 S University Dr, FW. Tickets are $10-15. Call 817-257-7602.
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