Published at 13:22, Thursday, 17 April 2008

THE final concert of the season for Hexham and District Music Society takes place tonight when the Heath String Quartet, with clarinetist Timothy Orpen, presents a programme which includes Brahms’ sublime quintet for clarinet and strings.

The quartet’s performance in Allendale last season was so well-received that will be returning there in October. They can also be heard in the course of the summer at the Lake District Music Festival where they are artists in residence.

They have been playing together since 2002 when they studied chamber music with Dr. Christopher Rowland at the Royal Northern College of Music during which time they won all the major ensemble competitions.

The concert begins with a late Mozart quartet-K464 in A major which is a relaxed and sunny work. The Debussy quartet which follows is the only one that he wrote. He modelled the work on the Franck string quartet basing all four movements on a single idea and the music makes use of orchestral effects and textures which are unusual in quartet writing. It is atmospheric music with subtly shifting rhythms and harmonies.

For the final work the quartet is joined by Timothy Orpen, a young clarinetist who delighted music society members last season when he gave a recital at very short notice.

He had been due to come with an oboist and pianist to play a different programme, but a sports injury to the pianist meant a last minute change of music.

There are few music lovers who are not familiar with the Brahms quintet. Brahms, like Mozart, seemed to find the tone of the clarinet particularly inspiring and both composers wrote for a contemporary virtuoso; in the case of Brahms this was Richard Muhlfeld. It must be easier to play the work on a modern clarinet then on the early instrument but for any clarinetist the work demands great technical ability and sensitivity.

The concert begins at 7.45pm and tickets are available from Queen’s Hall box office in Hexham.

Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk