The Valley Concert Society welcomes four wonderful musicians to the Matsqui Centennial Auditorium on Saturday, January 18, at 7:30 p.m. Their program will bring us three exquisite examples of late Romantic repertoire.
The second work we will hear is a quartet for an unusual combination of instruments—violin, clarinet, cello, and piano—by Walter Rabl.
In 1896 the prestigious Vienna Musicians’ Society held a competition for composers. The president of the society and a great supporter of its programs was Johannes Brahms. One of the eighteen submissions to the competition caught his attention. Although he prided himself on being able to recognize the source of almost any music just from its style, he was at a complete loss with this quartet.
When the envelope was opened to reveal the name of Walter Rabl, he was none the wiser. Rabl was an unknown Viennese student in a doctoral program in the German University in Prague. The judges were equally impressed awarding him first prize unanimously. Brahms recommended the work to his publisher Simrock.
This may well be the first work ever composed for this combination of instruments which is still not very common. The most famous example is Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time composed in a World War II concentration camp.
The musicians who will perform this delightful quartet for us hail from the US with one notable exception. Cellist Arnold Choi is from Calgary, and he continues to make his living there. He is principal cellist of the Calgary Philharmonic and is an instructor at Mount Royal University.
Choi has won prizes at numerous competitions including the Grand Prize at the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition. At age 14, he gave his first solo recital tour in Mexico. Since then, he has toured throughout North America, Europe, and Asia as a soloist and as a chamber musician.
Tickets for this concert are available online at www.valleyconcertsociety.com at $32 for adults/seniors and $20 for students. For more information, call 604-289-3377.
John Wiebe
President
The Valley Concert Society