Sister Bay, Wis. (July 10, 2023) – Midsummer’s Music, Wisconsin’s oldest summer chamber music series, continues its 2023 concert season with a sumptuous program featuring electrifying string quintets by Felix Mendelssohn and Michael Haydn – Franz Joseph Haydn’s much-neglected younger brother – along with a beautifully evocative oboe quartet by British composer Ernest John Moeran.
Moeran’s Phantasy Quartet for oboe and string trio stars Lindsay Flowers, the principal oboist of the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra and English hornist of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra. The piece is one longer movement but consists of two larger sections with frequent changes of tempo, harmonic center, and melodic material within each section.
The String Quintet in C Major, P. 108, for two violins, two violas, and cello by Michael Haydn was, at one point, thought to have been written by Joseph Haydn, but Joseph never wrote a string quintet. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, on the other hand, knew of many of Michael’s works and thought very highly of them. It is likely that Michael’s pieces for string quintet spurred the interest that Mozart showed for the form later in life.
Mendelssohn’s String Quintet No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 87, for two violins, two violas, and cello was written in 1845, only two years before the composer’s untimely death. The violin launches the whole enterprise with something resembling a Mannheim rocket—a rapidly rising figure of great energy and trajectory. By the finale, Mendelssohn demonstrates his understanding of string writing and his love of interesting string composition that was with him from the age of 12 until the end of his life.
In addition to Flowers, program musicians are David Perry and Ann Palen, violins, Allyson Fleck and Kyla Patrick, violas, and Mara McClain, cello.
Performances are 7:00pm, July 20, at Old Gibraltar Town Hall in Fish Creek, sponsored by Stefan & Joan Anderson; 7:00pm, July 22, at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Sister Bay, sponsored in part by Peery & Mary Ann Duderstadt; 5:00pm, July 23, at Woodwalk Gallery in Egg Harbor, sponsored by Peter & Beverly Ann Conroy; and 7:00pm, July 26, at Sister Bay Moravian Church in Sister Bay.
A complete 2023 summer brochure can be downloaded at www.midsummersmusic.com.
Tickets are $38 for adults, $17 for students, and children 12 and under are free with an adult. Premium prices apply for special events. Flex-packs of six tickets for the price of five tickets are also available. Tickets can be ordered at www.midsummersmusic.com or by phone at 920-854-7088.
Midsummer’s Music was co-founded in 1990 by Jim and Jean Berkenstock, long-time Door County summer residents and principal orchestral players with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. What began as two concerts among friends has become one of the Midwest’s most anticipated chamber music series, bringing thousands of chamber music enthusiasts from around the globe to the magical Door County Peninsula.
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