Rescheduled Aroha Quartet concert next week

The Aroha Quartet with clarinetist Rachel Vernon. Photo / Supplied

Back in March this year, Chamber Music Whanganui was about to celebrate the start of its subscription season with a concert by the Aroha String Quartet and Rachel Vernon on clarinet.

Due to the rise in Omicron at the time, this concert was postponed and rescheduled to this month.

Bringing us two of the best-loved works in the chamber music repertoire – the clarinet quintets by Mozart and by Brahms - the Aroha Quartet together with NZSO clarinettist Rachel Vernon will perform in Whanganui's Concert Chamber on Tuesday, September 13 at the earlier than usual time of 7pm.

Quartet members and Rachel were in Whanganui earlier this year when the NZSO visited. Chamber Music Whanganui is delighted to welcome them back to play two of the great works for string quartet and clarinet.

The clarinet was first developed during Mozart's lifetime, originally called the basset horn. Mozart very much admired the playing of his friend Anton Stadler (a celebrated clarinettist in the Imperial Viennese Court Orchestra) and wrote a number of works for him, including the clarinet concerto and clarinet trio, and he called this work Stadler's Quintet.

It was first performed in December of 1789 and is thought to be the first clarinet quintet ever. Mozart had been experimenting with quintet form for several years, and in this he reaches the absolute peak of his mature late style.

In the early 1890s, Brahms was tired of composing and was talking of retiring, that is until he happened to hear the clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld play, among other things, the Mozart Clarinet Quintet.

He was so taken with the man's playing, he wrote to his lifelong confidant, Clara Schumann, about the experience.

"Nobody can blow the clarinet more beautifully than Herr Mühlfeld," he wrote.

The two met and promptly became fast friends, and the result was the last four chamber works he wrote: a trio, two clarinet sonatas and this quintet.

Although it seems a cliché to call the music of Brahms autumnal, in the case of this quintet and the music he wrote for the clarinet at the end of his life, it's a perfect metaphor.

Tickets are available in advance from the Royal Whanganui Opera House Box Office or at the door – cash only, no eftpos.

Chamber Music Whanganui would like to thank their sponsor, Driving Miss Daisy, for supporting this concert.

The Details
What: The Aroha Quartet with Rachel Vernon clarinet
When: Tuesday, September 13 at 7pm – please note the earlier than usual time
Where: Concert Chamber, Whanganui War Memorial Centre
Tickets: Adults $35, seniors $32, CMW subscribers $20, students $5.