The Santa Barbara Music Club offers another free concert of great music at 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 13, in the the Faulkner Gallery of the Santa Barbara Public Library, 40 E. Anapamu St.
The program is in two parts, the first about half as long as the second.
To begin, bassoonist Paul Mori, violinists Andrea Lárez and Mirah Ray, violist Erik Fauss, and cellist Timothy Beccue will play Antonio Vivaldi’s “Bassoon Concerto No. 23 in g-minor, F. VIII” and Mathieu Lussier‘s “Spring Lullaby for Bassoon and Strings (2005).”
Then, violinist Marie Hébert, cellist Elizabeth Olson, and pianist Robert Hale, perform Johannes Brahms‘ “Trio No. 1 in B-Major, for Violin, Cello, and Piano, Opus 8 (1854).”
It is symptomatic of the amazing fecundity of Vivaldi (1678-1741) that of his 500 plus instrumental concertos, 40 are for bassoon. It is a testament to Vivaldi’s genius that every one of these 500 concerti is a stand-alone gem.
The g-minor concerto played here is appropriately jaunty, melodic, and altogether delightful.
“A versatile musician with an inquiring mind, bassoonist-composer-conductor Mathieu Lussier (b. 1973) energetically and passionately promotes the modern and baroque bassoon as solo instruments throughout North America and Europe,” said the Music Club.
“His works are heard regularly in concert halls in North America, Europe and Australia,” the Music Club said.
The “Spring Lullaby” is brief but exquisite, requiring no period of adjustment for the music lover.
I put this trio by Brahms (1833-97) among his greatest works in any genre. It is the passionate outpouring of a young romantic (he was 21 when he wrote it), who had not yet become a control freak.
It was this trio that led me to the chamber music of Brahms, hence to what I believe to be the truest expressions of his soul and genius.
For information on this or other Santa Barbara Music Club programs and performing artists, visit SBMusicClub.org.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributing writer. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are his own.