We’re delighted to welcome Peter Shackleton, well known to Thunder Bay audiences as the TBSO’s Principal Clarinettist since 1988. He appears as our guest soloist in an exquisite concert of Classic and Romantic chamber music, and is joined by our four core string players. They’ll perform two quintets for clarinet and strings, beloved staples of that instrument’s repertoire, and both composed for specific virtuoso clarinettists. Mozart’s dates from the same year as the French Revolution; it’s marvellously melodic, mellow, and at times mirthful.
Weber’s Grand Quintet in B-flat major is brilliantly concerto-like, a solo with string accompaniment, and was completed in the year Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo. An elegant string quartet by Mozart leads off our concert. There’ll be a ballot draw at intermission for a pair of tickets to Magnus Theatre.
And now, a word from our soloist:
On Saturday, September 27, I will have the great pleasure of performing in the Consortium Aurora Borealis series, joined by some of my good friends from the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra. I have been the TBSO’s principal clarinettist for the past 37 years. (Yes, I was 12 when I joined the orchestra ;). The evening will feature two masterpieces for clarinet and strings, plus a gorgeous work for string quartet.
Compared to other wind instruments, the clarinet was a relative newcomer to the musical scene, not really appearing until around 1730. Composers Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, and Johann Christian Bach, among others, wrote important works for the early clarinet, which helped solidify its place in classical music.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first encountered the clarinet when he was in Mannheim (1777-78). He wrote to his father, exclaiming: “Oh, if only we also had clarinets – you cannot imagine the splendid effect of a Symphony with flutes, oboes and clarinets.” After meeting the clarinettist Anton Stadler, Mozart was inspired to write a trio with viola and piano K. 498, his quintet for clarinet and strings K. 581 and his famous clarinet concerto K. 622. In spite of being written during a turbulent time in Mozart’s life, marked by a disappointing tour of northern Germany and constant financial difficulties, his clarinet quintet is a work of transcendent beauty and inner serenity. The work was completed on September 29, 1789 (almost 236 years ago to the day of our performance), and was first performed on December 22 of that same year.
Carl Maria von Weber was best known as a composer of operas and for the revolutionary changes he made to aid in the development of German Romantic Opera. He started composing his quintet for clarinet and strings Op. 34 in 1811 and finally completed it in 1815. It was also known as his ‘Grand Quintet’ and ‘Baermann Quintet’. Each of its four movements were written in a different year, and almost certainly were influenced by Mozart’s earlier composition. The first performance was given on August 26, 1815 by Heinrich Baermann, to whom Weber had dedicated the work, and in fact had given it to Baermann as a birthday gift. Weber had previously written a Concertino and two Concertos for Baermann, who was a friend of his, and was the solo clarinettist of the Munich Orchestra.
I’m particularly excited because I have never performed this work in Thunder Bay. My first solo performance with the TBSO, in 1989, was Weber’s Concertino, so it feels like a wonderful time to return to this composer’s joyous love of the clarinet. Weber’s writing is what I refer to as ‘clarinet party music’: exploiting the instrument’s capabilities to the fullest.
The other work on the programme is Mozart’s String Quartet in D minor, K. 421, which was written in 1783. This was the only string quartet Mozart composed in a minor key, and was the second of six quartets dedicated to his mentor, the composer Franz Joseph Haydn in 1785. Mozart inscribed the following on the title page:
‘A father who had decided to send his sons out into the great world thought it his duty to entrust them to the protection and guidance of a man who was very celebrated at the time, and who happened moreover to be his best friend. In the same way I send my six sons to you. Please, then, receive them kindly and be to them a father, guide, and friend! I entreat you, however, to be indulgent to those faults which may have escaped a father’s partial eye, and in spite of them, to continue your generous friendship towards one who so highly appreciates it.’
It’s said that Mozart’s son Raimund was born during the composition of this quartet. The recurring rising theme in the second movement alludes to Mozart’s wife Constanze’s hollering in pain during labour, as Mozart busily composed. The piece is unrelentingly dramatic and darkly coloured.
My distinguished colleagues for this performance are violinists Katie Stevens and James Moat, violist Patrick Horn, and cellist Peter Cosbey.
Details of our upcoming musical offerings are given below in the link to our new Season Brochure, which we invite you to peruse.
There is an opening for new Board members. If you believe in what Consortium does and would like to help us by serving in this way, please see Hilda, call 807-768-7420, or email us: inquiries@consortiumab.org.
Check out our beautiful 47th season brochure, artistically created for us by graphic designer Krista Hansen of eleven-seventeen.com, providing details of all our 2025-2026 concerts, as well as information about our organization.
https://consortiumab.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/2025-26-Brochure-digital.pdf
Find us on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/ConsortiumAuroraBorealis
Our short annual AGM will be held virtually on Thursday, November and 20, 7 PM, 5 days after our next concert. People who have donated $50 or more will be eligible to vote. More info to follow.
Next up, on Saturday, November 15, 7:30 PM, St .Pauls United Church:
J. S. Bach and Sons: Gorgeous Solos, Duets, and Trios for flutes.
In 2025 the musical world marks the 275th anniversary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach. We therefore invite you to come on November 15 for “J. S. Bach and Sons”, an evening of eloquent chamber music. We’ll hear gorgeous solos, duets, and trios by this supreme genius of music, as well as by two of his composer-sons, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Both sons were keyboard virtuosos, wrote expressively and innovatively in their own unique voices, enjoyed renown, and bridged Baroque and Classical styles. Flutists Penelope Clarke, Doris Dungan, and cellist Peter Cosbey reunite, joined by special guest harpsichordist Borys Medicky of Toronto. Medicky concertizes extensively as harpsichord soloist and chamber musician, as well as being a church musician, harpsichord maker, and harpsichord technician.
Thanks as ever to all of you for your interest in our musical offerings, and for your support!
Warmly,
Elizabeth