Consortium Aurora Borealis greets the New Year in style on January 10 with a concert of sublime Classic and Romantic String Quintets. Thrill to the rich sound of two violas in the inner voices. We introduce you to some absolutely gorgeous chamber music for strings, as we present two mature viola quintets written 103 years apart by Mozart and Brahms. We also bring to light an appealing quintet by a less-known composer, written just two years after Mozart’s. All three men were German speakers.
Both composers had a particular fondness for the soulful viola. Mozart frequently joined in performing on it during informal chamber music sessions, and wrote six quintets in this rarer combination of string quartet plus extra viola, a thicker, mellower scoring.
Brahms composed two viola quintets, and augmented the tonal richness in his two string sextets by adding a second cello, as we will hear in our next concert season. For Brahms in particular, the viola added warmth of tone and emotional depth to his ensemble, and suited the autumnal Romanticism which pervaded much of his music.
Violinists Katie Stevens and James Moat violists Patrick Horn and Geena Salway, and cellist Peter Cosbey perform these powerful and extraordinary works. Patrick and Geena return specifically to flaunt ‘Viola Power’ again in more stunning viola quintets, having first appeared together last May in such quintets by Mozart and Beethoven.
The concert’s repertoire was drawn from the viola quintet genre, consisting of a string quartet with one added viola. This emerged in the late 18th century but continued into the 19th, with many Romantic examples of this type. Better-known composers included Beethoven, Boccherini, Brahms, Dvořák, Mendelssohn, and Mozart.
‘Divine’ Mozart’s monumental C major Quintet No. 3, K. 515 is regarded as one of his greatest chamber music works. It’s ranked with his epic, dramatic Quintet No. 4 in G minor, K. 516, which followed less than one month after, and which we performed last May. No. 4, also scored with two violas, is deeply moving; it is mainly dark and tragic, but with moments of calm and lyricism.
However, the C major for our present concert serves as a contrast, with an elegant minuetto and a brisk, sparkling, and witty finale, which biographer Alfred Einstein called both “godlike and childlike.”
The first movement is extraordinarily massive and lengthy and the slow movement, unusually positioned after the minuetto, has been called an “effortless heartbreaker”. Though less famous than the G minor, our C-major quintet, composed at age 31 in 1787, the year of Mozart’s operatic masterpiece ‘Don Giovanni’, is considered to be his finest. It’s said to have influenced Schubert’s glorious Quintet in C with two cellos.
Leading up to the Mozart, we mark the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence of 1776, opening with a lighter 3-movement viola quintet from 1789 by the American-Moravian composer, organist, violinist and pastor Johann Friedrich Peter (1746-1813). It’s thought to be the earliest string chamber music composed in America.
The son of a Moravian minister, he was born in Holland to German parents, was educated in Germany, and came to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania with his brother in 1770, the year of Beethoven’s birth. In 1780, he moved to Salem, North Carolina, where he was ordained as a deacon in the Moravian church. A traveller in the 1760s wrote “Bethlehem’s music was like hearing Vienna in the wilderness.” It was J. F. Peter who brought the music of Haydn to America!
The Moravians, Protestant exiles from Bohemia and Moravia, came to America from Europe in the mid-1700s to escape persecution. They had a very strong musical tradition. Peter’s compositional output was exclusively sacred: anthems and hymns for church use, sometimes with instruments. The sole exception was his set of six graceful and melodious viola quintets.
Peter had industriously copied out and studied hundreds of scores of symphonies and chamber works by mid-18th century Mozart-era composers, which served him well. His style was chiefly influenced by Boccherini, who also composed viola quintets, and Haydn.
Breathtaking String Quintet Opus 111 in G by Romantic-era Brahms stuns with its rich symphonic texture, dramatically assertive cello opening, and its lively Hungarian Czardas.
Pentatonicmusic.com aptly describes it as follows: “Radiant, expansive, lyrical and utterly compelling…searching melodies woven into glowing, luxuriant textures, lyrical introspection with subdued sonorities, to youthful abandon in breathless, rhythmic passages…From the shimmering grandeur of the opening with an ardent, soaring theme from the cello, this work is a tour de force, full of buoyant high spirits.”
In the slow movement we encounter bittersweet melancholy, with notes of wistful yearning. It’s followed by a gentle, melancholy waltz, before launching into a jovial dance-like finale, which, as thelistenersclub.com says, “erupts in wild, frolicking Hungarian folk dances…the ultimate party music.”
A brilliant conclusion to a memorable concert of highest artistry!
Our concert is generously sponsored by Robin Smith, Associate Wealth Advisor, CIBC Wood Gundy, a most faithful supporter of Consortium Aurora Borealis over the many years, for which we whole-heartedly thank him!
The ballot prize, to be drawn at intermission, relates to the Mozart content of our concert. It’s appropriately for a pair of concert tickets to Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra’s performance of the stunning Mozart’s Requiem, held on Friday, March 6, 7:30 PM, at St. Paul’s United Church. Many thanks to the TBSO for providing this prize.
Details of our upcoming musical offerings are given below in the link to our new Season Brochure, which we invite you to peruse.
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.
For general information, please call (807) 768-7420.
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Next up, on Saturday, February 21, 2026, 7:30 PM, St. Paul’s United Church: Tamarack Wind Quintet In Concert: Colourful Dynamic Sounds!
This fine ensemble, made up of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra’s section wind players, will enchant with a specially-curated program of colourful, dynamic sounds in a variety of moods. The music is virtuosic, emotional, and incorporates a diverse array of musical styles and influences.
It includes Samuel Barber’s ‘Summer Music’, a staple of wind quintet repertoire. Our guests bring to the stage an exciting program of virtuosic music by iconic and highly-decorated North-American composers.
The concert opens with two fiery works that will heat up the mid-winter evening, and closes with a mammoth of a piece based on the chorales of J. S. Bach.
The Tamarack Wind Quintet has been performing in Thunder Bay and region for the past two decades, appearing on many local concert series. It has also performed education and outreach concerts for countless classrooms around the region, self-presented a number of projects at local venues, and is the recipient of multiple local and provincial project grants.
Heather Kilborn, flute; Gwen Buttemer, oboe; E-Chen Hsu, clarinet; Aviner Hardwick, bassoon; Damian Rivers-Moore, horn.
Sneak Peek! Exciting plans for our 48th Season.
A few highlights:
– Glories of the High Baroque: Bach & Vivaldi
– Boccherini and Brahms String Sextets
-French Baroque Flutes & Harpsichord
– Beethoven String Quartets
– Master-pianist Angela Park, returning in an all-Beethoven concert for the bicentenary of his death.
– Toronto’s award-winning, superstar Payadora Tango Ensemble, performing with joy, virtuosity, humour and intense passion, as they combine tango with elements of classical, jazz, and world music.
*Season Passes are again available at the same cost as before, no price increase.
Seven exciting concerts for $150, $90 students. That’s one free concert!
Be a Subscriber! Enjoy sublime music-making! Order your Season Pass now. Completely transferable.
Call 807 768-7420, speak to Hilda Postenka, or email us at: inquiries@consortiumab.org
Early Bird Incentive: Subscribe by June 30 and you’ll be entered in draw for a special prize!
We remind you that it is your contributions which help us to keep on bringing exciting music to Thunder Bay. Consortium Aurora Borealis is a registered, non-profit, charitable organization, very proud to be bringing top-calibre chamber music concerts to our community for an amazing 47 years!
I invite you to return for our next concert on Saturday, February 21 as we welcome the Tamarack Wind Quintet.
Thanks as ever to all of you for your interest in our musical offerings, your continued devotion, and your great support!
Warmly,
Elizabeth