Academy String Quartet with Linda Morton-Fisher, Bassoon

Join the Academy String Quartet for an afternoon concert in the beautiful setting of Zion’s Lutheran Church. This wonderful concert space features a soaring ceiling, tiled floors, gorgeous stained glass windows, lots of air and light – you feel good the moment you step inside. Cost is $20 per person, reserve online or you may also pay at the door.

The program begins with with one of the best-loved Haydn string quartets, nicknamed The Rider (or The Horseman) – the final movement of the quartet sounds like a wild dash on horseback. The opening movement of the piece is full of boisterous good humor. In addition, there is a charming minuet and a slow movement that has the first violin acting like an operatic soprano.

If you came to one of the Academy String Quartet’s fall concerts, you heard Part 1 of Thomas Roncevic’s Bulgarian Suite. He has taken folk tunes from the different ethnographic regions of Bulgaria and woven them into pieces that live half in folklore, half in the world of classical music. In Part 2, the Quartet will play music from the mountainous southern region, Rhodope, from the southwest, Pirin, and from the northwest area around Bulgaria’s capitol city, Sofia, called Shopluk.

The last piece on the first half is a movement for bassoon and string trio by principal bassoon of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Bernard Garfield. Or, now, the long-retired principal bassoon, as Linda informs us that Garfield is going strong at age 100! The piece is a lively Allegro, quite bouncy and entertaining.

The second half of the concert features music by Mozart and his French contemporary, Francois Devienne, sometimes called “the French Mozart.” Our Mozart piece is the wonderful Duo in G major for violin and viola. It has a remarkable origin story that you will learn about at the concert. Devienne was a virtuoso performer on both flute and bassoon, and unsurprisingly wrote extensively for both instruments. The Quartet in C major for bassoon and string trio was published in a set of three such works in 1798. Devienne gives all four instruments interesting things to do, but the bassoon is obviously the star of the show.