Strings Artists Will Join Allegro For Evening Of Mozart

Allegro delves into the heart of classical chamber music with an all-Mozart program at The Met Tuesday.

There is no noise more sublime than music by the sly guy from Salzburg, Austria.

Supplementing the sounds of fortepiano and oboe from artistic directors Beverly Biggs and David Dutton will be a passel of strings.

Violinist Ingrid Matthews, violist Margriet Tindemans and cellist Wayne Smith, all specialists in styles of centuries past, will participate in various configurations from duo to quartet.

Matthews, a Baroque violin specialist, has performed with many of the top early music ensembles, including Tafelmusik, Zephyrus and the Bach Ensemble. She was the first-prize winner in the 1989 Erwin Bodky International Competition for Early Music. Matthews concertizes regularly with harpsichordist Byron Schenkman and is the music director of the Seattle Baroque Orchestra.

Tindemans’ specialization in bowed instruments reaches even farther back. She is an internationally recognized expert in Renaissance and Medieval performance, playing viola da gamba, rebec and Renaissance and Baroque viola. She spent 10 years with the early music ensemble Sequentia.

Tindemans also resides in Seattle, where she is on the faculty of the University of Washington and leads the Medieval Women’s Choir, a group specializing in music by and for women of the Middle Ages.

Smith is no stranger to Allegro audiences. He regularly graces the stage at performances with Baroque or modern cello.

Two of Mozart’s quartets will be on Tuesday’s program: his Oboe Quartet and the Piano Quartet in E-flat, K. 493. Both call for violin, viola and cello, with the oboe or piano making the quorum.

In 1781, Mozart was invited to Munich to write an opera, so during the time he was preparing Idomeneo for performance, the Oboe Quartet came to life.

The Piano Quartet was penned in Vienna in 1786, in the month following the opening of “Figaro.” It is an especially playful piece, considering some of the financial and family hardships Mozart was experiencing at the time.

Other configurations for the concert include the Sonata in F for violin and pianoforte, K. 377 and a violin-viola duo in G major, K. 377.

Both of these are from the 1780s, so are mature Mozart (as mature as he got). In the Sonata, he gives the melodic material an unusually thorough treatment, which is fascinating to follow.

Mozart wrote duets for a variety of instruments, which unfortunately don’t get much of a hearing outside of practice rooms.

They are, however, almost as much fun to listen to as they are to play.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: “VIVA MOZART!” presented by Allegro Location and time: The Met, Tuesday, 8 p.m. A preconcert talk will be given at 7. Tickets: $8, $10, $12.50 and $15