String Quartet Opens Season With Tribute Works By Schubert, Brahms Will Be Played

Celebrations of the 100th anniversary of Franz Schubert’s birth and commemorations of the centennial of Johannes Brahms’ death are both influencing concert programming this year.

The Spokane String Quartet will open its 1997-98 season at The Met Tuesday with two major chamber works, one each by Schubert and Brahms.

Tuesday’s concert, sponsored by the Spokane Chamber Music Association, will begin with Schubert’s String Quartet No. 15 in G major and end with Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor.

The Schubert G major Quartet, even though it was written when he was only 30, is the composer’s last string quartet. Schubert’s participation as violist in the work’s premiere in 1828 was his last public appearance as a performer.

Brahms began his C minor Piano Quartet when he was only 21, but he laid it aside, finishing it in 1875 when he was 42. The work is not frequently performed. The English pianist, conductor and critic Donald Tovey once wrote, “The reasons for its neglect are simple and fatal: The quartet has a tragic ending and that tragic ending is the inevitable consequence of the work’s whole design.”

Joining members of the quartet for the Brahms work will be pianist James Edmonds, who has been a part of Spokane’s musical scene for 35 years. Edmonds, who grew up in Massachusetts and was educated at Oberlin College-Conservatory and the University of Michigan, joined the piano faculty of Eastern Washington University in 1962. He retired in 1993.

Edmonds has been soloist with the Spokane Symphony, played solo recitals in the United States, Europe and Australia, and performed with many major chamber music groups and as accompanist for singers and instrumentalists. In 1987, he received the Frederick Douglass Distinguished Scholar Award. Edmonds was recently named an honorary life member of the Washington State Music Teachers Association.

The Spokane String Quartet is made up of violinists Kelly Farris and Jane Blegen, violist Karen Walthinsen and cellist John Marshall - all members of the Spokane Symphony. Since its founding in 1979, the group has been the quartet-in-residence at Eastern Washington University.

In addition to the quartet’s performances in Spokane and the Northwest, the group has performed in Carnegie Hall, has toured northern Europe twice, and last year accompanied the Spokane Area Children’s Chorus in performances in Austria and Germany.

Next summer the quartet will accompany the Children’s Chorus on a tour of Great Britain.

Other concerts in the Spokane String Quartet’s 1997-98 season include:

Feb. 8: Baroque works with harpsichordist Ilton Wjuniski and viola da gambist Margriet Tindemans.

March 10: French music with violinist Andor Toth and pianist Stephanie Leon Shames.

June 5: Works from the Moldenhauer Archives and the Schumann Piano Quintet with pianist Sean Botkin.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Concert The Spokane String Quartet will perform at 8 p.m. Tuesday at The Met. Tickets are $15 ($12 for seniors, $8 for students), available at The Met, Hoffman Music, Street Music, G&B Select-a-Seat outlets or call (800) 325-SEAT.