GUEST COLUMN: A concert of beauty and delight

Editor’s note: This column invites administrators of local arts and literary organizations to write, in their own words, about aspects of upcoming events.Audience members attending this next concert in the Chamber Orchestra of the Springs’ series will be fortunate to hear two of Colorado Springs’ oldest chamber music treasures together under the baton of Thomas Wilson.For 21 years, the Hausmusik quartet has entertained patrons by presenting small ensemble music in the intimate setting of local homes and small venues in Colorado Springs and Woodland Park. The current Hausmusik members — Rebecca Lee and Cynthia Robinson on violin, Sarah Richardson on viola and cellist Jennifer Yopp — are also well-known as members of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic.Last season, audiences were delighted to discover Swiss composer Ernest Bloch’s Concerto Grosso No. 1, an exquisitely lovely piece for piano and strings. They will be even more entranced by the Concerto Grosso No. 2, one of the few pieces in the concert repertoire to feature a string quartet with orchestra.The musical form of this selection, the Baroque concerto grosso, was Bloch’s reaction against the atonality and the avant garde that were the rage in the early 20th century.The people of Linz, Austria, immediately recognized their good fortune when Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart arrived in their town in late 1783. He was invited to give a concert, and one can only imagine their delight when not only did Mozart agree to the concert, but also composed the Symphony No. 36 in C Major, K.425 (now known as the “Linz Symphony”) for the occasion. It premiered on Nov. 4, 1783, and it was a huge success.It promises to garner the same reaction this weekend.The concert opens with the surprising and genuinely innovative “Tell My Fortune,” a commissioned work by composer Michael Daugherty. Patrons of the Colorado College Summer Music Festival were entertained by his chamber music composition “Dead Elvis” some years ago.This piece, which, in essence, is a concerto for orchestra, is even more fun and exciting. “Tell My Fortune” visits the world of gypsy fortunetellers. The audience is drawn into this compelling music that describes gazing into crystal balls, reading palms and dealing tarot cards.The entire orchestra is a soloist in this work with a dramatically passionate cello solo, a relatively rare double-bass solo, a haunting duet of flute and alto flute, mysterious fanfares, Eastern and Middle-Eastern melodies, tuned crystal glasses, wind chimes, bowed vibraphone and more.—Charlease Bobo is the string personnel manager of the Chamber Orchestra as well as a past president of its board of trustees.