There are several reasons those enamored of — or curious about — classical music may want to take in the Rossini Quartet performance at the Reichhold Center for the Arts Wednesday evening.
First, string quartets are not a dime a dozen on St. Thomas. Even the Classics in the Garden Series has had only one in its 13 years (the Canadian St. Lawrence String Quartet, in 1996).
Second, this particular quartet does not consist, as do most, of two violins, viola and cello Rather, it comprises two violins, cello and double bass.
Third, the music the ensemble will perform was written by the composer for whom the quartet is named — Gioacchino Rossini. And he wrote it in 1804 at the age of 12 in the space of three days for the four instruments represented.
Fourth, this performance has a unique place in the annals of classical music in the Virgin Islands. It is an official part of the 44th Casals Festival — which otherwise takes place this year, as it always has done, in San Juan. A joint presentation of Festival Casals and the St. Thomas-based Birch Forum, it came about mainly because a member of the Birch Forum board, Ricardo Charaff, and his wife have close ties to Puerto Rico's classical music movers and shakers. (They also were instrumental in arranging for the Birch Forum to transport most of the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra to the Reichhold Center last fall.)
Wednesday's program will consist of Rossini's Six Sonatas for Two Violins, Cello and Double Bass, written on commission for a young Italian merchant named Agostino Triossi. Keep in mind that in 1804, this was the popular music of Italy's educated classes. Incongruous as it may seem, the project was in many ways comparable to a precocious pre-teen electric guitarist hanging on a holiday weekend with some folks not a lot older than he and putting in some intense hours to crank out six cuts for a CD.
Reminiscing years later about the accomplishment, Rossini said the sonatas were played doggedly by Triossi on bass, one of his cousins on first violin, another cousin on cello and Rossini himself — the most musically adept of the four — on second violin.
Rossini, of course, went on to bigger and better things, at least for a while. Born in 1792, he moved in his 20s to Paris, where he became a favorite of the court — until the king was ousted in a French revolution. He returned to Italy but 18 years later moved back to Paris, where he died in 1868. He made his mark, of course, as a composer of operas — although he stopped writing them at the age of 37. Far and away his most famous opera is "The Barber of Seville." Others include "William Tell" (the overture of which has been emblazoned on our brains as the theme of "The Lone Ranger" radio and television series and a perennial part of the Rising Stars Youth Steel Orchestra repertoire), "Otello," "Tancredi," "La Cenerentola" and "The Thieving Magpie."
The six Rossini sonatas have been compared to works by another child prodigy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Whether the six pieces — in order, in G Major, A Major, C Major, B-flat Major, E-flat Major and D Major — were intended to be performed in sequence at a single sitting is anybody's guess, but they do build in intensity. The first three have a standard mix of allegro, andante and moderato movements; the fourth and fifth have more lively allegro vivace sections, and the sixth opens with an allego spiritoso and concludes with a movement called "Tempesta" that is "heralded by brief flashes of lightning and raindrops before it bursts open as it attains mock-dramatic fury," according to one set of notes.
The Rossini Quartet consists of four Polish musicians whose credits are mostly European. Krzysztof Penderecki, the Polish composer/conductor who has served as music director of the Casals Festival for the last eight years, will conduct the ensemble.
First violinist Konstanty Kulka has performed as soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony, Leningrad Philharmonic and Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam. He is a leading interpreter of Penderecki's Violin Concerto, with many performances under the maestro himself. Second violinist Piotr Plawner has performed throughout the stages of Western and Eastern Europe. Cellist Rafal Kwiatkowski won the Young Concert Artists European competition in 1998 and advanced to the World Finals of the Young Concert Artists competition in New York last year. Double bassist Andrzej Mysinski is music director of Warsaw's Concerto Avenna, a group of soloists specializing in Baroque music.
While Kulka and Mysinski, like Penderecki, are seasoned veterans, Plawner and Kwiatkowski are a couple of 20-something up-and-coming achievers who would have fit right into Rossini's circle of associates.
Wednesday's performance begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25, with seating in the covered section only. The Reichhold itself is the only ticket outlet, but you can make charge-card purchases by telephoning the box office at 693-1559. A fair amount of tickets were still available Tuesday noon. But if you should delay deciding to go until the covered section is sold out, you can still make a bid for access to the open-air seats just behind.
