The seats are empty, but Hodges Hall resounds with music.
Clarinetist Patti Beasley, cellist Priscilla Jones and pianist Jim Quitslund sit in a tight triangle onstage, rehearsing for the Dec. 15 chamber music concert. The three melodic lines intertwine and circle in fugue.
Violinist Pat Strange and cellist Barbara Deppe have finished rehearsing the other two works, but Quitslund, Beasley and Jones have stayed to dig into concert’s third piece, Beethoven’s “Trio for Clarinet, Violoncello and Piano in B-flat, Opus 11.”
“I love the way you go from pianissimo to forte con fuoco while I’m just rippling away,” says Quitslund to Beasley when the trio pauses, playing arpeggio down the keyboard to demonstrate the effect.
“You’re the water with our fire,” Beasley says. “But we didn’t make that entrance too well.”
Another try and Quitslund, Beasley and Jones agree it’s better.
The piece is hard to play, but so are the other two concert offerings – what Quitslund calls “large works that need a large space.”
The chamber works by Mozart and Beethoven were written early in the composers’ careers, when each was trying to earn the notice of his peers.
Mozart, who wrote the violin part in his trio for a beautiful Italian female virtuoso, may have been inspired by more than melody, Quitslund speculates.
“He composed it for her and himself,” Quitslund said. “He was so close to the deadline that it’s said that he improvised his own performance without notes.”
But when Mozart wrote out the score, says Quitslund, he produced a work to challenge even accomplished musicians.
“Every part is very demanding,” Quitslund said. “The speed alone presents a challenge.
“I first heard the Mozart sonata in 1956, and only now have found (in Pat Strange) a violinist I can perform it with.”
While the concert marks Strange’s first chamber music appearance Bainbridge since she moved here last March, the long-time music teacher is familiar with the stage.
Strange has played at numerous festivals and universities throughout the United States and Europe, and conducted the string orchestra at San Jose State University in California. Locally, she directs the junior division of the Bainbridge Island Youth Orchestra, a position she assumed earlier this year.
Strange’s expertise is reflected in the level of the chamber musicians overall, Quitslund believes.
“It’s really the first opportunity for these players,who come form many different parts of the community, to get together for such a serious exploration – and celebration – of this core repertoire,” he said.
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Moving beyond the usual venue of the Playhouse lobby, Bainbridge Performing Arts presents chamber music at 4 p.m. Dec. 15 in Hodges Hall at the Playhouse.
On the program: Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Trio for Clarinet, Violoncello and Piano in B-flat, Opus 11,” Beethoven’s “Trio for Violin, Violoncello and Piano in E Flat, Opus 1, No. 1” and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Sonata for Violin and Piano in B Flat, K. 454”
Tickets are $12, with reserved seating. Information: 842-8569.
