So we have a question for you: What do Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joaquín Turina and Felix Mendelssohn have in common?
Well, if you’re like us, the fact that Mozart is one of the three clues says that it has something to do with classical music. If not for his inclusion, the other two names would have flown right over our heads, too. (Insert hand gesture.)
And in case you didn’t know, all three are in fact famous classical composers, so that’s one thing they share and another is that each one will have a piece of theirs performed at the Concord Community Music School on Friday.
“The music school is a great opportunity,” Brad Dumont, manager of performance operations for the music festival and also a teacher at the music school, said. “There’s no better place to bring music than to a place where people are learning music and it’s a great space for a chamber concert.”
So if you’re interested, you better make plans to go because it’s the only New Hampshire Music Festival concert to be played in the capital city this summer. The performance is part of the festival’s 603 series, where it breaks away from its base camp in Plymouth and travels to other parts of the state. Consider yourself lucky, Concordians.
“It’s nice to touch base with other places around the state,” Dumont said. “And it’s the only time to see this quartet play these pieces in Concord.”
The Montblanc String Quartet will fill you ear canals with the gentle sounds of Mozart, Turina and Mendelssohn on this fine summer evening (assuming you are reading this on Friday) for a cost of only $20 per person. Now we know it can’ be considered stealing if you actually pay for it, but this is as close as you’re going to get without having to spend a night in the slammer. They will perform Mozart’s Divertimento in D Major, KV 136, Turina’s Prayer of the Bullfighter and String Quartet in D Major, Op. 44, No. 1 by Mendelssohn, which were guessing doesn’t mean a whole lot unless you’re a musician. So let’s put it this way, it’s what the experts would call classical music.
“We picked the chamber music repertoire,” Bernard Di Gregorio, the viola player in the quartet, said.
The quartet consists of Julie Fox Henson and Kathy Langer on violin; Di Gregorio holding down the viola and his wife, Andrea Di Gregorio, is the group’s cellist. They live in states like Iowa, Utah and West Virginia, but spend the summers in New Hampshire to be part of the music festival lineup, and have been for a long time.
“This is our 27th year with the music festival,” Bernard Di Gregorio said. “We have all known each other for a very long time.”
Di Gregorio (the Bernard one) grew up in Boston and played quite a number of shows in New Hampshire as a younger musician, including some performances in Concord.
“It’s exciting to be back in Concord,” Di Gregorio said. “Anything we can do to further the musical growth of the community.”
Tickets can be purchased through the Silver Center Box Office at 535-2787 or nhmf.org. It’s a general admission show and names will be printed on the tickets for those who can’t pick them up at the box office. And those attending the concert can get a great deal at the Common Man (25 Water St.) for dinner before the show. Anyone seated by 6 p.m. will receive a buy one entrée and get 50 percent off a second.
For more info, visit the music festival’s website.
