THE BOX IS EMPTY’S TOP PICK:

Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra – Chamber Music. The Chapel, Seattle, WA. February 2, 2013, 2:00 p.m..

This week the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra and the Oceana String Quartet bring a concert full of tremendous chamber music featuring Schoenberg’s early masterpiece for strings, Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4.  Composed just before the turn of the 20th century, Verklärte Nacht, which means Transfigured Night, is characteristically romantic of the young Schoenberg.  It will, for those who only think of Schoenberg in dodecaphonic terms, perhaps sound surprisingly warm, and will, to anyone’s ears, be absolutely beautiful.  Presented by SMCO in its original six-player version, Varklärte Nacht should sound as intimate as the poem on which it is based, which describes a moonlit walk shared by a man and a woman.

Alongside the Schoenberg on Saturday’s program will be music for strings by Mendelssohn, music for brass by Bozza, and music for winds by Nielsen.  The concert presents a rare opportunity to hear chamber music by various instrument groups.  Not only will it be possible to hear Mendelssohn’s influence on later music, but also to how wonderfully suited each composer’s style is to each chamber ensemble.  Whether is be Bozza’s writing for brass, Nielsen’s for winds, or Schoenberg’s writing for string’s, this brilliantly programmed concert offers the opportunity to hear this musical as personally as it should be heard.  In the words of Transfigured Night

Look, how brightly the universe shines!

Splendour falls on everything around,

you are voyaging with me on a cold sea,

but there is the glow of an inner warmth

from you in me, from me in you.

GO LISTEN!

* * *