Grand Music for Winds & Strings

OCTOBER 5, 2025

_@4:00pm

Kristin Lee, violin

Jan Grüning, viola

Ilya Finkelshteyn, cello

Rachel Calin, double bass

Randolph Bowman, flute

Dwight Parry, oboe

Christopher Pell, clarinet

Christopher Sales, bassoon

Lisa Conway, French horn

You’ll hear Spohr’s Nonet, a lively piece that brings together winds and strings in a rich, joyful soundscape; a charming Mozart quartet written to spotlight the oboe; and a spirited trio by Dohnányi, filled with Hungarian rhythms and Viennese flair.

Our season begins with energy and elegance as violinist Kristin Lee returns to Linton, joined by musicians from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and faculty members of UC’s College-Conservatory of Music.

Whether you’re new to chamber music or a devoted listener, this concert offers a festive and welcoming start to the season.

This concert is approximately 1.75 hours, including intermission.

Single tickets will be available after July 15th.

Program Notes

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791)
Quartet for Oboe and Strings in F Major, K. 370

Mozart’s composed his Oboe Quartet in early 1781 during a pivotal moment in his life. That winter, he had traveled from Salzburg to Munich to oversee the production of his opera Idomeneo for the Elector Karl Theodor, a commission that proved a great personal and professional success. Freed from the stifling atmosphere of Archbishop Colloredo’s service in Salzburg, Mozart enjoyed Munich’s livelier cultural climate and renewed his acquaintance with Friedrich Ramm, the celebrated oboist of the Mannheim orchestra, famed for his remarkable tone and expressive range. For Ramm, Mozart composed this unusual chamber work for oboe, violin, viola and cello—a rare combination at the time. Like his later works for clarinet and horn, the quartet reveals Mozart’s gift for showcasing the unique personality of a wind instrument while surrounding it with the supportive warmth of strings.

Although written for chamber ensemble, the work takes on the character of a concerto. Its three-movement design—fast, slow, fast—echoes the structure of solo concertos rather than the four-movement string quartet model. The opening Allegro is a compact sonata form that is strikingly monothematic. The oboe presents a lilting, ornamented melody, soon imitated by the violin and woven into buoyant counterpoint. Mozart cleverly introduces a brief fugue subject that reappears in the recapitulation, adding contrapuntal brilliance to the movement’s close. Throughout, the cello largely provides harmonic foundation, leaving the upper voices to sparkle in agile interplay with the oboe.

The brief Adagio in D minor shifts into darker territory. Its measured pace and somber lyricism highlight the oboe’s plaintive qualities, as though the instrument were singing an operatic aria tinged with grief and longing. Mozart quickly dispels the shadows with the finale, a lively Rondeau. Here the oboe leads with buoyant themes in 6/8, evoking rustic dances and even, at times, the piping of a folk instrument. The quartet culminates in a famous passage where the oboe plays in duple meter against the strings in triple—a shimmering cross-rhythm that must have delighted both Ramm and his audiences. By turns playful, expressive and virtuosic, this quartet remains one of Mozart’s most enduring tributes to a single instrumental voice.

Ernő Dohnányi (1877 – 1960)
Serenade for String Trio in C Major, Op. 10

Ernő Dohnányi composed his Serenade for String Trio in 1902 when he was just 25, and the work quickly established standing as one of the most successful modern examples of the genre. Although Dohnányi is often described as a conservative composer in the Brahmsian tradition, he was an extraordinary pianist and a central figure in Hungarian musical life, mentoring younger contemporaries such as Bartók and Kodály. The Serenade embodies his distinctive voice: a late-Romantic richness of harmony and counterpoint, yet free from the folk-nationalist idiom so prevalent in Hungarian music of the era. Instead, Dohnányi cultivated a cosmopolitan elegance, blending Classical forms with Romantic lyricism, creating chamber works that remain among his most admired compositions.

The five-movement work recalls the tradition of the 18th-century serenade or divertimento, designed to entertain but crafted here with notable sophistication. It begins with a lively Marcia, a marching tune of rustic flair that reappears at the work’s close to provide symmetry. The second movement, Romanza, is more intimate: a tender viola melody floats above pizzicato accompaniment, interrupted by a passionate outburst before returning to lyrical calm. The Scherzo bursts forth with bristling energy in a tightly constructed fugue, offset by a more songful trio section. These two ideas—fugue and trio—are ingeniously combined when the scherzo returns, a testament to Dohnányi’s contrapuntal skill.

The heart of the work is the Tema con variazioni, a set of deeply expressive variations on a melancholy hymn-like theme. Each variation explores a different facet of the theme’s character, from brooding to lyrical, building to a powerful climax before subsiding. The finale, a buoyant Rondo, brings the Serenade to a joyful conclusion, eventually recalling the opening Marcia in a satisfying cyclical design. With its balance of charm and craftsmanship, the Serenade demonstrates Dohnányi’s mastery of chamber music and remains one of the finest 20th-century contributions to the string trio repertoire.

Louis Spohr (1784 – 1859)
Grand Nonet for Winds and Strings in F Major, Op. 31

Louis Spohr was among the most celebrated musicians of the early 19th century: a virtuoso violinist, conductor and composer whose fame rivaled that of Beethoven during his lifetime. His Grand Nonet in F Major, written in 1813, is one of his most enduring works. The piece was commissioned by the wealthy music patron Johann Tost, who requested a work for an unusual ensemble: four strings—violin, viola, cello, double bass—combined with five winds—flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn. Spohr rose to the challenge brilliantly, giving each instrument its own voice while creating a remarkably balanced and colorful chamber texture. The nonet became so successful that it essentially established this combination of instruments as a new genre, inspiring many later composers to follow suit.

The opening Allegro launches without preamble, the violin presenting a bright theme immediately taken up by the winds. Spohr develops this material throughout the movement with flowing lyricism and occasional bursts of virtuosity. The Scherzo movement is shadowy and rhythmically playful, with two contrasting trios at its center—one lighthearted, the other more serious. A beautifully expansive Adagio follows, one of Spohr’s most lyrical slow movements, with song-like lines passed seamlessly between strings and winds.

The finale, marked Vivace, brims with energy and good humor. Its buoyant main theme dances through the ensemble, highlighting different instrumental colors in turn. Throughout the nonet, Spohr reveals a remarkable command of texture, ensuring clarity even when all nine voices combine. The result is chamber music on a grand scale—rich, inventive and irresistibly charming. More than two centuries after its premiere, Spohr’s Grand Nonet continues to stand as a landmark of early Romantic chamber music, admired both for its originality and for its enduring appeal.