St. Andrew’s Bach Society opens its 2016 summer season on Sunday with a concert that delves into the creative process of one of the most celebrated composers of all time.
The society will present two sides of two of Franz Schubert’s most famous works: “The Trout” and “Death and the Maiden.”
Schubert was inspired to write the chamber pieces — String Quartet in D minor, “Death and the Maiden,” and Quintet in A major for violin, viola, violoncello, double bass and piano, “The Trout” — from the songs of the same names that he composed earlier.
Schubert wrote the art song “Death of a Maiden” in 1817 and in 1824 based the String Quartet in part on the theme of the second movement. The piece is Schubert’s testament to death after learning he was seriously ill and dying. The piece was published in 1831, three years after he died at 31.
“The Trout” takes its fourth movement from a set of variations on Schubert’s 1819 song “Die Forelle” (The Trout). The quintet also was published posthumously in 1829.
The Bach Society chamber ensemble will perform the songs and the chamber works back-to-back, which Artistic Director Ben Nisbet said is not uncommon in a concert setting.
Nisbet, a violinist, will join several musicians from the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, the UA Fred Fox School of Music and True Concord Voices & Orchestra for the concert, which begins at 2 p.m. Sunday, June 5. Nisbet, who curates the Bach Society season, will perform on “Death and the Maiden” but will be in the audience for “The Trout,” which he said is one of his favorite works.
“That is one of the most spectacular pieces of music ever written in this genre,” he said. “It is an experience to hear it. There’s nothing like it.”
Also on the stage Sunday: TSO concertmaster Lauren Roth, in-demand violist Melissa Hamilton, TSO assistant principal cellist Ian Jones, University of Arizona bass professor Phil Alejo, UA pianist Michael Dauphinais and soprano Erika Burkhart, a regular soloist and chorister with True Concord.
St. Andrew’s Bach Society in recent years has regularly featured voice in its chamber concerts as a way to diversify its programming, Nisbet said.
“I didn’t want to just have string players and pianists,” said Nisbet, who first featured vocalists in the 2013 summer series when the group presented the concert version of Purcell’s Baroque opera “Dido and Aeneas.” “To be able to present vocalists keeps it diverse.”
With the growing popularity in vocal music in Tucson — driven in large part by True Concord Voices & Orchestra and the Fred Fox School of Music — Nisbet said there is no shortage of superb vocal talent from which to draw.
