Arts

Sarasa Ensemble explores the viola at BMC

BRATTLEBORO — In Sarasa's next program as season guest artists of the Brattleboro Music Center on Friday, Jan. 17, at 7.30 p.m., the Cambridge-based group focuses on the warmth of the middle voice: the viola.

The instrument's tenor range binds the top voice with the bottom, a sort of sandwich filling that brings out the best flavor in an ensemble. It is the instrument that many composers preferred to play in chamber music settings, especially J.S. Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Dvorak, among others.

Both Mozart and Brahms composed some wonderful viola parts - relishing the beauty of its timbre in their string quartets, sextets, serenades, symphonies, operas, and masses - and Sarasa will present two of their string quintets in the January concert set, performed on gut strings and with historical bows.

The concert, “Viola, Viola! Mozart & Brahms Viola Quintets,” will feature Mozart's String Quintet No. 4 in G minor, K. 516, and Brahms' String Quintet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 111, with Rodolfo Richter, Susannah Foster, violins; Jenny Stirling, Jason Fisher, violas; and Timothy Merton, cello.

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