Concert concludes quartet's season

The Harrington String Quartet will take listeners on a full journey in the final concert of its 30th season.

"I hope we'll laugh together at the end of Haydn's 'The Joke,' be swept away by Schumann's 'Clara' and leave filled with hope after Schoenberg's 'Transfigured Night,'" said violinist Rossitza Jekova-Goza.

"This is one of the best concert programs we've put together," she said. "The music in it ... represents the full spectrum ... of chamber music. There will be something to resonate with everyone."

The concert is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2525 Wimberly Road.

The highlight, and conclusion, of the program is Arnold Schoenberg's "Verklarte Nacht," or "Transfigured Night," Opus 4 for string sextet. Musical guests Catherine Consiglio, violist, and Andrew Kolb, cellist, will join the quartet for the piece.

Consiglio is the associate professor of viola at Wichita State University. Kolb recently moved to Amarillo; his wife, Amy Goeser Kolb, is the principal oboist with Amarillo Symphony.

"Transfigured Night" is based on a poem by Richard Dehmel about a couple on a moonlit walk. The woman, who is pregnant with a child from another man she did not love, confesses her pregnancy to the man with whom she is walking, and whom she does love, and awaits his response.

"This piece is extremely expressive and romantic," said violinist Keith Redpath, who noted that, in that regard, "Transfigured Night" differs from Schoenberg's later works.

"It is rich and lush and emotional."

Friday's concert opens with a short, lighthearted piece, Franz Joseph Haydn's String Quartet in E-flat major, Opus 33, No. 3, nicknamed "The Joke."

"This works is full of smiles," Redpath said. "It is a nice, fun appetizer before the two main courses."

The second work is Robert Schumann's String Quartet in A major, Opus 41, No. 3.

The work is known as the "Clara" quartet, as Schumann wrote it as a sort of love song for his wife, Clara.