Viva la Musica welcomes Charles Nath and Marita Zimmer playing Brahms and Schumann quintets at the Auditorio de La Ribera in La Floresta, Friday, November 9, 7 p.m.
Johannes Brahms’ Quintet in B minor for Clarinet and Strings, op. 115 will be performed by Nath on clarinet, accompanied by Luis Enrique Sanabria and Maria Geraci on violin, Carlos Paul Rondon on viola and Juan Carlos Chourio on cello. This mature romantic work was composed by Brahms for the brilliant clarinetist Richard Muhlfeld and first performed in 1891. The four movements, Allegro, Adagio, Andantino and Con moto have a pastoral feeling of peaceful melancholy, with the occasional burst of wild Gypsy music.
Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E flat Major, Op. 44 is being performed with Zimmer on piano, along with the string quartet of Sanabria, Geraci, Rondon and Chourio. In 1842, Schumann wrote this piece for his wife, Clara Wieck, who was one of the most distinguished pianists of her day as well as a composer. In this monumental piece, Schumann pairs a piano and string quartet, practically inventing a virtuosic new genre.
Nath, from Denver, Colorado, studied at San Francisco State University and earned his master’s and doctorate from the State University of New York in Stony Brook. Formerly of the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra, he is a professor in the Music Department at the Universidad de Guadalajara (UdG).
Zimmer, originally from Germany, studied with Konrad Richter, a well-known pianist and professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart. She resides in Guadalajara and teaches at the UdG Music Department.
Tickets, 300 pesos, are available at Lake Chapala Society ticket area on Thursdays and Fridays, 10 a.m. to noon, the Auditorio from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Diane Pearl and Mia’s Boutique.