This Sunday, March 26th at 7:30pm at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Winnipeg Chamber Music Society (WCMS) will be presenting their fourth concert of the 2022-2023 Season.

This concert will feature Miklós Rózsa’s Sonata for two violins, Dvorak’s Op.87 Piano Quartet and Brahms’s passionate and lyrical 2nd Cello Sonata in F.

The cellist who will be performing the Brahms sonata is the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Cellist Yuri Hooker. Hooker is very much looking forward to performing the piece, as he explains, “He (Brahms) wrote the sonata at a very happy moment...it was a summer holiday for him, he was living out in the Alps, and spending some time with some friends close by, and writing some incredible music. And I think that beauty and gushing kind of warmth is really present in this piece.”

The cello sonata has a real sense of lyricism, and there are large impassioned sections that Brahms writes for both the piano and the cello. As Hooker says, “One of the discoveries I had when I was preparing for this Sunday’s concert is realizing that in the score there is only one fortissimo in the whole piece…in the third movement. There is a lot of forte, but he never really marks anything just massive…which is odd because you think of this piece as this huge epic work for the cello and you definitely have to play loud...but in his conception of it, it seems that it is in a more lyrical vein.”

The second big piece that is on Sunday night’s concert is Dvorak’s 2nd Piano Quartet in E flat. In regards to the cello writing, Hooker is a big fan. “Dvorak was very generous to the cello, with his famous Concerto…it’s probably our biggest concerto…and in the symphonies as well, he gave us a lot of great material. In this particular piece, there is a big solo for the cello at the beginning of the second movement…given that it is in a really good range on the instrument, it sings out very, very well. There is a lot for the cello and everyone else to do in this piece. It is real tour de force for all four players… that’s for sure.”

Hooker is a true lover of Dvorak’s music. “There is a flavour in Dvorak’s music that is different from Brahms. There is something in Dvorak’s music…partly it’s the folk element...partly it’s that he uses rhythm and rhythmic impulse very differently from Brahms. These are things I really appreciate about Dvorak’s music.”

The other work that the (WCMS) will be performing is Miklós Rózsa’s Sonata for two violins. WSO Concertmaster Gwen Hoebig and Associate Concertmaster Karl Stobbe will be the featured performers on this work. Rózsa is known for his epic film scores, but his chamber music is often full of Hungarian flavour and unique harmonies. This will surely be an outstanding performance by two of Winnipeg’s best violinists.

The Winnipeg Chamber Music Society’s 4h concert of the season is this Sunday, March 26th at 7:30pm at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. For more details and tickets visit the WCMS website.