Burton Bradstock Festival | Chamber Concert

Sam Reider Quintet for accordion and strings
Hans Gál (1890-1987) Clarinet Quintet Op. 107
W.A. Mozart (1756-1791) String Quintet in G minor K.516

Sam Reider’s Accordion Quintet fizzes with jazzy, West Coast energy from its very first notes. Hans Gál settled in Edinburgh after arriving as a refugee in the late 1930s. The lyricism of his Clarinet Quintet is rooted in the Vienna of his youth. Mozart’s G minor Viola Quintet, was completed in May 1787, mere days before the death of his estranged father. The rich but dark sonority of two violas and labyrinthine undertones are reflected in Wolfgang’s final letter to the gravely-ill Leopold, ‘I have formed during the last few years such close relations with this best and truest friend of mankind [death] that his image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is indeed very soothing and consoling!’ – a reconciliation that perhaps inspired the remarkable transformation in the quintet’s light and vivacious finale.