This week, Joel Rosenberg and the All Saints Chamber Group will give its final concert of the season. Formed a couple of years ago to perform on Rosenberg's Paradigm Concert Series at All Saints Episcopal Church, the chamber ensemble is made up in large part of musicians from Rosenberg's own American West Symphony.
"About 60 percent of the members are from the American West organization," Rosenberg told the Deseret News. The rest, he said, are local free-lance musicians.
Performing music from J.S. Bach to Hindemith, Rosenberg and the orchestra will be joined by pianist Jeffrey Price, cellist Julie Zumsteg and flutist Tussy King, along with Utah Symphony principal flutist Erich Graf.
"This will be the fourth time this year that Erich has performed with us," Rosenberg said. He added that Graf has collaborated on the Paradigm series for about a decade now.
Rosenberg, who will appear as both conductor and violist at Wednesday's concert, will open the program with Hindemith's "Trauermusik" ("Music for Mourning") for Viola and Strings. "Hindemith was a virtuoso violist, who wrote many works for viola," Rosenberg said.
"Trauermusik" was written in 1936 while Hindemith was in London for a concert. "He was going to perform his viola concerto," Rosenberg explained, "but while he was there, King George V died, and the concert promoter said that the bright, sunny concerto would be inappropriate to perform, given the circumstances."
So Hindemith locked himself in his hotel room and started composing. Six hours later, he emerged with the finished score of "Trauermusik," which he then took with him to his rehearsal. A few days later, the composer premiered the work on his concert.
Hindemith was a prolific composer who wrote a huge volume of works in all genres, not unlike J.S. Bach, whose Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major will also be on the program Wednesday. On the other end of the spectrum, however, is Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach, grandson of the great J.S.
"Few works have survived him," Rosenberg said. And not much is known about this Bach's life, either, other than that he lived from 1759 to 1845 and was an organist and "Kapellmeister" at the Prussian court in Berlin. One of the handful of his works that exists is the Trio in G major for Two Flutes and Viola, which Rosenberg will perform with Graf and King.
The rest of the program includes the "Molto Sostenuto" movement from Max Reger's Suite in G minor, op. 131, and Albert Roussel's Trio for Flute, Viola and Cello, op. 40.
The concert, which is free, takes place Wednesday, May 23, at 7:30 p.m. in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square.
E-mail: ereichel@desnews.com