We had a fine concert yesterday. The Salem String Quartet played the dark and dramatic Quartet no. 8 by Shostakovich in honor of those who died during the pandemic, and Haydn’s “Sunrise” Quartet to look forward to a better future after Covid. In addition, the last movement of the great Schubert Quintet – with me playing the second cello part! I was invited to do that partly because the Quartet wanted one more movement to add to a somewhat short concert, and partly to celebrate the 20th anniversary of my becoming president of Camerata Musica. I greatly enjoyed playing Schubert with them, and do feel honored. The Quartet played an encore, a Hungarian Dance by Brahms. They too were very happy to have a concert again!
There were about 55 people there, much smaller than our normal attendance. Several reasons: (1) some may not have wanted to come masked, showing proof of vaccination; (2) some may have felt that even with those precautions, it was too risky; (3) we made no publicity for the general public; (4) the Scottish Rite Center may have been too hard to find! The audience were mostly our core group; those are the people we most wanted to have a concert for! Many told us how glad they were to come to one of our concerts again.
We are scheduled to have a concert by the Portlandia Brass ensemble on November 14. Whether we can, and where, are still undecided. Watch this website!
— George Struble