Young stars spread their wings

The solo items come first -- tomorrow and Sunday [June 5 and 6] in the Recital Hall. Tickets are a modest NT$500. The First Violin Sonata and Violin Partitas Nos: 3 and 4 are on the Saturday, and the Second Violin Sonata and Violin Partitas Nos: 1 and 2 on the Sunday.

The concertos follow next Friday. As well as the two Violin Concertos (BWV1041 and 1042), there is the Concerto for Two Violins and the Concerto for Three Violins. For these Pikayzen will be joined by Taiwanese violinists Lin Hui-chun (林暉鈞) and Li Chao-hsui (李肇修). Accompanying the soloists will be the Academy of Taiwan Strings, under the leadership of Cheng Sy-joun (鄭斯鈞).

Beethoven's string quartets stand at the summit of the genre, and Taipei's Musica Daphne is currently engaged in giving public performances of all of them. The quartet is led by the NSO's Concert Master, with the principal cellist of the TSO demonstrating the amicable relationship between the two orchestras by taking the cello part.

On June 12, the quartet will give the second in this series of concerts. They will play the Opus 18, No:2 and the Opus 59, No:2 (quartets number 2 and 8 in the complete Beethoven sequence). These are masterpieces by any standard, the first lively and charming, as well probing, the second the middle one of the three quartets dedicated to Count Razumovsky, Beethoven's Russian patron at the time. They're very different works, the latter far more intellectual, technically demanding and often vigorous and even ruthless. There aren't many other places in the world where you could hear such music for so little -- NT$300 to NT$500.

Even more reasonable in price, and playing more popular music -- though, even so, some of the finest music ever penned -- are the youthful Lin Shih-wei Clarinet Quintet (林士偉單簧管五重奏) (Recital Hall, Tuesday, June 8). Their program is indeed extraordinary -- the three most famous quintets ever written for the line-up of clarinet plus string quartet. The Mozart and Brahms Clarinet Quintets are among the most beautiful works of music known, and to add to these Weber's quintet for the same grouping is virtually to make a clean sweep of the form. This might be the one concert in the month to give a try if you really don't know too much about the classics. Tickets are a mere NT$200 and NT$300. Of one thing you can be certain -- with one light-weight but technically demanding work, plus two masterpieces, the musical feast on offer could hardly be finer.