The Kotuku Quintet presents Variations on a Quintet, 29 September

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The Kotuku Quintet return to the stage to conclude our Spring series with a programme of two Mozart quintets featuring different instrument combinations. The first work is the Largo-Allegro moderato movement of the Quintet in E-flat, K.452. This quintet was originally scored for piano and woodwind—oboe, clarinet , horn and bassoon but here we have an arrangement for piano and string quartet. Next we have Mozart’s String Quintet no. 4 K. 516 with Louise Webster playing the second viola part. This quintet featuring 2 violas, was completed in May 1787 during the final illness of Mozart’s father. The key of G minor has strong associations for Mozart with feelings of anguish and anxiety, as seen in the Symphony no. 40 and the Piano quartet K478. The addition of a second viola adds to the darker colour. The work is made up of 4 movements: I. Allegro II. Menuetto: Allegro III. Adagio ma non troppo IV. Adagio—Allegro The final movement unexpectedly launches into an ebullient Allegro in G major in stark contrast with what has come before. It has been described as ‘like turning on the lights and laughing after a perfectly convincing ghost story’. The Kotuku Quintet are: Simon Ansell (violin), John Seager (violin), Judith Gust (viola), Sally-Anne Brown (cello), Louise Webster (piano, viola)