Chamber Music

[Nov 18]

Opus Chamber Music favorites Matthew Miksak, bass-baritone, and Carole Barnes, piano, will present the last of Schubert's song cycles, a setting of twenty-four poems by Wilhelm Müller, Winterreise (Winter's Journey). The concert will take place on Sunday, November 18, 3pm at Preston Hall in Mendocino. Miksak and Barnes have previously performed another one of Schubert's song cycles together, Die Schoene Mullerin, and they are thrilled to perform together again for the November concert.

Schubert’s Winterreise is regarded as one of his greatest achievements and represents a devastating period in the composer’s life. “He was in the early stages of syphilis and was extremely depressed,” said Miksak. As he was coming to terms with his death sentence, Schubert stumbled across a book of Wilhelm Müller poems, which inspired the creation of this composition. “The first 12 songs have to do with the protagonist’s painful loss of a relationship with a woman he deeply loved,” Miksak explained. “In the second half of the song cycle, he begins to lose touch with reality and contemplates the purpose of life.” Schubert and Müller were contemporaries, and both died at a young age. Ironically, Müller hoped someone would set his poem to music, but he never met Schubert nor heard any of his compositions.

Barnes and Miksak are both frequent performers in the Mendocino county area. Barnes is an active chamber musician, and has performed at Mendocino’s Preston Hall, the Mendocino Art Center and at other public venues and house concerts in northern California. “Mendocino has a very active music community, which has provided many opportunities for music making with both instrumentalists and singers,” said Barnes. Miksak, a Mendocino local, performed the role of Don Quixote in the Gloriana production of The Man of La Mancha, as well as the role of the Toreador in Bizet’s Carmen during the 2010 Mendocino Music Festival.

All Opus Chamber Music concerts will be at Preston Hall, 44867 Main St, Mendocino. Advance single concert tickets are available for $22 online at symphonyoftheredwoods.org, at Harvest Market in Fort Bragg and Out of This World in Mendocino. Tickets at the door are $25. Attendees ages 18 and under are always free. For more information, please contact our general manager, Ellen Persa, at 707-946-0898 or symphony@mcn.org. Like Opus Chamber Music on Facebook at www.facebook.com/opuschambermusic.