BRATTLEBORO — The Westminster Quartet will perform in concert Friday, Jan. 27, with proceeds from ticket sales benefiting the Brattleboro Music Center's Music School.
“Johann Sebastian Bach: The Musical Offering,” is set for 7:30 p.m. at St. Michael's Episcopal Church, at 16 Bradley Ave. Tickets are $30 for patrons, $15 general admission, and $15 for students. BMC students under 18 will be admitted free.
The Westminster Quartet is made up of three BMC faculty members - violinist Peggy Spencer, flutist Alex Ogle, and cellist Zon Eastes - and guest harpsichordist Gregory Hayes. The Quartet performed often in the 1990s and the early years of the 21st century, frequently in conjunction with the New England Bach Festival.
The Quartet is performing a Bach work created in 1747 as a “musical offering” to King Frederick II of Prussia, after the composer was asked to improvise on a theme of the king's devising.
The completed work is a strange assemblage of ricercars (fugues) and canons, with a trio sonata for flute, violin, and continuo as its centerpiece. The work, one of Bach's most erudite, has fascinated and perplexed musicians.
Peggy Spencer, who for many years served as concertmaster and soloist with Blanche Moyse's New England Bach Festival in Marlboro, will be performing this work with her husband, cellist Zon Eastes, who conducted choruses and orchestras on both coasts, and for over 20 years conducted the Windham Orchestra.
Ogle is Senior Lecturer in Music and Director of the Performance Lab in Chamber Music at Dartmouth College, and has participated in the Marlboro and New England Bach Festivals, while Hayes has taught piano and harpsichord and coached chamber music at Dartmouth College since 1991, and has participated often in the New England Bach Festival, the Marlboro Music Festival, and the Mohawk Trail Concerts series.