Chamber Music wraps up season with 'stunning' pieces

Chamber Music Hilton Head will present its final concert of the season on Monday at All Saints Episcopal Church. The program will feature a sonata, a duo and a trio and, says founder Bob Shamo, "they are among the most stunning pieces in their respective genres."

Performing in this program are CMHH regulars Melissa Barrett, Tristan Lehnert and Asako Kremer, violinists; Yvonne Johnson, violist; Angela Maleh, cellist and Jean Shamo, pianist. British pianist Daphne Spottiswoode will also make her second appearance with the ensemble.

The program will open with Beethoven's "Kreutzer" Sonata, a departure from the composer's classic style of Haydn and Mozart. The sonata begins with unaccompanied violin and presents it and the piano in a mix of complex and thrilling roles.

Whereas Beethoven sketched, fleshed out and revised, the early 20th century Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu wrote rapidly and never second-guessed himself. His resulting catalog is huge and includes several sets of madrigals for two and three instruments.

To conclude this concert, the group will perform a dramatic piano trio by another Czech composer, Bedrich Smetana. Smetana is known today mainly for his orchestral tone poems.