Red Cedar Chamber Music brings Brahms masterpiece quintet to main stage concerts

IOWA CITY — The Brahms piece Red Cedar Chamber Music is playing this weekend is no lullaby.

The Clarinet Quintet in B minor is to die for, according to guest clarinet player Christine Bellomy, 54, of Iowa City. She fell in love with the 42-minute work at age 10, after hearing it on a cassette tape, and has been pining to perform it ever since.

“It was like a kid going to Disney World and finding out that there's a magical kingdom,” she said during an Oct. 11 performance for the Iowa City Study Club at Parkview Church.

“I had no idea that these sounds existed in the world. For me, it was personally transformative,” she said, adding that she didn’t even know what a clarinet was when her mother suggested she play it in the school band.

“I used to, for the next decade, play that little cassette every time I got dressed for a concert, trying to get those sounds in my ear. Could I ever be so wonderful? Oh, I just wasn't sure.”

The answer is “yes.”

And audiences will get to experience all of the artistry poured into Red Cedar’s “Retracted Retirement” main stage ticketed concerts Saturday night at First Presbyterian Church in Cedar Rapids and Sunday afternoon at Congregational United Church of Christ in Iowa City.

The Brahms, written for clarinet and string quartet, is built around four movements, each with a different color, yet woven through the same tapestry.

The first movement, Allegro, rises to a fury, giving way to a sweet violin duet, then a quiet conclusion. The second movement is a pastoral Adagio with the clarinet in the spotlight, buoyed by lovely low undertones from the violins, viola and cello. The third movement, Andantino, has a lilting feel, dancing lightly over the notes. The final Con moto movement has a melodic, almost hymn-like quality, with solo lines throughout its quiet, somber tone.

What drew Bellomy to this piece?

“Something about the colors of the clarinet with the strings and the melodic lines,” she said. “And I love being blended with them rather than just a soloist on top of them.”

The concert’s title, “Retracted Retirement,” is a nod to Brahms’ similar reaction to hearing a clarinet. He had retired in 1890 at age 57. But after hearing clarinetist Richard Muhlfeld perform, Brahms picked up his pen and wrote what Carey Bostian of Red Cedar calls “some of his greatest works,” including the Clarinet Quintet in B minor, “considered a masterpiece of composition and central to the clarinet repertory.”

So why did it take 44 years for Bellomy to be able to cross this off her bucket list?

“It's expensive, and it's so hard,” Bostian said. He and Bellomy were studying at the University of Iowa at the same time. “If we had done it as students, we wouldn’t have been able to have enough rehearsal time.”

But as soon as he and wife Miera Kim were invited to become the directors and core musicians for Red Cedar Chamber Music in 2015, they began “planning and building towards this,” Bostian said. “It’s unbelievably fun. We’ve had a great time rehearsing.”

He’s also enjoyed performing again with violinist Katie Wolfe and violist Donghee Han, as well as with Bellomy and Kim.

Bellomy is over the moon with the experience.

“Are there big enough words to say ‘awesome,’ ‘amazing’? I can die after next Sunday, because I’ve fulfilled my bucket list. I’m not planning to die after playing this,” she quickly added. “But if it were to happen, I’d be like, ‘Check.’ I have wanted to play this for so long, and (her quintet partners) have been so amazing.

“What a gift, not just to do it once, but 12 times,” she said, referring to all of the ensemble’s performances around Eastern Iowa, as well as the upcoming series finales.

Rounding out the program is Alexander Krein’s “Jewish Sketches” in three movements, bringing a klezmer feel with a dance in the second movement that Bellomy played with a smile, followed by more mournful moments in the final movement.

“It's so much fun to play the Brahms and get the kind of reaction from the audience,” Bostian said. “And then just lighten it up with the Krein. We can't not be smiling about it.“

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