This season's chamber concerts are exotic, fanciful, unorthodox

Since the Intermezzo Chamber Music Series started, themes have been an integral part of the series' concerts. This year is no exception.

"The thread that's running through the season this year is exoticism," David Porter told the Deseret News. Porter and his wife, pianist Vedrana Subotic, founded and run the Intermezzo series. Porter is also a member of the Utah Symphony's first violin section.

There are countless works that have exotic elements from which he could have chosen — from music of the baroque operas with fanciful locations to the style bending works of today — but Porter decided to take a more direct, and also unorthodox, approach.

"For years I've wanted to do a concert focusing on Persian folk music," he said.

But nothing happened until he was introduced to some Iranian musicians now living in Utah. "We recently met Mohsen Zayernouri, who plays several Persian string instruments. He showed them to us and played some of them." And that planted the seed in Porter's mind to build the current Intermezzo season around musical exoticism.

However, audiences will have to wait until later in the summer to hear this music. Zayernouri and the Persian ensemble AVA will be featured on the series' final concert on Aug. 9.

Intermezzo kicks off its concerts Monday, with a recital by Porter and Subotic. "This will be our first duo recital on our series. We're pretty excited about it," Porter said.

They will play sonatas by three of the greatest composers of the 19th century — Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann and Ludwig van Beethoven. "The Mendelssohn (F major Sonata) isn't played much, but the music will be familiar to anyone who knows his Violin Concerto and 'Midsummer Night's Dream,' " Porter said, adding that he was introduced to the piece by his teacher at Indiana University, Miriam Fried.

In the vein of exoticism, the second concert (July 12) features Béla Bartók's String Quartet No. 5. "It ties in nicely to our theme because there are folk and modal elements in it."

On the following concert (July 19), Intermezzo will premiere a new work by Barlow Bradford, "Song of the Lark," which baritone Michael Chipman will sing accompanied by the composer at the piano. The piece is based on Willa Cather's novel of the same name, which follows a woman's artistic development from her youth to adulthood. It was inspired by Cather's own career.