Imeldas Trio Adds A Little Kick To String Quartet Concert

Now here’s some chamber music you can really get pumped for. The Imeldas, an oboe, horn and piano trio, will be joining the Spokane String Quartet for the final concert of their regular season.

Susan Laney Spector, oboe, Margaret Wilds, horn, and Linda Siverts, piano, chose to pay tribute to the queen of fashion footwear, Imelda Marcos, in naming their group. This because they bought matching shoes before their first gig.

Friday’s concert will be a reunion of sorts for the Imeldas. All three women were principals with the Spokane Symphony until Spector left to join the pit orchestra at the Metropolitan Opera four years ago.

In addition to performing as an ensemble, each Imelda will be featured in a selection with members of the Spokane String Quartet.

The oboe selection will be Mozart’s Oboe Quartet in F major. One of many Mozart works crafted with a particular musician in mind, this piece was dedicated to Friedrich Ramm, a virtuoso oboist in Mannheim. The oboe part is technically quite demanding, and cross-training shoes would be appropriate for jumping through the hoops.

The strings will join Siverts for the Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57, by Dmitri Shostakovich. This 1940 work won the Stalin prize and helped bring Shostakovich, in and out of good graces with the Communist Party, back into the fold. Fitting in with the current trend, steel-toed work boots would complement this selection well.

Wilds’ feature is the Sonata No. 2 in F major for Horn and String Quartet by Luigi Cherubini, a contemporary of Beethoven. This piece was written in the heyday of handhorn, before valves were added to ease the attainment of all of the chromatic pitches.

This is a short work, but a jolly showpiece nonetheless, and so calls for an impish play on something more staid in the footwear department - let’s say a brightly colored saddle shoe.

Together, the Imeldas will perform one of the few pieces written for their combination of instruments, Carl Reinecke’s Trio in A minor, Op. 188. Like the Mozart Serenades, this is salon music of the highest caliber. It is a rich and warm work that hints at formal evening wear, something with a heel.

It’s a shoo-in that the group will add a lighter transcription or so to the program, assuming they don’t buckle under pressure. It’s the lace they could do.

In conjunction with the concert, the Imeldas are collecting women’s and children’s shoes to distribute to needy women and children in the region. Please bring shoes to the concert or drop them off at The Met between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Friday. The donated footwear will be distributed through the Vanessa Behan Crisis Center and Anna Ogden Hall.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: STRING QUARTERT The Imeldas and the Spokane String Quartet will perform at 8 p.m. Friday at The Met. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for seniors or students, available at The Met, Hoffman Music, Street Music and through G&B Select-a-Seat outlets (325-SEAT).