Arts This Week: Dominic Giardino (Jan 24, 2024)
By Aaryan Balu
“Arts this Week” airs every Wednesday at 12 & 7 p.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM, hosted and produced by Aaryan Balu
This week, we chatted with Dominic Giardino, a clarinetist performing with Three Notch’d Road: The Virginia Baroque Ensemble. Aaryan asked him about one piece we’ll be hearing at their concert this weekend: Mozart’s Violin Sonata No. 26.
“The Violin Sonata actually is, in my opinion, the most interesting thing we’re going to be performing,” said Giardino. “The version that we’re playing is an arrangement for clarinet, violin, viola and cello, and is an anonymous arrangement that was published in 1799. The Violin Sonata itself was published in 1781. It was originally written in 1779, just before Mozart gets to Vienna, and is so indicative of what is best about Mozart’s chamber music. It’s enormously playful. Whoever did this arrangement in the 1790s was really able to capture so much of Mozart’s original spirit and really give a new voice to the piece.”
There are three opportunities to hear this program: Friday, January 26th at Trinity Episcopal Church in Staunton; Saturday, January 27th at Emmanuel Episcopal in Greenwood, and Sunday, January 28th at Grace Episcopal Church in Keswick. Mor information is available at tnrbaroque.org.
Arts This Week is supported by Piedmont Virginia Community College.