MARION — Program four of this year’s Buzzards Bay MusicFest featured a piece for a type of harp that no longer exists and a section of a piece played with only four notes.  

The chamber music concert at the 23rd annual Buzzards Bay MusicFest  showcased three groups of classical musicians at the Fireman Center for Performing Arts at Tabor Academy on Saturday, July 13.

The show started with a performance of Gyorgy Ligeti’s piece titled “Six Bagatelles.”

Composed in 1953, Ligeti’s piece focuses on making the most out of a limited number of notes. The first portion “Allegro con Spirito” is played with only four different pitches. A wind quintet of Jennifer Gunn on flute, Bhavani Kotha on oboe, Jonathan Gunn on Clarinet, Richard Beene on Bassoon, and James Thatcher on horn brought the piece to life on the Tabor Academy stage.

Harpist Rita Costanzi introduced Claude Debussy’s “Danse sacree et danse, profane” with a historical anecdote. Debussy composed the piece after being commissioned by instrument manufacturing company Pleyel in 1904 to promote the company’s chromatic harp, which featured two intersecting rows of strings, which Costanzi compared to having both black and white keys on a piano.

The chromatic harp is no longer in use, as it lost favor to the double action pedal harp like the one Costanzi played in Marion. Before playing, Costanzi informed the crowd that although the chromatic harp died out, Debussy’s piece lives on.

Debussy’s piece is intended for a full orchestra, but the version played in the Buzzards Bay Musicfest was modified for a group of six musicians. Costanzi was accompanied by Eric Tanner and Tobias Chisnall on violin, Claudio Jaffe on Cello, Erina Goldwasser on viola, and Nic Tsolainos on Bass.

Costanzi said that while her harp performance didn’t change much, her colleagues adapted to the reduced number of performers by having to choose which “voice” to represent at moments when multiple performers with their instrument were previously called for.

Following a short intermission, the final group took the stage to play Antonin Dvorak’s Piano Quintet No.2, Op. 81. Concertmaster and Artistic Director Charles Stegeman took to the stage to play violin for this piece alongside David Allen Wehr on Piano, Rachel Stegeman on violin, and John Walz on cello.

Stegeman says he enjoys playing chamber music because it feels less prescribed. Without a conductor, the small groups of musicians must depend on each other to create a coherent performance, allowing for more freedoms and deeper personal connections.

Stegeman has been artistic director every year since the first Buzzards Bay MusicFest. He said that many of the musicians enlisted to perform in the event are people he has met around the world through his musical career, some of whom he has been playing with for decades. He said that he has been playing Dvorak’s piece with Allen Wehr on and off for about 30 years. 

Stegeman said that the festival has improved and matured over the years, as many of the returning musicians have built a repertoire with one another.

Pam Riffin, of Weston has attended the Buzzards Bay MusicFest almost every year since it began, and described the event as “a little gem in little Marion.” She said that she was impressed to see world class musicians gathered in the small seaside town. 

The fifth and final performance of the Buzzards Bay MusicFest will feature an orchestra with music composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Edward Grieg, and Johannes Brahms on Sunday, July 14 at 2.pm. at the same location. Admission is free, but donations are encouraged.

Programs one through three took place from Wednesday, July 10 to Friday, July 12 featuring an orchestra, chamber music, and swing music dedicated to Duke Ellington respectively.