Unexpected Debussy best in Newtown
By Jim Pegolotti
NEWS-TIMES MUSIC CORRESPONDENT
NEWTOWN - As I entered Edmond Town Hall on Sunday afternoon to attend
the seasons' final concert of the Newtown Friends of Music, I met a friend
from Danbury. We both agreed that a good reason to come to hear the program's
featured group, the Biava Quartet, was that the String Quartet in F Major
by Maurice Ravel was to be played.
Well, guess what? Before the four young instrumentalists came onstage,
a program change was announced by Ellen Parrella, the Friends' president:
The Ravel work would be replaced by the string quartet by that other famed
French impression is composer, Claude Debussy.
But now the good news: The Debussy proved to be the best part of a three-part
program that it shared with a string quartet by Joseph Haydn and the Clarinet
Quintet in B minor by Johannes Brahms.
The Biava Quartet is only eight years old. The members - violinists Austin
Hartmann and Hyunsu Ko, violist Mary Persin, and cellist Jacob Braun -
are all graduates of Boston's New England Conservatory. Undoubtedly some
works affect the soul of such a group more than others, and certainly
it seemed the warmth and variety of textures of Debussy were much to their
liking. It was a performance that ebbed and flowed with gorgeous sounds.
Especially enjoyable was the second movement where pizzicato pluckings
surrounded the impressionistic buzzing of insects. Violist Persin excelled
here, as did cellist Braun in the agitated beginnings to the fourth movement.
Believe me, as the final sounds from Debussy gently left the strings,
you could only say: Can any recording come close to the beauty if such
a live performance?
Haydn's String Quartet in G minor opened the program. As do so many of
Haydn's works, this one has a name: "The Rider." The name is
due to a listener's sense of "horseness," especially in the
final movement where brisk violin playing soared above pulsing rhythmic
patterns in the lower strings. Many aspects demanded the lightest of touches
here and violinists Hartmann and Ko nicely met the expectations.
Perhaps there could have been an overall more energetic approach to the
entire work. Still, one cannot deny that a Haydn quartet always has great
appeal when so nicely performed.
After intermission, clarinetist Pavel Vinnitsky joined the four to perform
another unique work in the output of a major composer - the Brahms Clarinet
Quintet, opus 115. As much as Brahms had enjoyed the use of the clarinet
in his orchestral writings, not until his golden years did a new clarinet
virtuoso, Richard Muhlfeldt, inspire him to write both a clarinet trio
and this quintet. And, as is often the case in Brahms' chamber works,
they are long, in this case nearly 40 minutes.
A clarinet, with its variety of tonal textures, can never hide among strings,
but it surely can work well with them. Brahms gives the clarinetist every
opportunity to show his wares.
Vinnitsky provided beauty of tone with excellent technique, particularly
in the slow second movement, where the clarinet is a solo instrument.
Did I even hear something of a Klezmer tradition in some of the playing?
In the last movement, some of the Hungarian side of Brahms helped move
along an interesting theme and variations.
Was it a good performance? My sense is that it was, and yet there were
times I had to really concentrate on listening, lest my mind wander, as
it did once or twice. I observed that not all the performers tapped their
feet during the more rhythmic sections. Also, that the two violinists
clearly had learned bowing technique from different teachers.
Well, I won't blame my mental meanderings on the fine instrumentalists.
I'll blame my having missed the lecture on "How to Benefit From Lengthy
Brahms."
|