Tender close to summer chamber music series in Roland Park
Somehow, I missed out entirely on the Summer Chamber Music in Roland Park series last year. This year, the free presentation at Roland Park Presbyterian almost passed me by again, but I made it to the final program of the '09 series Tuesday night. The inviting, intimate church proved to be a hospitable place for music, and the good-sized crowd on hand was demonstratively appreciative of the efforts by familiar players from the area who collaborated on a very attractive program of Copland and Vaughan Williams.
The latter's early Piano Quintet is a fascinating work. The scoring alone is distinctive -- instead of the usual two violins, viola and cello with keyboard, this quintet has only one violin and adds double bass to the mix. The resulting darkness of sound gives the rhapsodic music extra weight. The composer doesn't sound here much like the Vaughan Williams we know; this 1903 piece has a lot of late-19th century German romanticism in it. But his voice nonetheless comes through powerfully at times, especially in the moody second movement and subdued coda of the finale. The performance was ...
persuasive. Violinist Tamara Seymour could have used more solidity of intonation and pianist Clinton Adams more subtlety of phrasing here and there, but they and their colleagues -- violist Jackie Capecci (founder of the series), cellist Gita Ladd and bassist Laura Ruas -- all put a strongly expressive stamp on the work.
After an unusually generous nosh offered to the audience at intermission, the program concluded with the original 13-instrument version of Appalachian Spring, which I think is the most affecting way to hear Copland's famous music. Joining the players from the Vaughan Williams item were violinists Melina Gajger, Nicholas Currie and Katarzyna Bryla; violist Julius Wirth; cellist Todd Thiel; flutist Kristen Winter-Jones; clarinetist David Drosinos; and bassoonist Bryan Young. Occasional roughness of ensemble aside, there was quite a vibrant glow to the playing, with particular tenderness reserved for the quiet close. The score sounded as fresh, evocative and earnest as ever.
Comments
This sounds like it was an _excellent_ concert -- maybe not the cream of the crop technically, but definitely a joy to experience! (Too bad that we apparently can't afford multiple performances for the ensembles ...)
RVW was always a fascinating guy, and he did a lot of music which makes you say, "HE composed that?!!" Honestly, he's very hard to pin down. (My absolute personal favourite, and something I'd consider to be "perfect" music in all dimensions: "The Lark Ascending.") I've never heard the quintet, but it sounds like Ralph is aping Arnold who was aping Johannes. ;^)
(The scoring was particularly smart!)
The chamber "Appalachian Spring" would be quite a refreshing way to experience the over-worn warhorse.
Posted by: Doug Halfen | July 22, 2009 11:14 PM