Mannes Chamber Music: Ibert, Paganini, Webern, de Falla, and Mendelssohn

Sunday evening's chamber recital at Mannes' Goldmark Hall began with two pieces for guitar and violin, Jacques Ibert's Entr'acte, taken from incidental music he had written in 1935 for Pedro Calderón's El médico de su honra, followed by Niccolò Paganini's Sonata No. 6 in A minor, Op. 2.  Though the latter was only published in 1820, it had actually been composed a number of years earlier while Paganini was conducting a clandestine affair with a Florentine noblewoman known only as "Signora Dida," herself an amateur guitarist.  This setting no doubt accounts for the sonata's intimate character that shies away from the flamboyant displays of virtuosity found in the Caprices.

The next performances were of two sets of vocal works.  First were Three Songs for soprano, E flat clarinet and guitar, Op. 18 (1925) by Anton Webern.  These were written shortly after Webern fully adopted Schoenberg's twelve tone system and are exceptionally complex.  The students (soprano Danielle Dean, clarinetist Yoonah Kim and guitarist Matthew Wiseman) who performed these songs on Sunday evening should be given credit for taking on works that involve such extreme shifts in range.  The other set of songs were three selections - Asturiana, Cancion and Nana - from the Siete canciones populares españolas (1914) by Manuel de Falla.  These were authentic folk melodies, portraying a wide spectrum of emotions, taken from both the northern and southern regions of Spain and were written after the composer's return to that country following the outbreak of World War I.

The final piece on the program was the Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 49, No. 1 (1839) by Felix Mendelssohn.  Next to the Octet, this is the best known of Mendelssohn's chamber works, possibly because of its deeply romantic bias, one that is not at all characteristic of the composer's work.  I think the prominent part given the piano also has a great deal to do with its popularity.  It's a very moving work when played properly and was given an excellent performance at this recital.