The program at yesterday evening's ChamberFest recital at Paul Hall began with New York Notes (1982) - a piece written for violin, cello, flute, clarinet, piano and percussion - by Charles Wuorinen. The work made use of a conductor though I'm not quite sure why one was required for such a relatively small ensemble. On his website, Wuorinen explained the structure of the work as follows:
"Its twenty minute length is divided into a conventional three-movement succession, with fast movements outside and a slow movement inside. The tempo, however, is always the same, so that the differing speeds contained in the work are all expressed through note-value alterations rather than pulse changes."
The next piece was the Introduction and Allegro (1905) by Maurice Ravel. I've never been overly fond of this work which was composed for harp, flute, clarinet, two violins, viola and cello. The work's ethereal tone to me lacks the depth found in the composer's other pieces of chamber music. The musicians here did give an absorbing performance, though, one that completely captivated the audience. Caroline Bembia played particularly well on harp and received a huge round of applause.
The program closed with Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (1899) for two violins, two violas and two cellos by Arnold Schoenberg. Based on a poem by Richard Dehmel, this is a very early work by the composer and one I've heard often over the years, most recently earlier this season at a recital at Mannes. A few months ago, however, I heard an archived broadcast on WQXR of Simon Rattle leading the Berlin Philharmonic in an arrangement for orchestra. That rendition was so outstanding that it's been difficult for me since to listen to the original arrangement for sextet. Which is not to suggest that yesterday evening's performance wasn't extremely well executed. These students' playing was uniformly excellent and fully realized the pathos Schoenberg had woven into the music. The work was coached by Fred Sherry.
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