Friday evening's recital by the ACJW Ensemble was part of Carnegie Hall's Vienna: City of Dreams Festival that will continue for the next several weeks and, according to the Hall's website, will focus on "symphonic and operatic masterpieces, chamber music, and lieder, as well as a sampling of new sounds that are emerging from this historic cultural capital." Accordingly, the program for Friday's event was entirely given over to the works of Viennese composers of different periods.
The evening began with a performance of the Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat, K. 452 (1784) by Mozart. The work, with its unusual combination of instruments (oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn and piano), was originally composed in honor of Prince Aloys Lichtenstein who was expected to attend the premiere and who had already announced his intention of forming a harmonie (wind band). Although, in the event, Prince Lichtenstein failed to appear at the concert in his honor, the work nevertheless marked an important development in Mozart's style. Before this, he had used winds in his concertos only to double the strings. It was only in this work that the winds came into their own as instruments with distinctive voices. Mozart would follow up this innovation in his Piano Concerto in G, K. 453 written shortly thereafter.
There followed the premiere of a new work by Georg Friedrich Haas entitled Anachronism (2013) that had been commissioned by Carnegie Hall for the Ensemble. It was scored for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, bass and piano. The composer was present at the performance and briefly came onstage to describe the work. His comments were very similar to those quoted in the program:
"Anachronism seems to be fundamentally different from my former pieces. A fast, monotonous movement in 11/8 lasting 14 minutes. Without pauses. Almost breathless.
"But the harmonic progressions, the developments of the chords are the same as I used before. The only - and fundamental - difference is that here, the former static processes have been broken into a significant metric pulsation."
The work was extremely difficult to play, especially for the wind instruments, in that there were no breaks at all during the length of the piece. The composer lightheartedly apologized to the musicians for this inconvenience. The work itself was fast and repetitious and very reminiscent of Steve Reich's style, a comparison Haas himself made to the audience.
The final piece was Schoenberg's fin de siecle masterpiece Verklarte Nächt, Op. 4 (1899) in its original arrangement for string sextet. This was the fourth time this season I'd heard this piece, most recently at Juilliard's Chamberfest last month, and this was without doubt the best rendition to date. The work itself shows clearly the influence of German romanticism on the young composer as well as his feelings for Mathilde von Zemlinsky, sister of the composer, whom Schoenberg had only recently met and would later marry. The music has a haunting nocturnal quality that captures quite well the spirit of Dehmel's poem.
As always, the Ensemble displayed a remarkable degree of musicianship in performing each piece on the program. One could not ask for better than this. Along with the Chamber Music Society, the Ensemble provides New Yorkers with their best opportunity to hear masterworks of the chamber repertoire played at the highest level.
As always, the Ensemble displayed a remarkable degree of musicianship in performing each piece on the program. One could not ask for better than this. Along with the Chamber Music Society, the Ensemble provides New Yorkers with their best opportunity to hear masterworks of the chamber repertoire played at the highest level.
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