Omega Ensemble Performs Beethoven, Gershwin and Brahms

On Sunday afternoon at the Park Avenue Church the Omega Ensemble gave the second of their semiannual "Gift to the City" recitals, this one featuring works by Beethoven, Gershwin and Brahms.  It was a fairly short affair, only an hour in length with no intermission, but for all that an enjoyable respite on a Sunday afternoon.

The program opened with Beethoven's Cello Sonata No. 4 in C Major, Op. 102 No. 1 (1815) performed by cellist Andrew Janss and pianist David Kaplan.  Though not the best known or most often played of Beethoven's chamber works, the two sonatas that make up the Op. 102 share an important place in the composer's canon - along with the piano sonata, Op. 101, they mark the beginning of Beethoven's late period.  Just as the composer's middle period was precipitated in 1802 by the onset of his deafness, so the late period began when that same disability had grown so acute that he he had entirely lost his hearing (it was in 1818 that he began keeping the "Conversation Books") and suffered as well from an illness he termed an "inflammatory fever."  In addition, Beethoven was engaged in a bitter custody dispute over the guardianship of his nephew Karl.  As a result of all this, Beethoven had temporarily withdrawn from most society, but he did nevertheless find time to enjoy a few idyllic summer months as the guest of Count Peter Erdödy and his wife Anne Marie to whom the Op. 102 is dedicated. While with them, he spent time with his fellow guest, the distinguished cellist Josef Linke for whom the sonatas were actually written.  The transition from middle to late period is immediately noticeable in the concision with which Beethoven now composed.  Although there are still moments of intense emotion, particularly in the second movement, the expansiveness that marked the middle period works has entirely disappeared along with anything not vital to the integrity of the work.  Beethoven in fact referred to the C major as a "free" sonata because it consists of only two movements in which the composer has tightly compressed his musical ideas in order to give them more power.

The next work to be performed was the Gershwin's Three Preludes (1926), here arranged for clarinet and piano and performed by clarinetist Mark Dover and pianist David Kaplan.  The music is immediately identifiable as vintage Gershwin to anyone who's heard the Rhapsody in Blue.  The work has at its heart the composer's signature jazzy blues sound that has grown so familiar over the years it could well be a soundtrack for New York City itself.  It's difficult for us today to comprehend how shocking this music, originally composed for solo piano, must have sounded to the early twentieth century audience who were in attendance when Gershwin premiered all three preludes at the Roosevelt Hotel in 1926.  Originally written for solo piano, the piece has since been orchestrated and arranged for any number of instruments.  That played here, for clarinet and piano, was to me much for evocative than the original for piano alone.  The entire work ran only a little over five minutes in length and consisted of a slow blues movement, marked andante con moto e poco rubato, flanked by two fast outer movements, both marked allegro ben ritmato e deciso.

The program concluded with Brahms's Clarinet Trio in A Minor, Op. 114 (1891) performed by Mark Dover, clarinet; Andrew Janss, cello; and David Kaplan, piano.  Every admirer of Brahms knows the story of how the composer, intent upon retirement after having completed his String Quintet, Op. 111, took up his pen once again after having heard virtuoso clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld in a performance with the Meinin­gen Orches­tra.  The most famous work that came out of Brahms's collaboration with Mühlfeld was the Quintet, Op. 115, but the composer also produced two Sonatas, Op. 120 as well as the instant trio.  The trio has never received as much attention as the other pieces and has often been referred to as both "academic" and "austere."  Like many of Brahms's compositions it at times seems too carefully thought out and lacking in spontaneity. Brahms himself may have been somewhat aware of this when he described his style as "thinking logically in music."

I thought the quality of the musicianship at this recital even higher than on the previous occasion in May when I had last heard Omega members play.  All three performers were exceptionally talented and, equally important, were able to function very well together as an ensemble.