On Sunday afternoon I went for the second week in a row to Morse Hall to hear the 1:00 p.m. chamber recital, the first of three being given that day. The program began with a pair of original improvisations and then took a turn to the Romantic era with the piano music of Schumann and Dvořák.
The two improvisations that opened the program were entitled "Home Again" and "There is nobody asleep," both of which were coached by Noam Sivan. Although the program notes credited the first piece to bassist Sebastian Zinca and the second to harpist Caroline Bembia, Sebastian took the time to explain in opening remarks that neither he nor Caroline were composers in the traditional sense of the term. I took this to mean that both musicians had only devised the themes of their respective works and that all five musicians in the ensemble were responsible for the final pieces heard by the audience. The other three performers in the group, who collectively called themselves The Illustrators, were Stephanie Kwak, flute; Christian Lundqvist, percussion; and Chi Wei Lo, piano and synthesizer.
I had never really been conscious of improvisations as a separate genre until I attended performances at Chamberfest this year and last at which they were featured prominently. On the first occasion the tango music of Piazzolla was used as a basis while on the second the Broadway music of Sondheim and Gershwin served the same function. I've also heard members of the Juilliard415 perform a Baroque improvisation on an original theme. As I've been exposed to these improvisational performances, I've gained a much deeper appreciation of the difficulties the musicians face - they are forced to work without the aid of a score and are more of less required to come up with music appropriate to the theme even as they are playing it with the other members of their ensemble. This requires skills that go far beyond mastery of a given instrument.
The next work was Schumann's Piano Trio No. 3 in G minor, Op. 110 (1851). Though filled with the spirit of Romanticism, this piece is not often performed today. It was composed at a time when the composer, experiencing difficulties as conductor of the Düsseldorf Orchestra, turned to chamber music as a distraction and produced some of his most important, if little recognized, works including the two violin sonatas. They give the lie to critics' assertions that Schumann's music had begun to deteriorate in quality as his mental condition worsened. The trio is incredibly passionate but shows the composer in full control of his material from the wildly romantic opening right through to the playful ending. The piece was performed by Lyly Li, violin; Jennifer Carpenter, cello; and Yihui Liu, piano; it was coached by Aaron Wunsch.
After a brief intermission, the program closed with Dvořák's Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 87 (1889). The piece was written fourteen years after the Quartet in D major and might never have been completed at all if the composer had not been constantly goaded by his publisher Simrock. Surprisingly, it's not one of Dvořák's more famous chamber works even though it's a wonderful statement of the Romantic ethos he had acquired from Brahms. The second movement lento has a sweet haunting character while the third movement contains elements of the East European folk tunes Dvořák would soon develop more fully in his much better known "Dumky" Trio. In contrast, the final movement, almost symphonic in its sound, is so powerful it fairly sweeps the listener along to the work's conclusion. I had heard the quartet performed over a year ago at a Jupiter Players' recital and, though it was played very well, had not been able to sufficiently appreciate it; but I enjoyed it much more this time around. The musicians, coached by Daniel Phillips of the Orion Quartet, were Katherine Liu, violin; Natasha Galitzine, viola; Julia Henderson, cello; and Ian-Joe (Joey) Chang, piano. All four did an excellent job but I was most impressed with Joey Chang's work on piano.
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