Friday’s tenth chamber program was unusual in two respects. First, the same musical team – pianist Stephen Prutsman and the St. Lawrence String Quartet – remained onstage for the entire program – and the final of the two works offered was a rare chance for a multimedia chamber experience – the first I’ve enjoyed in this series.
But first, we heard Austrian-American composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s uncommon Piano Quintet in E Major: a rich, post-romantic marvel. Korngold was part of the influx of brilliant European Jewish musicians to America in the 1930’s, thanks to Nazi persecution. The erstwhile child prodigy settled in Hollywood, writing swashbuckling movie scores like Robin Hood and The Sea Hawk. It’s a shame his film work kept him from writing much chamber music, because this piece is something special. Prutsman coped spectacularly with his very demanding piano part, and the trusty St. Lawrence crew sounded especially juicy.
Then it was back for an all-around happy go at providing background music for an old silent comedy film: Sherlock Junior, starring Buster Keaton. Pianist Prutsman happens to be a pretty classy composer too, and one of his passions is old movies … so why not have some fun mixing the two?
The result was sheer fun for a pianist and string quartet. The music mimicked the old ragtime and melodramatic kitsch styles of the silent era – with a wealth of added effects: whistles, kazoos and other funny noisemakers. It was Keystone Cops and Little Rascals all over again. It was fully interactive, too – the audience was encouraged to cheer the hero, boo-hiss the villain, and misbehave in other ways. A cellphone bleep or two would’ve fit right in for a change. The players themselves led the pandemonium, having an absolute ball in the process. Every face onstage wore a big grin. And I’d bet my mother that there was nary a non-smiling face on the other side of the stage, either.
