Last minute adjustments to the piano’s tuning were being administered as I entered New Tabernacle Fourth Baptist Church for this evenings offering by local “supergroup,” Charleston Music Fest. With the tuning properly tweaked, all systems looked green and a palpable air of anticipation covered the audience. While Ellen Dressler Moryl gave a few opening remarks I looked around the church, grateful to see several very young faces in attendance. But I was also a bit dismayed that the church was just a little over three quarters full. When musicians of this caliber gather, magic happens. Magic that is worth seeing, hearing, and supporting. Okay, off my pedestal and on to the show!
Ludwig van Beethoven’s Trio for violin, cello and piano, Op. 1, No. 1, an early work (if you couldn’t already tell…), shows that the young composer had absorbed a great deal from studying the works of Haydn and Mozart. But as the opening Allegro blasts its way into life, one can hear the seed of a much rawer vision, and an earthier majesty. It settles into a playful romp that occasionally lets its exuberance run rampant. Pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky played up the Mozart connection with great sensitivity, allowing a certain delicacy of touch that created ample breathing room for the sections where Beethoven unleashes more power, as if to let us know that he’s not Mozart. The Adagio cantabile’s sweetly singing melody came from Lee-Chin Siow with just the slightest hint of hesitancy. These musicians know these works so, so intimately, and take such obvious joy in their performance, it was hard to tell if this was a deliberate choice, or if something else was afoot. Beethoven began thumbing his nose at convention by including the Scherzo: Allegro assai, a jocund movement that skips and laughs at the end of each phrase, showing off the dark, warm, and cream-like tone cellist Natalia Khoma effortlessly creates.
A few minutes into the Finale: Presto, an audience member fainted, and our musicians broke off the movement as we waited for EMS to arrive. He walked out of the church with assistance, which I’ll take as a good sign. Our thoughts are with you!
Perhaps it was this intrusion of “life” into the proceedings…a flood of compassion mixed with nervous energy and concern that altered everyone’s focus. When our musicians returned to the stage and began the last movement again, everything had changed. A slightly quicker pace underscored the nervous energy and deepened the longing during less driving sections of the movement. Any marginal hesitancy I might have noticed before had been replaced by a growing sense of purpose that called forth our musician’s “A” game. With stars.
Tchaikovsky’s Four Seasons came next. With their hearts on their sleeves (how else can one play Tchaikovsky?), they dove into Snowdrop, tossing the melody throughout the trio with darkly superb assurance. Harvest ranged from a boisterous sprint to an easy roll that showcased not only Lee-Chin Siow at her finest, but also the perfection of communication between all three musicians. Natalia Khoma responded in kind during Autumn Song, enveloping the audience with a viscous warmth of tone, pure in its Romanticism. Christmas danced a happy waltz, leaving me wanting trio arrangements of all twelve months.
By the end of Four Seasons, it was clear our trio knew something special was happening, and boy, were they having fun! The opening scrapes and complex rhythm of Ástor Piazzolla’s Verano Porteno set flight a flurry of sensual delights, daring one not to be moved. The closing number, Lost Tango, for violin, cello and piano, written by Mr. Vynnytsky, was astonishing! It’s complexity was balanced by a sure clarity of purpose, and the melody was utterly thrilling. Ending the show with such a bang proved cathartic, and the audience leaped to their feet. A marvelous experience! And I hope the gentleman who fainted feels better very soon.
