Dr. Wadsworth, before he introduced Friday afternoon’s program X to his capacity audience at the Memminger, informed us that one of his current crop of festival critics had described his humor as being of the “cornpone” variety … a quality that I’ve never observed, in the many years I’ve covered this series. Irreverent or un-stuffy? Sure. Politically or socially incorrect (at least by today’s oversensitive standards)? Occasionally. Cornpone? Never. This man has forgotten more about chamber music than most of us will ever know. Beneath his facade of casual, jocular informality lies an inexhaustible knowledge of his subject — and, no matter how he hams things up onstage, his deep sophistication and depth of insight shine through.
First up were a couple of fetching duet numbers, each sporting the bassoon artistry of Peter Kolkay. Joining him for Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas Brasilieras No. 6 were Tara Helen O’Connor and her magic flute. This two-movement jewel, along with the remaining eight works of his “Bachianas” series, was inspired by the music of J.S. Bach. They’re a pungent and intriguing blend of Bachian polyphony and his native Brazilian music. The first ‘Aria’ movement had each instrument going its own way melodically — but you could hear how they connected, particularly in terms of counterpoint. Together with the final ‘Fantasia,’ this tricky music struck me as a Brazilian take on Bach’s Two-Part Inventions. BTW, this would be a good place to tell you that O’Connor has just become a member of the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society — just one of many reasons to come hear her ravishing playing when she’s in town.
The second work was Au Quai, by Elliot Carter: the dean of American composers, who turns 100 this year (and he’s still composing!). Kolkay’s partner here was Daniel Philips, on viola. The work wasn’t terribly unlike the preceding piece, except that the musical language was far more abstract and occasionally dissonant. But it made for an absorbing musical conversation, peppered with lots of fun — especially when our two virtuosi played musical tit-for-tat, firing saucy single-note salvos at each other.
Then it was time for some special piano playing, courtesy of Pedja Muzijevic. Wotta versatile keyboard whiz: we heard him just last program as a glittering harpsichordist in the Bach Brandenburg No. 5 — and today in a set of late-romantic pieces by Franz Liszt. The first was ‘Schlaflos! Frage und Antwort’ (Sleepless! Questions and Answers.’) This fairly short number is vintage late Liszt, emanating the sort of helpless trouble and turbulence that the title suggests. By far the better-known of the two was Liszt’s famous transcription of Richard Wagner’s supremely sensual Isolde’s Liebestod (Isolde’s love-death), her keening, orgasmically intense aria from the opera Tristan und Isolde. Musijevic unleashed this pathologically sensual material with grand sweep and yearning passion.
The program came to an enchanting close with with Antonin Dvorak’s Piano Quartet in E-flat – one of his many deathless chamber jewels. Associate series director Geoff Nuttall, in his intro to the piece, gave us express permission to get up and dance during the lilting third movement … and even to weep openly in the second (Alisa Weilerstein’s bittersweet cello “singing” was more than tearworthy). And the two meatier outer movements were something to behold, too - with alternating bouts of drama, robust drive and almost unbearable lyric beauty. Philips was back with his trusty viola for this one, along with Musijevic at the Steinway. But the commanding presence here was violinist Yoon Kwon: her ravishing tone caressed our ears while her deep musicality melted our hearts. I hope this brilliant young lady keeps coming back to us — she’s really something special!
Time for my final Eargasm alerts for this year: tomorrow and Sunday will bring the eleventh and final program, where the main attraction will be Franz Schubert’s unutterably profound Quintet in C for strings: the so-called “cello quintet,” for the pair of them that it employs. Written shortly before Schubert’s outrageously early death at age 31, I hear this wondrous masterpiece as his farewell to the world: it contains some of the most emotionally devastating music out there. You’d better get used to hearing it every Spoleto henceforth — as Wadsworth has re-instituted festival founder Gian Carlo Menotti’s previous custom of playing it every year in the final chamber program. I can never get through it with dry eyes.
The second alert is to remind you of tomorrow’s farewell bash at Millennium Music, where — beginning at 2:00 p.m., you’ll hear local piano prodigy Micah McLaurin (age thirteen) perform a forty-minute program of keyboard classics — HARD ones — from memory. Following that, various Chucktown notables (Like CSO Concertmaster Yuriy Bekker and Principal cello Louise Dubin) will be there to serenade you with assorted classical tidbits. Because of that, I won’t be able to attend tomorrow’s chamber finale. But I’ve recruited some trusty backup, so you can expect a guest blog on that one.
WHAT? only one event left to cover? Alas! — the festival is winding down indeed … the end is sneaking up on us, and FAST. Does anybody out there know of an antidote for post-Spoleto withdrawal symptoms?
Piano Magic — and Delightful Dvorak — at Memminger
Dr. Wadsworth, before he introduced Friday afternoon’s program X to his capacity audience at the Memminger, informed us that one of his current crop of festival critics had described his humor as being of the “cornpone” variety … a quality that I’ve never observed, in the many years I’ve covered this series. Irreverent or un-stuffy? Sure. Politically or socially incorrect (at least by today’s oversensitive standards)? Occasionally. Cornpone? Never. This man has forgotten more about chamber music than most of us will ever know. Beneath his facade of casual, jocular informality lies an inexhaustible knowledge of his subject — and, no matter how he hams things up onstage, his deep sophistication and depth of insight shine through.
First up were a couple of fetching duet numbers, each sporting the bassoon artistry of Peter Kolkay. Joining him for Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas Brasilieras No. 6 were Tara Helen O’Connor and her magic flute. This two-movement jewel, along with the remaining eight works of his “Bachianas” series, was inspired by the music of J.S. Bach. They’re a pungent and intriguing blend of Bachian polyphony and his native Brazilian music. The first ‘Aria’ movement had each instrument going its own way melodically — but you could hear how they connected, particularly in terms of counterpoint. Together with the final ‘Fantasia,’ this tricky music struck me as a Brazilian take on Bach’s Two-Part Inventions. BTW, this would be a good place to tell you that O’Connor has just become a member of the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society — just one of many reasons to come hear her ravishing playing when she’s in town.
The second work was Au Quai, by Elliot Carter: the dean of American composers, who turns 100 this year (and he’s still composing!). Kolkay’s partner here was Daniel Philips, on viola. The work wasn’t terribly unlike the preceding piece, except that the musical language was far more abstract and occasionally dissonant. But it made for an absorbing musical conversation, peppered with lots of fun — especially when our two virtuosi played musical tit-for-tat, firing saucy single-note salvos at each other.
Then it was time for some special piano playing, courtesy of Pedja Muzijevic. Wotta versatile keyboard whiz: we heard him just last program as a glittering harpsichordist in the Bach Brandenburg No. 5 — and today in a set of late-romantic pieces by Franz Liszt. The first was ‘Schlaflos! Frage und Antwort’ (Sleepless! Questions and Answers.’) This fairly short number is vintage late Liszt, emanating the sort of helpless trouble and turbulence that the title suggests. By far the better-known of the two was Liszt’s famous transcription of Richard Wagner’s supremely sensual Isolde’s Liebestod (Isolde’s love-death), her keening, orgasmically intense aria from the opera Tristan und Isolde. Musijevic unleashed this pathologically sensual material with grand sweep and yearning passion.
The program came to an enchanting close with with Antonin Dvorak’s Piano Quartet in E-flat – one of his many deathless chamber jewels. Associate series director Geoff Nuttall, in his intro to the piece, gave us express permission to get up and dance during the lilting third movement … and even to weep openly in the second (Alisa Weilerstein’s bittersweet cello “singing” was more than tearworthy). And the two meatier outer movements were something to behold, too - with alternating bouts of drama, robust drive and almost unbearable lyric beauty. Philips was back with his trusty viola for this one, along with Musijevic at the Steinway. But the commanding presence here was violinist Yoon Kwon: her ravishing tone caressed our ears while her deep musicality melted our hearts. I hope this brilliant young lady keeps coming back to us — she’s really something special!
Time for my final Eargasm alerts for this year: tomorrow and Sunday will bring the eleventh and final program, where the main attraction will be Franz Schubert’s unutterably profound Quintet in C for strings: the so-called “cello quintet,” for the pair of them that it employs. Written shortly before Schubert’s outrageously early death at age 31, I hear this wondrous masterpiece as his farewell to the world: it contains some of the most emotionally devastating music out there. You’d better get used to hearing it every Spoleto henceforth — as Wadsworth has re-instituted festival founder Gian Carlo Menotti’s previous custom of playing it every year in the final chamber program. I can never get through it with dry eyes.
The second alert is to remind you of tomorrow’s farewell bash at Millennium Music, where — beginning at 2:00 p.m., you’ll hear local piano prodigy Micah McLaurin (age thirteen) perform a forty-minute program of keyboard classics — HARD ones — from memory. Following that, various Chucktown notables (Like CSO Concertmaster Yuriy Bekker and Principal cello Louise Dubin) will be there to serenade you with assorted classical tidbits. Because of that, I won’t be able to attend tomorrow’s chamber finale. But I’ve recruited some trusty backup, so you can expect a guest blog on that one.
WHAT? only one event left to cover? Alas! — the festival is winding down indeed … the end is sneaking up on us, and FAST. Does anybody out there know of an antidote for post-Spoleto withdrawal symptoms?