GREENSBORO – The opening concert of the Caspian Music summer season, entitled “Charming Pieces,” was held on Sunday evening, Aug. 4, at the Highland Center for the Arts and featured shorter works by a variety of composers for oboe and then for a duo combination of guitar and cello in the first half of the program, culminating in a Schumann quartet for piano, violin, viola and cello in the second part.
Igor Leschishin on oboe joined forces with Jeewon Park on piano in “Morceau de Salon, Op. 228” by Bohemian composer J.W. Kalliwoda (1801-1866). Born in Prague, Kalliwoda was a violinist and writer of music, spending most of his career in Germany as a court orchestra conductor. His works were once popular in amateur circles during his lifetime, but he is not exactly a household word today. This piece, though played beautifully by Leschishin and Park with consummate musicianship, could be described as similar to his violin style, as “without possessing very startling qualities,” having “a well finished technique,” but “more remarkable for elegance and a certain pleasantness than for vigor or depth of feeling.” (Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians Vol. IV, pp. 692-693).
Rupert Boyd on guitar and Laura Metcalf on cello then took the stage in a well-chosen selection of duets that had delightful melodies in excellent transcriptions. They began with the “Pavane” by Gabriel Faure (1845-1924), an exquisite theme that parallels in music the Impressionist movement in painting of the same period. Solomiya Ivakhiv added to the combination on her violin, alternating and then blending in interwoven voices. Metcalf brought out the rich dark resonance of her instrument with real feeling in her bowing.
Contemporary Brazilian composer Jaime Zenamon (b. 1953) wrote the next piece, “Reflexoes No. 6: Vivissimo,” which had strong rhythms and great drive, played with sensitive dynamics. “Gretchen am Spinnrade” was originally scored for voice and piano by Franz Schubert (1792-1828), one of the best of his over-400 songs he wrote in this format. It depicts a young woman at her spinning wheel who has fallen in love for the first time, and here the guitar, with Boyd’s skillful playing, evokes the background rhythm of the wheel while the cello carries the engaging melody.
“A New York Minute” was a gift from an Australian composer, Marian Budos (b. 1968), written especially for Boyd and Metcalf, suggesting something of the dynamic energy of life in New York City, a very accessible piece that one would enjoy hearing again.
Four selections from the “Two Part Inventions” of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) for harpsichord (No. 8, 10, 6 and 13) demonstrated Bach’s astonishing musical imagination to create works that combine complexity with a luminosity comparable to the paintings of Vermeer. The first took the form of a rondo, the second had parallel lines for the instruments, the third played with baroque arabesques of integrated voices, while in the last the melodic lines intertwined.
Two Beatles songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney did not seem out of place amid the other works in this concert, as all great composers were great melodists. “Blackbird” and “Eleanor Rigby” both had very beautiful tunes (and poetical lyrics) that made them deserving popularity and becoming instant classics.
Hector Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) of Brazil was inspired by Bach to write his “Bach-Cannas Brasillieras,” and “No. 5” had a haunting power in this performance. Astor Piazolla of Argentina (1921-1992) could be said to have tamed the tango dance from its somewhat disreputable origins, and his “Nightclub 1960” had strong momentum and irresistible high energy. Ivakhiv returned to enrich the scoring with her violin.
After the intermission, the Caspian Music players gave an intense interpretation of the “Piano Quartet in E flat major, Op. 47,” by Robert Schumann (1810-1856), composed in 1842. The group consisted of Solomiya Ivakhiv on violin, Laura Sacks on viola, Laura Metcalf on cello and Jeewon Park on piano. The first movement, Sostenato assai-allegro ma non troppo, began very slowly, with a restraint that had an intriguing tension, but then burst into a fast tempo in which the initial elegant theme was stated, with dramatic piano passages which Park articulated with just the right touch upon the keys. Schumann then developed the melodic lines with masterful, permutations, taking us to ethereal realms. The second section, Scherzo molto vivaci, had an even faster pace, with the piano dominant but fully integrated with the strings in a fine ensemble effect. An Andante, cantabile was next and truly sang in this performance, particularly in the deep cola of Metcalf’s cello and the impressive technique of Ivakhiv’s violin in some of the more lyrical parts. The last movement, Finale vivaci, had a wonderful melody beautifully developed, with fleeting hints of counterpoint, ending in triumphant exuberance, with all the musicians fully concentrated. The audience rose with a standing ovation in gratitude for such a memorable evening.
David K. Rodgers
David K. Rodgers is a writer, mason and card carrying dilettante, who dabbles and babbles in art. He has lived in East Craftsbury for the past 40 years.
