HARDWICK − The Craftsbury Chamber Players gave their second concert of the season at the Hardwick Town House last Thursday evening with a program of pieces by French, Romanian, Hungarian and American composers.
The first work was by Ernest Chausson (1855-1898), “Chanson perpetuelle,” written in 1899. It is scored for soprano, piano and string guitarist and featured Mary Bonhag as the vocalist, Zenas Hsu and Annie Rabbat on violins, Kenji Bunch on viola, Frances Rowell on cello and Monica Ohuchi on piano.
The lyrics, in French, of the poem by Charles Cros, expressed a woman’s despair at her lover’s unexpected abandonment of her and she contemplates an Ophelia-like suicide by drowning herself in a pond.
Bonhag’s voice is exquisite with purity of tone and fine projection combined with suble phrasing and expressive feeling in her interpretation. The music had flowing momentum with lyrical power, very much in the French tradition.
Bonhag returned for a second peice, “Excerpts from Kafka’s Fragments” by Gyorgy Kurtag (b. 1926). Written in 1985-87, it was based on scattered texts from Franz Kafka’s notebooks. They are almost like the musical equivalent of haiku, very brief but concentrated vignettes. Selections from the original one-hour work touched upon such subjects as marching, an autumn pathway, hiding places, restlessness, dressing, leaving the cities, being dirty, a miserable life, a closed circle and a moonlit night. The music seems highly influenced by Shoenberg’s twelve-tone system, with discordant sequences, recitative passages and abrupt endings. Mary Rowell skillfully accompanied Bonhag on the violin in this daring excursion into contemporary musical explorations.
The “Viola Burns Longer,” composed just last year by Kenji Bunch (b. 1973) for solo viola, piano and string quartet, had in its title the punchline of an old viola joke: “What’s the difference between a violin and a viola?” Its four movements followed up on the title image with humorous mutations for each part from Glow to Flicker, Smolder and finally, Blaze.
The first section started slowly with an upward direction for all the instruments, moving to a more pizzicato texture, perhaps suggesting embers, while the second part had faster tempos reaching into the higher ranges of the sake, evoking small sparkling flames. In the third movement, the pace is slower, with the viola highlighted, bringing out its resonating color beautifully.
The last segment morphed into more jazzy rhythms at an accelerated tempo, with the viola and piano echoing each other.
The musicians were Kenji Bunch on viola, Zenas Hsu and Annie Rabbat on violins, Mary Rowell on viola, Frances Rowell on cello and Monica Ohuchi on piano. They played enthusiastically to a fine ensemble effect in their performance of this original work. The appreciative audience game them a standing ovation.
The final number on the program was the “Quintet in G minor, Op. 81,” for violin, viola, cello and piano, composed on 1924 by Vincent d’Indy (1851-1931). It started with a vigorous first movement, Assez anime, with fine interplay of the piano and the strings, and some dissonant notes amid the harmonies and a certain tension-and-release pattern.
The Scherzo had more jagged, broken rhythms at first, with the theme advanced by degrees in an upbeat, playful way.
The following Adante (lent et expressif) had a more moderate temp, with feeling in the scoring and a peaceful ambiance.
The Finale (modérément animé) flowed forcefully along to a well-prepared ending.
Again, the musicians Annie Rabbat and Zenas Hsu on violins, Kenji Bunch on viola, Francis Rowell on cello and Monica Ohuhi, showed splendid coordination to do justice to this engaging lyrical piece.
The next local concert of the Craftsbury Chamber Players will be on July 24, in Hardwick after a July July 23 Burlington performancer, and will feature trios by Mozart and Boccherini and the “Kreutzer Sonata” by Beethoven. A pre-concert talk will take place at 6:45 p.m., before the concert begins at 7:30 p.m.
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.
