HARDWICK − The third concert of the Craftsbury Chamber Players season took place at the Hardwick Town House last Thursday evening and focused on three Eighteenth- to early Nineteenth-Century composers, namely Mozart, Boccherini and Beethoven.
The “Trio in C Major, K.548 for Violin, Cello and Piano” was written in 1788 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) and featured Mary Rowell, Frances Rowell and Inessa Zaretsky on the above order of instruments.
It started with an Allegro movement that immediately had a delightful melody precisely stated, full of light with a kind of internal illumination. A second melody was then introduced and imaginative variations ensued each time the themes were brought back. The following Andante cantabile lived up to the singing voice of the notation, with a slow tempo having a restrained subtle interplay between the piano and the strings. The final Allegro sped up the momentum, bright in mood but complex in the scoring. Zaretsky’s feeling touch on the keys was particularly fine and the trio’s integrated playing most enjoyable.
Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805) was something of a child prodigy on the cello for which he could compose pieces that brought out the wonderful potential color of that instrument. His “Trio in F Major, Op. 6, No. 4, 698,” written in 1769, for two violins and cello, began with an Allegro moto in a light melody with morphing variations. The Lento.con espressione had the first violin contrasted with the second violin and cello, while the third movement, Tempo di Minuett, Trio, had jogging rhythms with sliding octaves. Mary Rowell and Katherine Winterstein on violins and Frances Rowell on cello gave a very sympathetic interpretation of this piece.
After the intermission, the Craftsbury Chamber Players performed one of the greatest works from the early years (1803) of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), the “Kreutzer,” “Sonata on A Major, Op. 47, for Violin and Piano.” This piece had a fascinating history in that it was originally composed for a virtuoso violinist, George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower (1778-1860), whose father was descended from an African prince before being enslaved in the West Indies while his mother had roots in the Polish aristocracy, at a time when slavery was the unquestioned economic base of most colonies in North and South America.
The Adagio Sostenuto-Presto started out slowly but quickly accelerated into a gorgeous melody that developed with great drama in Beethoven’s typically monumental scale, with variations in stops and starts, echoing and paralleling the two instruments masterfully in slight-of-hand transitions. The Andante con variatione continued with another beautiful melody in lively permutations, several times pushing the violin to the heights of its range, while the piano explored different fluttering rhythms with rapid fingering on the keys. The Finale-Presto had two joyous themes which well displayed Beethoven’s complex musical architecture. Katherine Winterstein on violin and Inessa Zaretsky on piano melded together in continuous coordination that brought the sophisticated audience to their feet for a standing ovation at the conclusion of the piece.
The next concert by the Craftsbury Chamber Players will have on the program Four Traditional Folksongs for Quartet, Two Songs by Johannes Brahms, Three Songs by Inessa Zaretsky and a Quintet by Mozart. There will be a preconcert talk about the pieces at 6:45 p.m. For more information, call (802) 586-0616 or go online to ccpvt.org.
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.
