One of the pleasures of chamber music, what sets it apart, is its air of conversation among equals. Two recent concerts, at Millersville and the Pennsylvania Academy of Music, brought some memorable conversations to the area.
The Miami String Quartet – Benny Kim and Cathy Meng Robinson, violins; Yu Jin, viola and Keith Robinson, cello – gave the String Quartet No. 9 in E-flat Major by Dmitry Shostakovich a scorched-earth performance Tuesday evening, June 24, at the Pennsylvania Academy of Music. The work, which was composed in 1964, is in five continuous movements. A repeated two-note semitone figure drives the music forward, laments grow out of areas of calm, and pizzicato sections range from delicate to furious, string-busting passages that push the music toward dissonance. The players piled intensity on intensity and the results were breathtaking.
Also on the program was Mozart’s melancholy yet genial String Quartet No. 15 in D Minor (1783), played with rich and full-bodied approach, and Claude Debussy’s String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 10 (1893). As they did in the Shostakovich, the players gave the work a dramatic reading, playing up Debussy’s unusual, colorful harmonies and hints of exoticism, but making room for passages of pearly calm.
Awadagin Pratt, pianist and artistic director of the Next Generation Festival, brought together a group of fine musicians in differing configurations for some amazing musical conversations at Millersville University Friday, June 20. The concert opened with Erno Dohnanyi’s 1902 Serenade in C for string trio, played by Tai Murray, a 26-year-old violinist with a lively stage presence and an impressive record of performances already; Susan Gulkis-Assadi, principal violist of the Seattle Symphony, and Tom Kraines, a cellist active in the Northeast. The crowd-pleasing Dohnanyi, full of spicy rhythms and extroverted playing, was followed by a more cerebral performance of Brahms’s Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Major, with Pratt on piano and Australian Ben Breen on violin. After the intermission, all five musicians took the stage for an iridescent performance of Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E Flat Major (1842), a study in emotional contrasts and ingenious use of form.
After the performance, the five musicians gathered on the stage for a question and answer session with the audience. (Shown from left are Susan Gulkis-Assadi, Tai Murray, Awadagin Pratt, Ben Breen and Tom Kraines.) They discussed their instruments, the musical selections (Pratt hopes for more new music next year) and the future of classical music. Kraines has a hopeful outlook: “I think there will always be people who listen. It will always remind us of what humanity is,” he commented.
Vivace! continues tonight with the Academy Hop: different performance spaces in the new Academy building will be featured, with performances of Beethoven and Grieg sonatas, Mendelssohn, Dvorak and Haydn piano trios, a Mozart piano quartet and a Shostakovich piano quintet scheduled. The event is free and starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy, 42 N. Prince St. An all-Schubert evening of chamber music will be held Thursday, June 26, at 7:30 p.m.; cost is $25. The Grand Finale will be Friday at 7:30 p.m.; cost is $25. The festival rounds off with two performances Saturday: student recitals at 1 p.m. (free admission) and Cabaret Night at 7:30 p.m., with light refreshments and music featuring works by P.D.Q. Bach (a.k.a. Peter Schickele). Tickets are $40. Details available here.
