As we headed into the final week of this year's Festival, two of the Tuesday programmes consisted of a selection of some of the central classics of the chamber repertoire, played by some artists of notable stature and musicality.
The exception was the first afternoon concert, a collection of diverse music played by "Two Bass Hit," a duo consisting of well-known jazz bass player Dave Young and classical bass player Joel Quarrington, with piano support from John Novacek.
Even this programme opened with a classic, although I could gladly have dispensed with it -- the slow movement of Bach's Concerto in D Minor for 2 Violins. The arranger, in order to make the piece work on two double basses, shoved the piano part down into the cellar as well, resulting in dense, congested sound with too many overtones clogging the ears.
The rest of the programme, from 20th century jazz and popular composers, worked much better, and we had ample opportunity to admire the skill of these 2 quite different experts on the same instrument. A little gimmicky, perhaps, but still entertaining and intriguing.
The second afternoon concert began with the Tiberius Quartet giving a spirited performance of a String Quartet in D Minor by Haydn. In previous years I have noted the dramatic intensity of this ensemble's playing, but here they adopted a much lighter, crisper sound -- indeed, the violins were playing for long stretches with their sordines which certainly changed the tone colour as well as the volume level. As always with Haydn, a delight.
Horn player Gabriel Radford then took the stage with pianist Philip Chiu for a selection of three short pieces by Schumann. These arrangements allowed Radford to demonstrate a good range of horn tone, from a silky piano to a robust and earthy forte.
Chiu then returned with violinist Jonathan Crow to perform the Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, Op.108 by Brahms. Even in this late work, Brahms still leaned towards heavy-duty piano writing, albeit not as often as in his younger, more extravagant days. Chiu demonstrated mastery of the idiom by lightening both touch and pedalling, so that balance with his string colleague was never the least affected, even in the louder passages. Crow's presentation of the violin part covered the entire range, from the con sentimento of the brief third movement to the agitato of the finale. On any count, a spectacular performance of a challenging masterwork.
The Tuesday evening concert opened with this Festival's second performance of the well-loved Arpeggione Sonata by Schubert. This time, it was given by pianist John Novacek with Joel Quarrington performing the solo part on the double bass. (Hey, it gets played on all the other stringed instruments, not to mention the flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon, so why not?). Once you adjust your ears to the unexpectedly low pitch, the adaptation works well. Quarrington coaxed some beautiful lyrical tone out of his instrument on the higher passages, and definitely caught the playful, bouncing character of the themes in the first and third movements.
The exception was the first afternoon concert, a collection of diverse music played by "Two Bass Hit," a duo consisting of well-known jazz bass player Dave Young and classical bass player Joel Quarrington, with piano support from John Novacek.
Even this programme opened with a classic, although I could gladly have dispensed with it -- the slow movement of Bach's Concerto in D Minor for 2 Violins. The arranger, in order to make the piece work on two double basses, shoved the piano part down into the cellar as well, resulting in dense, congested sound with too many overtones clogging the ears.
The rest of the programme, from 20th century jazz and popular composers, worked much better, and we had ample opportunity to admire the skill of these 2 quite different experts on the same instrument. A little gimmicky, perhaps, but still entertaining and intriguing.
The second afternoon concert began with the Tiberius Quartet giving a spirited performance of a String Quartet in D Minor by Haydn. In previous years I have noted the dramatic intensity of this ensemble's playing, but here they adopted a much lighter, crisper sound -- indeed, the violins were playing for long stretches with their sordines which certainly changed the tone colour as well as the volume level. As always with Haydn, a delight.
Horn player Gabriel Radford then took the stage with pianist Philip Chiu for a selection of three short pieces by Schumann. These arrangements allowed Radford to demonstrate a good range of horn tone, from a silky piano to a robust and earthy forte.
Chiu then returned with violinist Jonathan Crow to perform the Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, Op.108 by Brahms. Even in this late work, Brahms still leaned towards heavy-duty piano writing, albeit not as often as in his younger, more extravagant days. Chiu demonstrated mastery of the idiom by lightening both touch and pedalling, so that balance with his string colleague was never the least affected, even in the louder passages. Crow's presentation of the violin part covered the entire range, from the con sentimento of the brief third movement to the agitato of the finale. On any count, a spectacular performance of a challenging masterwork.
The Tuesday evening concert opened with this Festival's second performance of the well-loved Arpeggione Sonata by Schubert. This time, it was given by pianist John Novacek with Joel Quarrington performing the solo part on the double bass. (Hey, it gets played on all the other stringed instruments, not to mention the flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon, so why not?). Once you adjust your ears to the unexpectedly low pitch, the adaptation works well. Quarrington coaxed some beautiful lyrical tone out of his instrument on the higher passages, and definitely caught the playful, bouncing character of the themes in the first and third movements.
This was followed by another evergreen Festival standard, the Clarinet Quintet in A Major by Mozart, played by the Tiberius Quartet and James Campbell. I was impressed by the lightness of tone here from all concerned, as much so as in the Haydn work this afternoon. The meditative air of the larghetto was as moving as the theme and variations of the finale were jovial. The penultimate slow variation took on an appropriately autumnal air (as August slides by), and the final coda then wrapped the work up with an aristocratic flourish.
The evening ended with the Horn Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 40 by Brahms. I'm definitely fond of this work, but from recordings. This first live hearing persuaded me that it is perilously close to being unworkable in a live performance. The difficulty, simply put, is that the French horn is an instrument with a peculiarly intense sound. Ever had the experience of listening to some horn-heavy music on cheap speakers and hear the speaker cases begin buzzing? Anyone who's ever transferred a recording of horn music knows that the horn, at certain pitches, can drive the meters right over the top of the red zone. I don't know why.
In this particular case, Jonathan Crow on violin kept getting swamped by Gabriel Radford's horn tone and Philip Chiu's piano -- and it certainly didn't seem to be a case of either Radford or Chiu playing too loudly. All three performed with skill and finesse, and the tone was lovely, but I kept getting reminded of a singer struggling to be heard over a Mahlerian symphony orchestra at full throttle. My seat in the hall is barely 20 feet from the spot where Jonathan Crow was playing, so I have to assume that this balance issue is a built-in problem of the music. It's unfortunate, because the horn repertoire isn't so large that we can afford to do without any of it.
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