Well, we may have had stormy weather outside on Thursday, January 11, but inside Carmel’s Sunset Center, the musical event was calm and laid back – or so at least was the first half of the concert by Chamber Music Monterey Bay’s concert of the month, the Schubert Ensemble of London. A large audience turned up at Sunset Center, to hear this ensemble consisting of violinist Simon Blendiss, violist Douglas Paterson, cellist Jane Salmon, double base player Peter Buckoke and pianist William Howard.
The first piece on the program was Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet. Since it often takes time at the beginning of a concert for musicians to warm up, it is not unusual for the opening work to be somewhat stiff and lacking in spontaneity. This was precisely the case with the Schubert Ensemble in its opening work. In what might be described as a “careful” performance, this glorious work shuffled along with all the notes in place, lots of very good playing (although violinist Blendiss sounded awkward in his initial entrance), yet consistently failed to solidify into a cohesive, compelling performance. During this work we kept waiting for something to happen, but all of a sudden it was over.
Following the Schubert came an interesting novelty, Giovanni Bottesini’s Passione amorose originally scored for two double bass and piano, but heard here with the second bass part played by cellist Salmon. Mr. Buckoke gave us an amusing supplement to Jean Widaman’s excellent program notes to the effect that the composer was such an avid fan of Paganini that he ended up in Parma buried in a plot near his beloved idol. Mr. Buckoke said he liked “to imagine them decomposing together.” In any event, as a virtuoso work for the double bass, this performance was hardly earthshaking, since, to be truly successful, this work needs to be tossed off with an impressive, dramatic flair.
But, after intermission, things heated up with an American premiere of a work commissioned for the Schubert Ensemble,L’an mil by a young British composer, Edward Rushton, who, although only 29, has written works that have found both performers and audiences willing to give his compositions a hearing. This is not surprising considering the quality and vitality of this work, commissioned to commemorate the new millennium. Rushton was inspired by the writings of a monk who during the night of December 31st in the year 999 reflected on the prophesies of St. John the Apostle that predicted widespread catastrophes and destruction over the face of the earth. But, then he found that morning came and the world had not ended, but continued much as before.
Rushton’s instrumental writing for piano in this work was impressive, especially the extended passage in widely separated parallel unisons with the interval of a fourth added. This was brilliantly executed with a precise, forceful rhythmic thrust that helped to establish the central passion of this piece while highlighting the solid skills of pianist William Howard. Also particularly effective was the juxtaposition of the cello and bass against the upper strings that gave the work a lovely antiphonal, eerie effect. The swirling climatic passages at the end had a wonderful rising agitation that reminded me of the final pages of the Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto. Surprising was the abrupt ending, perhaps to symbolize that we moved from one millennium to another in a single second.
Expecting the last work on the program, Dvorak’s Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, to be an anti-climax after the remarkably successful piece that preceded it, we were pleasantly surprised to hear a vibrant and wonderfully romantic performance of this great quartet. Once again we heard some magnificent piano playing from Mr. Howard who knew precisely when to be soloist or when to be ensemble player and did both superbly. In the Lento movement, cellist Jane Salmon spun some beautiful melodies with elegant shaping and a lovely control of dynamics. Violist Paterson showed us his beautiful sound, and violinist Blendiss played with drama and passion. The finale, with its frequent use of a motive utilizing the top of a harmonic minor scale with its characteristic augmented second gave this section an eastern Slavic sound, brought the work to a rousing conclusion.
The ensemble played one encore, and although we in the rear of the hall couldn’t quite hear the name of the work or its composer, it sounded like a tango by Piazzolla.
