By Lyn Bronson

Tatiana Goncharova, Grigory Kalinovsky & Igor Begelman

Chamber Music Monterey Bay has consistently brought us chamber music of the highest order, and last night’s performance by TAGI (rhymes with “dodgy”) was no exception. Here were four splendid musicians, Igor Begelman – clarinet, Grigory Kalinovsky – violin, Sophie Shao – cello and Tatiana Goncharova – piano,appearing together on the Monterey Peninsula for the first time and making a powerful impression in the process.

Hearing a performance of the Brahms Trio for Piano, Clarinet and Cello in A Minor, Op. 114, is always a moving experience, for this work evokes strong feelings of autumnal nostalgia characteristic of Brahm’s later years and stirs deeply felt emotions that still reach across and touch us today. What we heard last night from pianist Goncharova, clarinetist Begelman and cellist Shao was solid musicianly playing that had additional qualities of individual expressiveness combined with superb ensemble playing. It was a winner all around! The heartfelt emotions of the slower movements were matched by the turbulent first movement and the extraordinarily exciting final Allegro. The impressive mastery of the three musicians was seemingly effortless and totally natural. No effect was forced. No expression was exaggerated.

We heard Stravinsky’s Histoire du Soldat last night in an arrangement for clarinet, violin and piano featuring clarinetist Begelman, violinist Kalinovsky and pianist Goncharova. Although well played by the three musicians, this reduced arrangement doesn’t hold a candle to the original version for three dancers, narrator and seven instruments. Begelman and Goncharova’s performances were satisfying, but the violin’s effectiveness was so drastically curtailed in this arrangement, that the entire effect of this work was lost. It turned out to be the only disappointment on the evening’s program.

The following work was a curiosity. Violinist Kalinovsky and pianist Goncharova played an arrangement of Shostakovich’s Prelude in D Minor (originally for piano solo), which was over so quickly that if you blinked you missed it. However it was fun to hear the wry humor of Shostakovich transformed from a rather dry piano prelude to a much more imaginative setting for two instruments.

The final work on the program was Tchaikovsky’s Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano in A Minor, Op. 50. The program notes quoted a sentence from one of  Tchaikovsky’s letters to his patron Nadezhda von Meck  in 1880 saying, “…I simply cannot endure the combination of piano with violin or violincello.” When he finally changed his mind and created this work, it appears that there might have been a residual abhorrence still remaining, for he didn’t really write a piano trio, but rather an extended 45-minute concerto for the three instruments. In any case it is a brilliant work, and although the beginning Pezzo Elegance is more successful than the extended variations heard in the final movement, the piece succeeds on many levels. Each of the musicians had glorious music to play and they played it up to the hilt.

An appreciative audience was rewarded with one encore, an arrangement for four instruments by Fritz Kreisler of Klezmar type folk music, such as you might hear at a Jewish wedding. It was a hoot!

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