The Carmel Music Society launched its 83rd season last night in Carmel’s Sunset Center with a return visit by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble, a group that found much favor in its appearance here a few years ago. The evening’s program contained two novelties, a string sextet by Richard Strauss and a string octet by Joachim Raff, plus the perennial favorite, Mendelssohn’s Octet for Strings in E-flat Major, Op. 20. Not surprisingly, all three works received outstanding performances.
Although the String Sextet from “Capriccio†by Richard Strauss is a minor work, in this performance we heard superb playing in which the individual parts blended in perfect ensemble to create a richly detailed tapestry of smoothly continuous sound. Nowhere was there a dotted note, a jagged rhythm or an unexpected silence to disturb the flowing motion of this piece.
To hear a work by Joachim Raff was undoubtedly a first for many in the audience, for although Raff was highly regarded by his contemporaries and wrote a large number of works (among his compositions are ten symphonies, all of which have been recorded), he is rarely heard in live performance today. Right from the first notes of his String Octet, it was obvious that this was a beautifully crafted work, excellently scored for strings, which achieved a strong cumulative effect. The brief scherzo second movement left us wanting more, which, incidentally, we did finally get in the fourth movement that had a relentless and breathless perpetual motion feeling. If the work has a serious weakness, it is in the Andante moderato third movement that rambled along without developing the tension that Beethoven would have stirred up in it, or the powerful long extended dramatic melodic lines that Rachmaninoff might have achieved.
The concluding work after intermission, the Mendelssohn Octet, as always, made a powerful impression as members of the ensemble played with exquisite clarity and authority and brought new magic to this familiar work. After its conclusion and a rousing ovation, the players returned to stage to give us one encore, a lovely arrangement of Gershwin’s “Summertime.†In many ways this encore was the most moving performance of the evening. We didn’t find out who had arranged this work, but it was a winner from the first note to the last. We heard a gorgeous performance that grew in stature throughout its brief duration and really touched our hearts.
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