The Catskill Chronicle

Review by Barry Plaxen

SHANDELEE, NY (August 9, 2014) –

For NOW: The Contemporary

Since the late 1970s, composer Arvo Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-invented compositional technique, “tintinnabuli,” in part  inspired by Gregorian chant. As of 2013, Pärt was the most performed contemporary composer in the world for three years in a row.

The first versions of his work “Fratres” were for string quintet and wind quintet. There are now versions for solo violin, string orchestra, percussion, and for violin and piano. We heard it performed as a string quartet on August 7, 2014 in the beautiful Sunset Pavilion on Shandelee Mountain by the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players.

“Fratres” consists of chord sequences with a constant, monotonous tone played by the second violin throughout the entire piece (thank goodness I did not have to play that uninspiring part) that seemed to be the glue that held the “unambulating” (it went nowhere), static, brief melodies and ideas and formulae together, and a frequent cello pizzicato that gave it some rhythm. Some, but not much. It explores harmonic sounds that we are told follow a cerebral formula expressing “the instant and the eternity struggling within us”. All of the audience members I spoke with at intermission seemed to be most comfortable with their ability to “live in the now” while being aware of eternity, with no difficulty or evidence of any inner struggle.

Pärt’s brain ‘fartres’ (sic) may have been unambulatory, going nowhere within itself, but wonder of wonders, it led to one of the great evenings of music-listening we expect and always get at a Shandelee Festival concert.

For EVER: The Classics

Thanks goes to Sigmund Anton Steiner, a music publisher who published an “un-credited” arrangement of Mozart’s sumptuous masterpiece, the “Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra, K.364,” as the “Grande Sestetto Concertante” for string sextet. The piece contains a plethora of constant, magical happenings throughout all three movements, particularly one of the great “crescendos-while-climbing-the-scale-halfnote-by-halfnote” culminating in a quiet burst (if such a thing is possible) and glorious entry-to-die-for by the first violin.

The anonymous adapter gave much of the violin’s solo melodies in the original version to the two violins, but as we learned, gave much of the viola’s melodies to the first cello in addition to the two violas. For those who know the original work,  nothing was “lost.” If it did not have “this” or “this,” we were inundated with familiar themes having “that” and “that”, mostly a lush-er sound because of the tightness of the six voices as opposed to the larger number of voices and the variety of timbres with winds and strings in a small orchestra.

The six strings’ arrangement gave it a Brahmsian quality, a sound that can be heard in Mozart’s half-dozen or so string quintets, particularly expressed in the beautiful slow movement, exquisitely played and eliciting applause from many who know to withhold clapping until the piece is over. I almost joined them.

And, as I write, I realize that the happy sounds emanating from Brahms’ “String Sextet No.2 in G Major” Op. 36, next on the program, were most unlike the introspective Brahms we are used to and had a more joyful Mozartian quality. “According to Brahms’ biographer Karl Geiringer, it conceals a reference to the first name of Agathe von Siebold (with whom he was infatuated at the time) in the first movement with the notes a-g-a-d-h-e.” (from the program notes.)

Everything that might have been lacking in the evening’s first work was here, in spades. An abundance of singable melodies, forward-moving  musical passages, thrilling and fun rhythmic dance-like passages, and, as in Mozart’s sextet, genius.

Thanks for the glorious evening also goes to six world-class performers (photos top to bottom): Dmitri Berlinsky and Stefani Collins on violin; Maurycy Banaszek and Adelya Shagidullina on viola; and Mihai Marica and Christine Lamprea on cello. These amazing musicians were all impeccable phrasers, expert technicians, and each had an “eternal” charismatic persona of their own while they played together in the “now” as one ensemble, bringing forth the intentions of Mozart & Brahms and enabling the audience to enjoy hearing eternally great music and experiencing the now-immediacy of deep, emotional moments at the same time.

Shandelee’s Festival concerts continue through August 19. For information visit www.shandelee.org or call 845-439-3277.