The Catskill Chronicle

Review by Barry Plaxen

BETHEL, NY (June 11, 2014) – The third concert in the 2014 Sunday with Friends Chamber Music Series took place on Sunday, June 8, 2014 in the Event Gallery at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. Performing three romantic era works were four world class musicians, violinist Sheryl Staples (photo left), violist Cynthia Phelps (photo center of page), cellist Eric Kim (photo second from bottom) and pianist Inon Barnatan (photo bottom of page).

“Märchenbilder” (Fairy Tale Pictures) for Viola and Piano, Op. 113 was first on the program. Written by Robert Schumann, the work consists of four character pieces. The first two movements depict scenes from “Rapunzel,” the third movement depicts scenes from “Rumpelstiltskin” and the fourth movement depicts scenes from “The Sleeping Beauty.”

Programmatic music such as this was just beginning to come to the forefront when Schumann wrote his Opus 113. Beethoven shunned writing programmatic music, stating that his sixth symphony (the Pastorale) "can be perceived without description – it is more an expression of feelings rather than tone-painting." Schumann gives us little descriptive information for his Opus 113 leaving the details to the imagination of the performers and the audience, but one can assume that his intention was to do that with tone-painting rather than feelings. The work does not contain any depth and does not convey the deep emotions we usually hear in Schumann’s solo piano works, his symphonies or his other non-programmatic chamber works.

Schumann’s late work was juxtaposed with Felix Mendelssohn’s “Piano Trio no. 1 in d minor, opus 49.” Unlike Schumann’s free flowing descriptive movements, Mendelssohn’s early romantic work was written in the classical style, using  melody, amplifying it, embellishing it, enhancing and enriching it with color and variations using compositional craft and much inspiration rather than musical images to convey emotion.

The highlight of the afternoon, for me, came in the second movement when the cello played a melody, followed by the violin playing the same melody and then they began a brief duet with a repeated rhythmic pattern and lo and behold – magic – when the piano snuck in over their rhythmic pattern with the previous melody. This so-simple classical method of writing music morphed, for me, into a deeply profound and moving segment, pretty much indicative of the what went on through the entire four movement piece.

Brahms’ genius, on the other hand, was as a compleat romantic composer, offering one musical idea after another, as opposed to Mendelssohn’s offering one idea and “going places” from that point. And his (Brahms) “Piano Quartet in A Major, Opus 26” is a veritable encyclopedia of amazing musical ideas, each one quite beautiful and deeply affecting.

The four world class performers were all superb, giving us a most wonderful afternoon that showcased three different methods of composition by three  geniuses – the first with its musical pictures for us to imagine, the second depicting melodically inspired writing and the third offering a plethora of profound musical ideas.

Much thanks goes to curator Eileen Moon who gifted us with four renown solo and chamber music performers, two of them (Staples and Phelps) her musical associates from the NY Philharmonic where she is the principal cellist. The musicians of her ”Sunday with Friends” series which began in 2013 reads like a veritable who’s who of world class chamber musicians.

The series continues in September and October. For information visit www.BethelWoodsCenter.org.