The most recent concert I've attended took place in FIU’s Wertheim Performing Arts Center on Thursday March 04. The FIU Chamber Players performed works by Mozart, Saint-Saens, and Brahms, plus a composition/improvisation by the players. On paper, this chamber music concert looked much more to my liking than the first one I reviewed a few weeks ago.Opening the concert we had the Piano Trio in B-flat, K. 502 by Wolfgang A. Mozart. The performers were Jose Lopez on the piano, Robert Davidovici with the violin and Ross Harbaugh in the cello. I had already watched Davidovici play in the previous concert in FIU and I was quite pleased to see him return, now to play a piece by one of my favorite composers. Needless to say, the music in the trio was of the highest quality, with that melodic gift that no composer or musician has ever been able to repeat after Mozart. The first playful movement was graciously played by the performers, in what resembled a duel between the two strings, on one side, and the piano on the other. While the piano went crazy with scales and arpeggios, the violin proposed the ideas and the big cello complemented them. In the second movement, once again the Salzburg master proved that he was unrivaled in writing music that is so beautiful, and at the same time, easy to listen to. The violin played with delicacy, with the other two instruments allowing it room to breathe and to shine. The final movement, a return to the playful spirit of the first one, was pure bliss, a perfect rondo of the kind only Mozart could give us. I was very satisfied with the playing by the three instrumentalists.
The second work of the night was Camille Saint-Saens’ “Fantaisie for violin and harp”. Davidovici came back for the violin part and Deborah Fleisher took charge of the harp. It was my first time seeing this big instrument so close to me, and I was amazed at its size (it really looks smaller when in the context of a big symphony orchestra) and its physical beauty. As for its sound, I already knew the wonders it could do thanks to Mozart and his glorious Concerto for Flute and Harp, but it was a revelation to hear it paired only with a violin. Saint-Saens was another composer with a talent for beauty and melody like no other, and the piece was a perfect showcase for the violin’s lyricism and the harp dream-like delicacies. The work had a few Spanish elements here and there, though in general it sounded more romantic and passionate. The Fantaisie is structured in a few separate sections, each with different subjects, but the spirit is the same throughout the entire score. I was extremely pleased with the music and the performance.
The next part of the concert was my least favorite. Deemed as a “Catch as Catch Can Composition/Improvisation”, what we heard next was clearly jazz, not classical/academic music. Gary Campbell played the saxophone, Jamie Ousley the bass, and Mike Orta the piano, in a work that felt less improvisatory than I expected, with the exception of the soloing by each one of the instrumentalists. What was good about the piece, for me, was the chance to see a big bass, a perennial pawn in the symphonic orchestra, taking center stage, and its user certainly knew how to make the most out of the occasion, with a tremendous solo that sounded as difficult as it looked uncomfortable to play. The musicians were good, their connection very firm, but the piece left me rather cold. There’s just a few jazz pieces I truly love, and this Composition/improvisation will not be entering that group anytime soon. Anyway, it was an interesting experience and a welcomed change of pace.
After the intermission, the same trio of the beginning plus Laura Wilcox in the viola returned to the stage, this time to play Johannes Brahms’ Piano Quartet in A, Op. 26. It was quite a coincidence that both my first two concerts with this group of players have ended with Brahms’ chamber music. Unlike the previous time, however, the Brahms was not the highlight of the event. The playing sure was fiery and impeccable. Amazingly, it was the work itself the one that didn’t get to me. I love Brahms symphonic music and in general all his works for big orchestra, and I like his string quartets, but this time I was left underwhelmed. The first movement seemed to drag forever without the clear purpose of other sonata movements by the Hamburg master, even when the first theme was particularly beautiful. The slow movement was not one of the most memorable. The music became more interesting to me with the arrival of the more ferocious third movement and the dramatic fourth movement. Thus, the concert ended on a high note, but not as high as I could have expected.
In general, the event was a good experience and the performances more than satisfactory. I think the jazz composition was at the same time a blessing and a curse: on one hand, it was a welcomed return to earth from the highs we were flying at after so much beautiful music by Mozart and Saint-Saens; on the other hand, it distracted me (and, as I noticed, the audience) and left us less ready to fully concentrate on the more complicated structures and thematic material of Brahms’ work. Putting a jazz piece in the middle of three classical/romantic compositions was an interesting experiment but one that, in my view, needs not be repeated.
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