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First Metropolitan United Church
October 16, 2009
"This Fantasy is the organ piece, well-known in Vienna, for two keyboard instruments, which Mozart composed for the mechanical instrument in the splendid Müller's Art Gallery in that very city."
Despite the fact that the instrument - variously described as a "mechanical organ", "musical clock" or "barrel organ" - for which Mozart composed his Fantasia in F minor, K.608, has long since vanished, the music itself has maintained its hold upon his fellow musicians, even if it is not as familiar to the music-loving public as it should be.
The work may be short (less than ten minutes) but it is as penetrating as anything Mozart wrote and, in an almost Lisztian sense, points the way to the "music of the future" - a future in which, had he achieved anything like a normal lifespan, Mozart would have played an even greater rôle.
The Mozart provided one of the highlights of an evening which, frankly, consisted of little but highlights. The Fantasia is more often heard in keyboard arrangements - like the one being reviewed in September 1799 by the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung - and the arrangement for strings we heard is of unknown origin.
While the strings may, perhaps, not have been able to imbue the almost peremptory opening figure (whose reappearances frame the various sections of the music) with quite the same drama as a piano, the gain in the gorgeous andante central section is immeasurable.
Nor had I ever heard the fugue in the first section in quite the same way before: it sounded as if Mozart had employed a variant of Handel's "He trusted in God" with a countersubject flown in from the marcia funebre of Beethoven's "Eroica". (Which is perhaps not as fanciful as it sounds: Mozart was intimately familiar with - to the extent of reorchestrating - Messiah and Beethoven is known to have possessed a score of K.608.)
Throughout the piece, indeed throughout the evening, the Victoria Chamber Orchestra played the music as if they had known it all their lives - just possible in the case of the first two pieces on the programme, surely impossible for the other two; their intonation, ensemble and sheer richness of tone were better than ever.
And Yariv Aloni directed a performance which was grippingly taut in the faster music and of surpassing beauty in the slower.
After the Mozart the evening ventured into unfamiliar territory with the Serenade for Cello and Strings by Robert Volkmann.
The music begins with a beautifully lyrical, if slightly plaintive, passage for the soloist - the eternally wonderful Pamela Highbaugh Aloni - before the strings join in and the music becomes somewhat more agitated, although always lyrical.
The central section is faster and more outgoing, although one could not help feel that perhaps a finer composer would have realised that a little more thematic material would not have gone amiss here. There were one or two moments when Volkmann seems, almost desperately, to be thinking of how many different (alas, not that different) ways he could employ the little material he has.
The tempo changes into the faster music and then back to the slower pace of the closing section were extremely well-handled and there was some commendably precise, delicate playing in the quick music.
Fortunately Volkmann realises his strong suit and the piece ends in a similar vein to that in which it opened, allowing the listener to bathe him or herself in the delectable sounds.
Although I cannot say I will be going out of my way to seek out further music by Volkmann, I would certainly not turn down the opportunity to hear more - especially when played this well.
The American composer George Chadwick is hardly a household name. He was a member of that generation that still looked to Europe for its inspiration - other members including Amy Beach, Edward McDowell, Amy Beach, John Knowles Paine and Charles Ives's teacher and sometime nemesis, Horatio Parker.
While it would be idle to deny the influences (particularly Dvorák) at work in Chadwick's Serenade for Strings, the work has sufficient individuality to be worthy of hearing far more frequently.
Chadwick's writing for the strings is richly-textured (he often resorts to nine parts) and thoroughly idiomatic, if far from easy.
If I had a single bone to pick with the composer, it would be his designation of the deliciously lilting third movement as a minuet. In triple time it may well be, but it seemed far more waltz-like to me.
Aloni and his players gave a dazzling performance of this totally unfamiliar music which certainly left me eager to hear more.
Oddly, as I was driving to the concert, I caught the close of Josef Suk's Serenade for Strings on the radio. Although few would claim that Chadwick is a composer of similar stature, his mature serenade, for all its influences, seems to me at least as worthy a piece as Suk's youthful one - for all its influences. (In fact both are influenced by Dvorák, later Suk's father-in-law.)
And yet there seems to be just one recording of the Chadwick available as opposed to well over a dozen of the Suk. Clearly somebody needs to think up a popular work with which to pair the Chadwick - the Suk is, after all, frequently found on disc alongside his father-in-law's own serenade.
The evening opened with Corelli's Concerto Grosso Op.6 No.6; this was lively and spirited, with nicely judged (and executed) dynamics. Special mention must be made of the concertino group of Yasuko Eastman, Sue Innes and Mary Smith, who played stylishly and with aplomb. Also of continuo player Syd Bulman-Fleming, who stepped into the breach at less than 24 hours' notice (and with a single rehearsal) - one would never have known.
I have been attending Victoria Chamber Music concerts for some years now. In that time they have progressed from an enthusiastic group with promise, to a thoroughly reliable ensemble, to their present position, as a notable force in Victoria's musical life.
Would that all musical organisations approached their programming so adventurously. Given sufficiently committed performances, such as Friday's, even the unfamiliar will usually find a receptive audience.
And this was just the opening salvo in their season.
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