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Phillip T Young Recital Hall
June 2, 2010
The Galiano Ensemble celebrated ten years of superlative music-making on Wednesday in front of a packed audience in a sold-out Phillip T Young Recital Hall.
It was the sheer numbers in attendance, coupled with a slight miscalculation on arrival times on my part, which resulted in my sitting - for perhaps the first time ever - in the very front row, with my head about level with the stage.
Which meant that I was excellently situated to review the ensemble's footwear: the sparkling diamante, the bejewelled buckles - and that was just the men. From a musical perspective, however, it is possible that what I was hearing was somewhat unrepresentative, in terms of the balance.
But no matter: I could clearly hear every line and the ensemble surely sounded wonderful from any vantage point.
Mozart's Serenade in C minor, K.406 (an arrangement of the quintet, itself an arrangement of a wind serenade) is rather dramatic for its title - nor is C minor a typical key for serenading.
Yariv Aloni directed an excellent performance, from the drama of the opening to the exuberant final pages. The overall sound of the ensemble was marvellous, with a commendably firm bass line and clearly audible inner parts; powerful and forceful without ever becoming strident.
It was interesting to "compare and contrast" (as they used to say on examination papers) the three works on offer: the Mozart was written by a 26-year-old genius, approaching the height of his powers; the Nielsen by a 23-year-old genius who had yet to reveal his true worth; and the Suk by an 18-year-old prodigy who would become a "first-rate second-class composer" (as Richard Strauss once described himself).
Nielsen's Little Suite, his opus one, is a highly accomplished piece, but, a slight Nordic feeling aside, it reveals little or nothing of the mature Nielsen, the master of "progressive tonality".
It is, however, a delightful piece and received an appropriately delectable performance from Aloni and the Galianos. I particularly enjoyed the waltzing intermezzo second movement, smiling music, with lovely trills and pizzicatos.
There has definitely been an upsurge in interest in the music of Josef Suk in recent years, as recognition has finally dawned that he was rather more than merely the son-in-law of Dvoràk.
Suk's Serenade, Op.6 is an early work and a wonderfully accomplished one; the string writing is particularly idiomatic. Yes, there is a clear indebtedness to his teacher (later his father-in-law) but who cares?
The opening movement was light and airy, the second really danced, the adagio was lush and lovely, the finale swept the listener along, from its exuberant opening to the closing dash for the finishing line.
The concert was dedicated to "our beloved friend, mentor and colleague" János Sándor and fittingly the encore was a rapid-fire dance by Leo Weiner (the "other" Hungarian composer), which fairly sizzled along.
It is hard to believe that it is already more than a decade since the Galiano Ensemble first performed; here's to the next (and many subsequent) decades.
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