This road trip through twentieth-century American music makes for an
attractive and accessible programme. This starts with Aaron Copland’s
Violin Sonata a work dedicated to the memory of his friend
Lieutenant Harry H. Dunham who died in the Second World War. Copland
commenced the score in 1942 completing it the next year in Hollywood during
work on the film score
The North Star. We hear a compelling reading
by Ehnes and Weiss of this fascinating work that deserves wider circulation.
Maintaining an intensely buoyant mood in the opening
Andante
semplice I feel the influence of the ballets: the contemporaneous
Rodeo and
Appalachian Spring that was to come later. The
central
Lento feels sultry with an undertow of uneasy calm. Finally
the
Allegretto giusto starts in a vivacious mood which soon becomes
serious whilst maintaining energy.
From 1901 Charles Ives’s attractive single movement
Largo for
violin, clarinet and piano is taken from his early violin sonata known as
the
Pre-First Sonata. This in turn originated as a work for violin
and organ. Moretti, Morales and Polonsky gleam in this intensely
contemplative score.
The
Piano Trio from 1937 is one of Leonard Bernstein’s lesser
known works and for good reason. It was written whilst the nineteen year old
was still a student of Walter Piston at Harvard University. Evidently
Bernstein later reused some of the music for his musical
On the
Town. Not surprisingly this youthful
Piano Trio is uneven in
quality showing little evidence of the magnificence that was to come. The
first movement both opens and closes rather cheerlessly with a central
section that feels like a vivacious romp. Striking are the animated
syncopated rhythms that characterise the central
Tempo di Marcia.
The
Finale opens with a
Largo that is monotonous but which
gives way to flippant and slightly jazzy exuberance. Keefe, Peled and Neiman
supply an abundance of vitality yet remain in control.
The shortest piece here is Elliot Carter’s
Elegy for viola and
piano. Composed in 1943 it survived Carter’s rejection of works that he
wrote prior to the Second World War. It’s an agreeable single movement
strong on calm reflection with an emotional central section. O’Neill and
Polonsky form a thoughtful partnership and play with sensitivity and
taste.
Samuel Barber won the Prix de Rome in 1935 and not after embarked on his
String Quartet in B minor, Op. 11 which he completed in 1936.
Dissatisfied with the third and final movement Barber eventually replaced it
with a
Molto allegro (
Come prima) of less than half the
length of the original. Crucially Barber arranged the central
Molto
adagio for string orchestra known as the
Adagio for Strings.
Premièred by Toscanini in 1938 the piece has become one of the best known
pieces of American music. As a stand-alone work the
Adagio for
Strings is especially associated with times of mourning. It was used to
accompany the state funerals of Presidents Roosevelt and Kennedy. It’s all
very impressively done by the engaging Ehnes Quartet led by James Ehnes a
sensitive player who performs immaculately
. The opening
Molto
allegro e appassionato communicates a sense of isolation and the
playing of the
Molto adagio is solemn, imposing and haunting. To
close, the short bleak, inhospitable Molto Allegro (come prima) is imbued
with melancholy. Incidentally in 2012 the Ying Quartet recorded Barber’s
String Quartet and included the original third movement marked
Andante mosso, un poco agitato - allegro molto, alla breve - a
longer movement that was played for a year or two before being
discarded.
The sound is clear and natural balanced. The booklet notes titled
Highways and byways are concise and serve up the essentials.
Unfortunately the dates for Copland are twice given erroneously as
1900-1900.
This impressive collection is given the finest possible advocacy by the
Seattle Chamber Music Society. What stands out is the elevated level of
performance consistency across all five works; this and a noticeable and
impressive beauty of tone coupled with unerring unity of playing.
Michael Cookson
Previous review:
Steve Arloff
Performer detailsCopland: James Ehnes, violin and
Orion Weiss, piano
Ives: Amy Schwartz Moretti (violin), Ricardo Morales
(clarinet) Anna Polonsky (piano)
Bernstein: Erin Keefe (violin), Amit
Peled (cello), Adam Neiman (piano)
Carter: Richard O’Neill (viola), Anna
Polonsky (piano)
Barber: Ehnes Quartet (James Ehnes (violin), Amy
Schwartz Moretti (violin), Richard O’Neill (viola), Robert deMaine
(cello))
