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CHAMBER REVIEW

Brahms' G Minor Piano Quartet Performance July 29 at the Hanna Center

PASSIONATE BRAHMS-SCHOENBERG MUSIC CLOSES VOM FESTIVAL SUMMER

by Abby Wasserman
Sunday, July 29, 2018

An extraordinary program of chamber music by Brahms and Schoenberg attracted a capacity crowd to the Valley of the Moon Music Festival’s final concert July 29th in Sonoma’s Hanna Center. It opened with a richly expressive reading by Festival Laureate violinist Rachell Wong and pianist Jeffrey LaDeur of Brahms’ Scherzo in C Minor from the 1853 F.A.E. Sonata. Ms. Wong’s playing was especially sensitive, and paired with Mr. LaDeur’s clarion pianism, it was a real treat.

For the second selection, the Festival co-directors chose Arnold Schoenberg’s emotional tone poem Verklärte Nacht, (Transfigured Night), Op. 4, composed in three weeks in Vienna in 1899. Schoenberg greatly admired Brahms and chose a string sextet—the string quartet expanded by two that Brahms experimented with—for his stunning late-Romantic work. There is a popular version for string orchestra.

The composer’s inspiration was a narrative poem by the German writer Richard Dehmel (1863-1920). The poem presents a lovers’ dilemma: a young woman confesses during a night walk with her beloved that she’s pregnant by another man. Her trepidation is great as she awaits a response, while he fights to bring his emotions under control. When he answers, it is to say that he will accept the child as his own. The night is transfigured. Above them, the moon shimmers a blessing. All of this is subtly expressed in the music.

The ensemble was coached and led by violinist Owen Dalby, and most of the musicians had not previously played the work. But Mr. Dalby guided them masterfully, and all were superb.

Through the piece’s tremulous ascents and descents, crescendos and diminuendos, its deep shadows and ethereal lights, it was enthralling experience. The musicians breathed as one. Violists Lauren Nelson and Andrew Gonzalez played with a golden tone; Tanya Tomkins and Madeleine Bouissou’s cello sound was warmly burnished, and Mr. Dalby’s and Rachell Wong’s violins were luminous and emotional. Toward the end, Mr. Dalby played a solo of great sweetness over the rhythmic underpinning of the other musicians. When the music ended, the audience remained silent, not wanting to break the spell, until Mr. Dalby and the others lowered their bows. The listeners then rose to express their gratitude.

After an intermission, the audience returned for the culminating work, Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25, written in 1861. This exploratory masterpiece still challenges the listener after 150 years. Written in traditional structure (allegro –intermezzo – andante con moto – rondo alla zingarese: presto), it altered many traditions of chamber music. Open-ended motifs are introduced, explored briefly and abandoned to make way for other motifs that seem to owe no allegiance to any but themselves. On first hearing it isn’t an easy work to initially grasp. One could consider it a whirlwind tour of Brahms’ music vocabulary.
The most dominant flavor is Hungarian, particularly in the second and fourth movements. The fourth (rondo alla zingarese) is a wild gypsy dance alive with mixed rhythms—sensual, jumpy and romantic. The Mendelssohn-era piano and the violin, viola and cello with gut strings and horsehair bows, achieved a perfect sonorous balance, and the musicians—Eric Zivian, Mr. Dalby, Mr. Gonzalez and Ms. Tomkins—were a consummate ensemble. After the last notes died, the audience immediately jumped to its feet. It was a triumphal conclusion to a splendid Festival.

In the late afternoon sun on the Hall’s lovely patio the performers, Festival staff, and members of the audience mixed and enjoyed the final Festival gratis wine and appetizers.
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