Edgar Meyer shines bright with the Dover Quartet

Edgar Meyer

Monday July 22 saw the great contrabassist Edgar Meyer join the Dover Quartet for a spectacular performance going into the final week of the CMNW Summer Festival. The program featured works by Bach, Brahms and a composition of Meyer's own.

Sonata No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1027 (in this case played by Katie Hyun on violin, Camden Shaw cello and Edgar Meyer on contrabass) opened the everning. It was fascinating to hear the sonata without a continuo as one thinks of it, but with two independent melodic instruments forming the support for the violin.

Meyer found the most dulcet timbre imaginable on his intrument. All three performers were able to bring pitch-perfect accuracy to the most dissonant and abstruse harmonic developments, as surely as if it were a 3-voice fugue played on a clavier. Meyer's ceaselessly gentle yet insistent mezzo-staccato was a thing of beauty. In the finale the pizzicato from the bass was so delicately and intuitively phrased--the perfect symmetry and balance cannot be overstated.

The approachable complexity of the composition required that all three perform at an equally high level to properly realize it, and the result was elegant, energetic and indescribably lovely. Absolutely everything that is best and most beautiful about baroque chamber music was present in this small ensemble.

Meyer's String Quintet (1995) opened with a gossamer Appalachian reverie. Consisting of the Dover Quartet plus Meyer, the texture was incredibly full-throated while still being gentle.  As the movement morphed into a more somber rallentando, Meyer sawed away in what could only be described as a rally into a hoe-down, and the group thundered together in primitive chordal phrases.

The second movement started as a funky blues tune, with both bass and cello having at it. Eerie sul ponticello wails from the violins presented a disturbing emotional counterpoint to the grooviness going on elsewhere. At one point Meyer had the bass neighing like a horse. The quirky, personalized nature of the composition was always present.

 In the third, viola and cello played in chilling unison while strange, warped glissandi from the bass interrupted the plaintive monodic somnolence. The finale began with ceaseless trills and tremolandi, while ominous, syncopated pedal point grumbling from Meyer lay underneath. The entire work seemed, from a technical standpoint, a loving and intensely fascinating study into the textures and effects of a string ensemble employing jazz, blues and bluegrass idioms.

Brahms String Quintet in G Major, Op 3, formed the second half of the evening. This time it was the Dover Quartet plus Paul Neubauer on the extra viola. The glorious sawing from Shaw on his cello was accompanied by a strident molto vibrato from all, forming a vision of pure fire and passion. Mysterious and subdued, the players all carefully held back in the second movement, lending a feeling of quiet tension, like a coiled spring. The poco allegretto played like a grandiose serenade. It is fascinating how the addition of one more bowed instrument, of whatever kind, transforms the sonic possibilities of a string quartet from a chamber ensemble to that of what is essentially a small string orchestra. The amazing ensemble playing displayed a deep and intimate understanding not only of how he or she could sound, but of how they could and should sound. The Dover Quartet has never disappointed in all the times I've seen them, and this was no exception.

Chamber Music Northwest premieres a new concerto by David Schiff at Concertos through the Centuries.

David Schiff

The CMNW Summer Festival continued on Monday, July 8 with a program entitled  Concertos through the Centuries, featuring works by Bach, Brahms, and a newly commissioned chamber concerto by long-time festival collaborator David Schiff.

The first piece, Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C Minor by Bach (BWV 1060R)  left much to be desired. While recognizing that this concert did not purport to use period instruments or historically informed performance techniques, still there are things that can be imitated on modern instruments: the dry saltando of a gut string, or the quavering softness of an un-keyed hole, for instance, and certainly conscientious phrasing and attention to small details can go along way in giving a baroque 'feel' to a performance on modern instruments (as was later achieved in the second Bach concerto of the evening.) All of these performers are aware of that, yet it was not apparent from this performance. While possessed of a full and even rich timbre, the outing was plagued by mushy phrasing and lack of a strong pulse.

The world premiere of Schiff's Chamber Concerto No. 1 for Clarinet and Ensemble was a different matter entirely.  The opening movement, Playing with Friends (Jeux d'Enfants) must have been a somber game to start, but with Schiff directing, David Shifrin navigated these still waters with a delicious huskiness on his clarinet, and was joined by bassoonist Julie Feves for some hypnotic chordal work. It exploded into a cacophonous exultation, followed by a dizzying solo turn for the clarinet. A saucy pizzicato from the strings and spare punctuations from the percussion sounded more like childish jubilation; one felt a bit of Bernstein at times. As the strings and horns burst into wild discord and the percussionist dished out ridiculously tasty syncopations, it was as fun as eating too much candy when you're six years old...and then subito al niente.

The second movement, Arietta, seemed to border on the humdrum at times until it all began to make sense in the larger context of the movement. By the end everything came together and it was truly poignant. The last movement, Rondo al'ebraica, was true to its title. Wild and wonky, non-traditional but unmistakably klezmer,  Shifrin was constantly simmering on the clarinet, always threatening to explode into a full rolling boil but somehow never reaching that crest. The percussion was fascinating, as long, expansive hits on the ride cymbal lay a groundwork for the wild partying above.

The Brahms was a scaled down version of the Adagio from Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major. Arranger Daniel Schlosberg did duties as the soloist.  Sophie Shao's broad, comely cello solo complemented the rich and convincing arrangement. Yearning and poignant, the piano and cello loomed out of the dense texture like a purring of enamored titans. Schlosberg's huge solo work made the whole thing feel like a cloud on which one could dream and never want to wake.

The final concerto of the evening was Bach's Brandenburg No. 4, (BWV 1049) and it suffered from none of the lethargy of the evening's opener.  There was crispness of articulation from the flutes and a judicious, minimalist rubato from violist Yura Lee. The interplay between the ripieno and concertante was absolutely seamless and exciting. The Andante was heavy-handed yet not unlovely, and in the finale the solo work from the concertante was magnificent. Lee's job as band-leader held everything together; her unflagging pace and vibrant playing set the tone that everyone followed.