Escape to Chamber Music
St. Lawrence String Quartet
DUCKING INTO the recently refreshed Dock Street Theatre on an especially sweltering afternoon, I realized that this is one of my favorite moments of the festival. It is one of those things that makes an ordinary day extraordinary, which is so good for one’s mental health.
This particular day I sat in the balcony in a Lincoln-like box close to the stage to see not only the gifted musicians at work, but the beautiful theater around me. I was prepared to miss the beloved Charles Wadsworth whose folksy humor always made me giggle, but I was pleasantly pleased with the handsome and informed Geoff Nuttall as the following act.
J.S. Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto No. 5” was first to be played with jaunty lightness by nine members of the Baroque Chamber Orchestra.
Pedja Muzijevic
Five violins, a cello, a bass, and a flute joined harpsichordist Pedja Muzijevic who stole the show with a roaring tempo of seemingly millions of notes resulting in impromptu applause.
Next was Beethoven’s “Cavatina” translated as “Little Song” from his string quartet No. 13, Op.130 and played by the St. Lawrence String Quartet. From the first note, I felt like weeping. The sad, unbroken melody tempered with a steady force portrayed such beauty until the last notes celestially slipped into the ether.
Third was Chopin’s “Introduction and Polonaise Brillant” for piano and cello played by the the virtuosic cello goddess, Alisa Weilerstein. She wore a red satin dress that, had the house lights been on, plenty of men would have been blushing. To watch Ms. Weilerstein play is to see what music feels like, as her delivery is so sensual and dramatic that you feel at times you should turn your head.
Alisa Weilerstein
Not everything was about beauty on the program. The last piece, a premier commission, was written by Jonathan Berger for the songstress Dawn Updshaw and the St. Lawrence Quartet. Berg introduced the piece that was taken from the accounts of three schizophrenics who believed they were Jesus Christ. The point of view of the songs was taken from the mothers of these characters and transformed into imagined mothers of God. Piano, strings, and voice tackled the difficult sound steeped in anguished tension. The words of the text were easy to follow with a program insert as the commanding Upshaw bravely maneuvered the strange composition where the instruments slashed, vibrated, and attacked the raw and compelling score.
You never know what the program will be when you attend a Chamber Music Series concert, but I personally think this time it was divinely chosen just for me.
Wow……