A Smashing Start
Mark Gainer, oboe
THE SECOND ANNUAL Mozart in the South (MITS) Festival, organized and staged by Chamber Music Charleston, got off to a smashing start Thursday evening with an ambitious and varied chamber program at St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church.
With its blend of chamber and orchestral music, MITS is an important feature of musical life in the Holy City—especially given the current turmoil over the future of our beloved Charleston Symphony (CSO)—many of whose members perform for this short, but sweet festival. Not only does the MITS keep many of our idled musicians busy (and paid); it also keeps first-rate music before Charleston’s serious music fans, reminding us of the fabulous musical resources within our community.
First up was W. A. Mozart’s elegant and gracious Oboe Quartet in F Major, K. 370. Doing the honors was a fabulous foursome of CSO veterans: Frances Hsieh (violin), Nonoko Okada (viola), Timothy O’Malley (cello), and Mark Gainer (oboe). The sunny, smile-inducing opening Allegro movement gave way to the poignant, minor key-hued Adagio. The players positively sparkled in the finale: a lively Rondo. The music was a wonderful showcase for Mark Gainer’s perennially sweet oboe: very much the lead instrument here. Mozart gave him quite a few challenging moments and delicate filigree passages that demonstrated his rare virtuosity and interpretive powers.
Marguerite Lynn Williams, harp
A fresh crew of musicians then took the stage for French impressionist master Claude Debussy’s glowing and evocative Danses Sacrée et Profane: a two-section pierce that moves from a modally-inflected slow episode to a livelier waltz that, while written in a conventional key (D major), still offers unusual harmonic devices that give the work an ancient feel. Marguerite Lynn Williams’ ravishing harp artistry kept our ears glued to the dreamy music, superbly supported by Megan and Alan Molina (violins), Simon Ertz (viola), and Alex Kramer (cello).
The final work was one of the greatest chamber masterpieces of all time: Felix Mendelssohn’s miraculous String Octet in E Major. Much of the miracle lies in the fact that the composer was just a boy of sixteen when he wrote it (not even Mozart at the same age composed at this level of sophistication). But that should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Mendelssohn’s wonderful twelve String Symphonies, which he wrote between the ages of twelve and fourteen.
Yuriy Bekker, violin
The Octet is many things to many people. Some enthuse about its almost “symphonic” scope and sound; others rave about its magical, fairy-tale effect—very much in keeping with another of Mendelssohn’s early masterpieces: his quicksilver overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Even though the octet is formally described as a work for double string quartet (four violins with pairs of violas and cellos), I personally think of it as a kind of concerto for the lead violin: played here by the formidable fiddler, Yuriy Bekker. The entire work pivoted on his prominent lines; and you just knew—from the way the other musicians (all of the above-named string players) followed him with both ears and eyes—who was in charge here.
And what a wondrously rare privilege it was to experience this chamber icon: you seldom hear it in concert, simply because it’s so hard to find eight string players at any given place and time who are good enough to pull it off. Except for the second movement—the songful and often heartrending Andante—this is a work of fantasy-ridden, manic locomotion. The opening Allegro movement is bold and brazen, and the finale (marked Presto, with its amazing fugato section) is a model of headlong exuberance. But the nimble third-movement Scherzo is the most extraordinary of them all, with its scurrying tempos and elfin delicacy.
I was blessed to hear this work in Charleston just a few months ago in Spoleto’s esteemed Chamber series, from international A-list musicians who set world-class standards. But our very own Charleston-based musicians performed it here within a gnat’s whisker as well. Who needs to go to New York when we have musicians of this caliber at our local beck and call?
So sorry if you missed this one. But the good news is that MITS has two more choice concerts in store for us: an orchestral program Friday night (8:00 P.M. at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke & St. Paul) and an all-woodwind extravaganza at the festival’s finale on Sunday at Middleton Gardens. There’s also the Little Mozart Circus at Marion Square on Saturday.
Check out full details at www.MozartInTheSouth.org.
Lindsay Koob is the Charleston City Paper’s classical music critic. Follow him on his blog: www.eargasms.com
