Nuttall Concludes Chamber Series with Finesse
Geoff Nuttall
HARD TO BELIEVE, isn’t it, that on Sunday afternoon Director of Chamber Music Geoff Nuttall strode onto the Dock Street Theatre stage for the last time of this 35th season of Spoleto USA.
Getting down to business first, Nuttall offered the full house an apt description of Niccolo Paganini, whose famed “Moses Phantasy” Variations on a Theme by Rossini was scheduled at the top of the final program, Chamber XI. Considered the finest of all violin virtuosos, Paganini wrote compositions for himself to play, long regarded as the most difficult works in the repertoire.
A consummate showman, he dressed the part of the devil he was storied to be in league with, all in black, had lost all his bottom teeth, and his gaunt appearance only added to the myth. Imprisoned as a result of his predilection for gambling, he played his violin until only one string was left: the G string (actually tuned up a minor third to sound B). Thus, this fantasy is written to be played only on that string—here, on cello.
If anyone can make this piece fascinating to hear and see, it is Alicia Weilerstein. Accompanied by Inon Barnatan, a welcome newcomer who joyfully provided the rippling arpeggios and oom-pah-pah band sound on piano, Weilerstein’s nimble fingers never stopped skittering and sliding up and down that one string, producing a melody that is by turns haunting, then lively and fun. A bravura performance from the 29-year old wonder in her eighth year here.
Tyler Duncan
Nuttall then extended his thanks to “the band,” their party hosts, Spoleto General Director Nigel Redden, the Spoleto board and staff, and the Dock’s staff. Back to business: Franz Schubert was only 22 when he wrote the beloved “Die Forelle” (“The Trout”), “one of his biggest hits” of the more than 600 songs he penned in his short life. Baritone Tyler Duncan, with the peripatetic Barnatan on piano, was persuaded to return to the chamber series to sing the story of an angler who spots the trout darting along in the water and resorts to muddying the water to confuse the trout and catch him (perhaps the sad undercurrent almost always present in Schubert’s works).
Duncan exudes charm, while using his rich baritone to catch the mood of the piece with natural animation, spot-on German diction and an always-expressive face. Our treat as Nuttall thanked the Chamber audiences as well, was to stand and sing with Duncan one verse of The Trout, which, if we did not know the words, he directed us to sing on one syllable, “Bum.” Duncan led an enthusiastic chorus, which ended in laughter as Weilerstein and Hsin-Yun Huang danced onto the stage from the wings, grinning like naughty school girls.
Nuttall with Charles Wadsworth
Aside from the music, what was for me the most touching note in this final concert was the voice of Charles Wadsworth winging down to Nuttall from the stage-left artist’s box: “You have no idea how proud and happy you’ve made me.” How right is Wadsworth’s choice of Nuttall to follow in his footsteps.
The third highlight of the afternoon was Schubert’s “Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667” (“The Trout”) played with all the splendor and warmth it deserves. While we have not had all the members of the St. Lawrence Quartet here this year, with Scott St. John busy being a new Dad and Lesley Robertson absent shortly after the start of the Festival, replaced by violists Carolyn Blackwell, Danny Phillips, and Hsin-Yun Huang, no matter. Pianist Pedja Muzijevic, who like Livia Sohn had never appeared here until Nuttall’s reign, took the starring role in this panoply of stars. He plus Nuttall on violin, Huang, viola, Christopher Costanza on cello, and Anthony Manza, double bass, outshone themselves in this lilting Viennese-flavored theme and variations.
Professionals of this order could sit down together without a single rehearsal—not that they would; in fact, they rehearse after the concerts for three to four hours daily—and make anything sound exactly the way it should, and better than you dreamed it could.
While you may have noted some loss of cohesion if you were determined to hear it, and perhaps a release not quite as clean, one note lingering for a nano-second at the end of a movement, these serve only to assure us that these people are human after all.
Y’all come back now, ya hear?
