Thursday Night Chamber Music
The CSO String Quartet
HOPEFULLY not too many people will read this because the word might get out that Charleston Symphony Orchestra chamber music at the Library Society is a special treat.
Musical hors d’oeuvres on a Thursday night… that’s what it felt like.
For one thing, there is something special about classical music in a scholarly atmosphere, under a 20-foot ceiling, on a black-and-white tile floor, surrounded by books, busts, and oil portraits. It’s less sterile than a concert hall and as intimate as a home study, with better acoustics.
But what really makes these chamber concerts nice is the chance to see the musicians up close—in this case the CSO string quartet and brass quintet—and to hear a tasteful variety of short selections, all within an hour. Then to mingle with the players afterwards during an informal wine and cheese reception.
The quartet, led by concertmaster Yuriy Bekker, treated us to five splendid selections, some of them single movements from full quartets. Among other things, they played a version of Massenet’s “Meditation” from Thais arranged for strings (it is typically played by solo violin or with piano). The second violin, viola, and cello accompanied the soloist with light, rhythmic pizzicato.
Cellist Norbert Lewandowski
The highlight, however, of the first half was Borodin’s Nocturne (third) movement from his famous String Quartet No. 2. I had never seen the piece performed live and was struck by how eloquent, articulate, and polished the conversation is between the four instruments. They hand off phrases to each other mid-sentence and take short turns developing the melody in this charming work that never strays far from its main theme, which makes it extremely pleasant to listen to and follow.
Musicians: Yuriy Bekker violin, Asako Kremer violin, Jan-Marie Joyce viola, Norbert Lewandowski cello.
In the second half, we heard six works for brass, with bass trombonist Thomas Joyce introducing and describing them in his zestful, humorous way. Listening to him talk as well as play demonstrates how much these professionals love the music and enjoy bringing it to our ears.
Chamber concerts like this are also a good opportunity to hear pieces outside your listening norm. For instance, the quintet played two movements from a work (Quintet No. 3 in D flat Major) by Russian composer Victor Ewald (1860–1935), a cello and alto horn player who by day was a civil engineer. As Wikepedia explains, “Among Ewald’s circle of musician friends was a group who became known as The Mighty Handful, consisting of Mily Balakirev (railroad clerk), Alexander Borodin (chemist), César Cui (soldier and engineer), Modest Mussorgsky (Imperial Guard Officer), and Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (navy officer). The musical focal point for Ewald and the Mighty Five, as well as others, was provided by what became known as the ‘Friday Evenings’—weekly soirées for amateur performers and composers at the house of music promoter Mitrofan Petrovich Belaïev (timber merchant), which were initiated in 1888 and continued unbroken until Belaïev’s death in 1904.”
The CSO Brass Quintet at the Library Society
In addition to the pieces by Ewald, the quintet played selections by Schumann and Mascagni, and three lively selections from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story.
Evenings like this are a welcome showcase of talent of which me may not be aware, as well as a chance to learn about music and expand our listening horizons. Here we sit in the twenty-first century with an unbelievable cornucopia of the world’s musical creations at our ready disposal, not only in recordings, but live downtown.
Musicians: Michael Smith trumpet, Susan Messersmith trumpet, Anne Holmi horn, William Zehfuss trombone, Thomas Joyce bass trombone.
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