The Stone River Chamber Players is an ensemble-in-residence in the School of Music at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) in Murphreesboro, Tennessee. Four of the eighteen members of the ensemble performed on tonight’s concert, which was called “An Evening in New York.” It was the ensemble’s New York debut and was attended by many MTSU alumni, who were celebrating the University’s 100th anniversary.
The concert began with the first of the evening’s three piano trios, Beethoven’s Trio in B flat Major for Clarinet, Violoncello and Piano, Opus 11. The performers, clarinetist Todd Waldecker, cellist Christine Kim and pianist Lynn Rice-See all exhibited a fine sense of ensemble, a trait we heard throughout the evening. Mr. Waldecker and Ms. Kim also played with fine intonation. I was quite surprised when the first movement’s exposition was not repeated. These repeats are not ad libitum, but are an essential part of the musical structure; eliminating them throws the balance of the movement out of kilter. So often, repeats are omitted because of doubts as to the audience’s attention span. But a performer’s primary responsibility is to the composer, and doubts about an audience cannot justify ignoring the composer’s explicit instruction. The opening theme of the second movement was beautifully played by each of the performers. The third movement is a set of variations on the aria “Pria ch’io l’impegno” (“Before I go to work”) from an opera then popular in Vienna by Joseph Weigl. I found the variations quite funny, with sweet, angry, mock serious and heroic treatments of the tune. But the performers didn’t bring out the humor I think Beethoven intended, and gave a technically proficient but bland performance. By the way, a translation of the entire first line of the aria is “Before I go to work, I must have something to eat.”
Aram Khachaturian’s Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano (1932), a pleasant work full of orientalisms, followed. During this work violinist Andrea Dawson played with fine intonation and exhibited the same strong sense of ensemble as did her colleagues during their playing of the Beethoven.
After a short pause came the evening’s longest work, Schubert’s monumental Trio in B flat Major for Violin, Violoncello and Piano, D.898. The performers played the opening theme with great passion. But again, the exposition was not repeated. In the second movement, a study in the use of the appoggiatura, in most phrases the string players gave more weight to the final consonant note than to the dissonant note which preceded it. This is backwards – one leans upon (Italian: appoggiare) the dissonant note and relaxes on the final consonance. Not doing this weakens the arch of the phrase. And in the third and fourth movements, the music just didn’t dance enough.
The audience loved the performances by these obviously excellent instrumentalists. But I would have hoped for more inequality to the weight of the downbeats, more shape (forward thrust followed by relaxation) to the phrases. It should be noted, however, that the vast majority of most audiences are not consciously aware of the things I felt warranted what I hope will be taken as constructive criticisms. This is an example of the disparity which often exists between what the musically trained reviewer writes about and what the audience experiences. It also should be noted that while one can praise in a few words, criticisms rarely take less than a few sentences to express.
