Texas Classical Review

The Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth included works by Gabriel Fauré, Camille Saint-Saëns and Antonín Dvořák as part of their “Subtle Connections Across the World” November concert held at the Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art. Artistic director and violinist Gary Levinson was joined by violinist Asi Matathias, violist Michael Klotz, cellist Inbal Segev and pianist Louis Lortie.

Throughout the afternoon, the various combinations of instruments complemented each other with excellent sound quality and an ideal balance. The violins of Matathias and Levinson each had a clear, singing tone, as did Klotz’s viola.  Segev’s cello sounded rich and resonant in its low register while also matching the clarity of the upper strings when playing in unison or octave passages.  Under Lortie’s hands, the piano furnished a range of textures from delicate scales and arpeggios to full chordal sonorities, all to fill out the ensemble or serve as a distinct voice from the strings. 

Matathias, Segev and Lortie began the afternoon with Fauré’s Piano Trio in D Minor, Op. 120, a rarely performed work by the composer. Lortie and Segev initiated the first movement, the piano accompaniment underscoring the first theme sounded from Segev’s cello before being joined in dialogue by Matathias’s violin. 

The clear, resonant tone quality of both Matathias’s violin and Segev’s cello were on full display again in the slow movement as they engaged in a dialogue over soft chords from Lortie before embarking on an extended lyrical theme in unison.

The opening gesture of the finale seems to recall the melodic line of “Vesti la giubba” from Leoncavallo’s I pagliacci, a resemblance that Matathias and Segev appeared to draw on when launching the energetic finale with this vigorous motif, which continued to punctuate their dialogue over the finale’s course.

Saint-Saëns’s Piano Trio No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18, saw Levinson take Matathias’s place as violinist in the trio.  Another rarely performed work, Saint-Saëns’s trio sounded full-bodied and even daunting after the relatively transparent work by Fauré. Indeed, Lortie’s part for the Saint-Saëns’s trio was highly virtuosic throughout, suffused with sparkling scalar runs, rapid arpeggios and sonorities that used the full range of the piano. 

Such features characterized Lortie’s piano dialogue with Segev’s cello and Levinson’s violin throughout both the first movement and the finale.  Even the scherzo included rapid scalar passages and thundering sforzandos from Lortie to counter the delicate figures provided by Segev and Levinson.  The slow movement, by contrast, exhibited a distinct austerity as Levinson sustained an octave pedal tone while first Lortie and then Segev sounded the movement’s chant-like subject before all took it up in turn. 

For the second half of the program, Klotz and Matathias joined Levinson, Segev and Lortie for a rousing performance of Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 81, a piece renowned alongside the piano quintets of Schumann, Brahms and Schubert.  Because the greater resources of the piano quintet allow for an almost orchestral scale, the string instruments tended to function as a unit balancing the piano, often sounding like a small string section even as individual players complemented one another through dialogues.

Rhythmic precision, already immaculately demonstrated by the performers, was especially crucial to the quintet’s delightful mix of dance rhythms and folk idioms amid the  wildly swinging tempi, and the members of the ensemble easily rose to the occasion. In fact, the personal engagement and interaction between players was even more visible during the quintet’s performance.  Segev’s glances to colleagues and visible enjoyment of the piece were directly tied to her crisply meticulous and flawless playing throughout, while the expressive depth of Klotz’s viola during the “dumka” movement was enhanced by his presence on stage and the responses it prompted from the other players.  

Even that most serious of devices – a fugato – was executed by the ensemble with a buoyant spirit that belied its strictness in favor of a zeal and enthusiasm that made for a captivating performance and a splendid afternoon.  

The Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth’s next concert takes place January 10, 2026. The program includes Dvořák’s Piano Quartet No. 2 and Louise Farrenc’s Piano Quintet No. 1. cmsfw.org