Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth roves widely to open 2025
The in-house ensemble of the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth was in the spotlight for the concert series’ first program of 2025.
Saturday afternoon’s performance at the Museum of Modern Art opened with Mozart’s Piano Trio in E flat major, K, 498. As artistic director and violinist Gary Levinson explained in a pre-concert talk, Mozart’s trio was originally written for clarinet (likely for his friend, clarinetist Anton Stadler), but the composer was encouraged by his publisher to prepare a supplemental version featuring violin to possibly boost sales.
Saturday’s performance by Levinson, violist Iakov Zats and pianist Anton Nel reflected the subtle changes in character of Mozart’s arrangement, notably in the more uniform timbre of the string instruments and the supple phrasing and dynamics of Levnson’s violin. The spirited first movement was marked by clear articulation, a singing tone from all players and a good balance overall, although Zats—in his CMSFW debut—initially seemed a bit reticent in style compared to his colleagues.
Still, a fine clarity and balance was maintained throughout the following minuet and trio. The finale, a rondo based on a soaring melody, conveyed the impression of an active conversation as the players exchanged the movement’s recurring theme, Levinson and Zats in close rapport as they engaged with Nel’s sparkling piano.
Next on the program were the Three Madrigals for violin and viola (1947) by the prolific 20th-century Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů. Each of the three movements is marked by hints of Bohemian folk styles and dance-like rhythms, often reflected in hemiolas or other metric shifts.
The first piece began with tremolos in both parts that quickly expanded to short, lively melodic fragments that Zats and Levinson rapidly passed between each other, alternating with contrasting passages of broader, lyrical material. The second piece began like a concentrated version of the first, if more lyrical; trills by both Levinson and Zats were quickly revealed to be thematic gestures that the players alternately interspersed with ascending chromatic runs before jointly bringing the movement to a tranquil resolution.
The last of the Madrigals saw a return to the energy of the first, with traded motifs between Levinson and Zats creating the effect of hockets. Despite this energy, Zats produced perhaps the most memorable moment of this last movement with an impassioned solo melody that Levinson took up in response before a return to the activity of the movement’s opening. Throughout both musicians played with a rich, full sonority.
Following the intermission, Levinson and cellist Robert deMaine provided a bravura bonus piece with Johan Halvorsen’s arrangement of the passacaglia from Handel’s Harpsichord Suite in G Minor. The piece unfurled like a series of cascading waves as the two players infused successive iterations of the underlying harmonic pattern with florid scalar runs, dazzling arpeggios, rapid-fire pizzicato gestures, and ardent melodies in the fervent adagio section.
The Piano Quartet in E flat by Robert Schumann served as a grand conclusion to the program with its quasi-orchestral scope and the participation of all the performers. The slow introduction, bold main theme and full sonority of the first movement seemed especially evocative of this orchestral quality.
The main theme of the scherzo saw the entire group engaged in a fiery theme sounded in unison; this was interspersed with two contrasting lyrical passages that prominently featured melodic solos from Zats and deMaine. A lyrical cello solo from deMaine also marked the beginning of the slow movement before being joined by the other players.
The finale capped the quartet with a bold fugue having a subject that recalled the opening theme from the first movement and relentless scalar motion of the scherzo.Nel’s crisp articulation rendered it particularly effectively, providing a strong foundation for the statements from his colleagues as they built up the texture. The quartet, like the program overall, effectively summed up Schumann’s own proscription for chamber music: “no instrument dominates and each has something to say.”
The Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth’s next concert takes place February 1. The program includes Beethoven’s Piano Trio in E flat Major, Op. 1, no. 1, Franck’s Piano Quintet in F Minor and a new work TBA. cmsfw.org
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