CMSFW brings taste and refinement to 20th-century gems
The Modern Art Museum once again hosted the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth for a vibrant concert of assorted works by Zoltán Kodály, Amy Beach, and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The performers were CMSFW artistic director Gary Levinson on violin, the Amernet Quartet’s violinist Avi Nagin and violist Michael Klotz, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra principal cellist Alan Steele, and pianist Baya Kakouberi.
From the vigorous opening of Kodály’s Duo for Violin and Cello, Op. 7, Levinson and Steele played with assuredness in a shared Hungarian style. The melodic and harmonic language is similar to that of the composer’s unaccompanied cello sonata, and Bartók’s music from the 1910s. The performers’ sonorous and virtuosic lines complemented each other nicely. At times they traded lyrical melodies over pizzicato accompaniments, at others brief unison passages were well matched.
Both players skillfully brought out the wide variety of articulations and tone colors called for, including spiccato, harmonics, and mutes. The slow middle movement allowed for flowing, extended solos from each instrument. The finale was the most rhythmically vibrant, rushing to a frenzied but precise ending.
In Amy Beach’s Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 150, Levinson and Steele were joined by Kakouberi, whose washes of arpeggios were feathery under the cello’s plaintive opening tune and the chromatic answer from the violin. The three parts eventually wove together in engaging layers, as Kakouberi made bold flourishes in the accompaniments to grand unison themes from Levinson and Steele. Good communication among the players aided in the charming performance of this well balanced, tasteful work. The piano rarely stood in the foreground, and Kakouberi’s wonderful touch lent an exquisite clarity.
In its vaulting themes and rhythmic energy, Korngold’s Piano Quintet in E major, Op. 15, betrays the influence of his most famous contemporary fellow German, Richard Strauss. Adding Nagin on second violin and Klotz on viola to fill out the quintet, the first movement suffered from a ragged beginning among the strings. Coordination soon settled in, with sweet sonorities in solos by both Steele and Klotz, and later in the movement by Levinson.
Nagin and Klotz played the restrained inner parts persuasively, helping to clarify some of Korngold’s densest counterpoint. Pizzicato passages in the four string instruments were clean and well aligned, setting up complex unison runs that the group smoothly expanded into colorful homophonic passages.
Korngold’s second movement is a set of variations on one of his recently completed songs, first presented here in octaves in the viola and cello. Considerable textural and harmonic density alternated with spells of relief in open textures and beautiful melodies. The ensemble reacted splendidly to the work’s variety of invention. Their flexibility emphasized some of the most exposed and attractive themes from Levinson and Steele, rendered with richness and warmth.
Kakouberi again provided the solid foundation, with a handful of tastefully lofty interjections. The group was compelling in the movement’s quietly ethereal conclusion, especially in the strings’ harmonics. The finale featured Levinson’s creamy tone in a bold solo, and ensemble precision in several descending spinning passages.
With impressive versatility, the players rose to the challenging array of styles among pieces written within just a twenty-four-year period. For each, their independent voices merged successfully into a single fabric.
The Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth’s next concert takes place May 10. The program includes works for voice, piano, and strings by Gliére, Barber, and Clara and Robert Schumann. cmsfw.org.
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