The Chamber Music Society of St. Louis presented a program of romantic music in honor of Valentine’s Day on Monday, February 16 at 560 Music Center. While I don’t see any good reason why love and romance should be singled out for one particular day, I will embrace any opportunity to listen to gifted musicians explore the human heart.
The program opened with two student musicians who played with many of the qualities of young love. Andrew Su was accompanied by Elizabeth Carroll on the first movement of Johannes Brahms’ Cello Sonata No. 1 in E minor. They played with simplicity, earnestness and an impressive mutual responsiveness. Let’s hear it for young love and young musicians getting a chance to perform on the concert stage.
From there, Executive and Artistic Director Marc Gordon left the duet mode (that one might have expected to dominate a program dedicated to romantic love) for a solo piano piece by Franz Liszt, performed by Brian Woods, which just goes to show that someone other than Peter Henderson can land a piano gig in this town. Woods’ performance of Liebestraum No. 3 in A-flat major made me think of William Wordsworth’s definition of poetry, “emotion recollected in tranquility,” though, in this case, I would say emotion recollected in tranquility with virtuosity.
Woods was than joined on violin by Xiaoxiao Qiang for a mashup of a meditation by Jules Massenet with a melody by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. I recollected the earnestness of the two student musicians playing together as these more seasoned artists presented a showcase in partnership, in one musician being there for another. Thanks to the emotional registers of the Tchaikovsky and the exquisitely resourceful performances, this was a love song that did not shy away from loss. Love showed through as fragile, as tenuous, yet resilient, enduring.
Next Qiang left the stage, leaving an open seat for Bjørn Ranheim on cello for the final duet of the program. Woods and Ranheim performed “The Swan” from Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens. Ranheim – who has really shown on a number of St. Louis Symphony Orchestra side projects at the Pulitzer and the Sheldon – was transported by this melody. The piece ended almost as soon as it began, though, coming in at under three minutes. I was left thinking that I don’t want love to be so fleeting.
The first half of the program concluded with more Tchaikovsky and the first quartet, a string quartet where Qiang and Ranheim were joined by Ann Fink on violin and Susan Gordon on viola. They performed one movement from Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No. 1. I felt the elemental nature of chamber music, especially a string quartet, hearing those four instruments each with four strings. I heard the musical equivalent of a carefully picked bouquet. This program was beginning to sound like yearning’s greatest hits.
The second half of the program was given over entirely to Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, which is now my favorite piece of classical music, thanks to the SLSO performance of it at Live at the Sheldon on February 5. It says something about St. Louis as a classical music town that one could hear this exquisite piece of music performed beautifully twice in the same month by two different ensembles. For the Chamber Music Society’s program, Woods’ piano was joined by Ranheim on cello, Gordon on Viola and Fink on violin.
Brahms really put love to the test, writing frenetic string lines. Ranheim bowed his cello with wide sweeps of his bow arm and shook his head back and forth as if to restrain emotion. Roles evolved throughout the performance and the emotive center shifted continually, which seems true to love. For all the slashing strings and striding piano, there also were moments of quiet, when the piano spoke simply and the strings responded simply.
The music and musicians hit lows, even little meltdowns, then had to work their way back. Brahms knew that love is a perpetual exercise in conflict resolution. The musicians kept coming back to ensemble episodes working over persistent themes, like running gags or a common understanding in a long partnership. They performed dynamic in unison, even off-kilter, with a partnership in play that characterizes the most satisfying relationships.
The final movement radiated the spirit of the dance, love as both festive and physical. Brahms and this ace quartet performed perhaps most fitting tribute to love in its physical forms in that they achieved so many climaxes before they finished together in collective ensemble play.