MUSIC REVIEW--THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC ENSEMBLES

Merkin Concert Hall, October 10, 2010

Reviewed by Bill Breakstone

There are several chamber music ensembles that consist of principal players who are members of our major symphony orchestras. The Boston Symphony is sponsor of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players; the Philadelphia Orchestra features several chamber ensembles, most notably the Philadelphia Woodwind Quintet. And the New York Philharmonic offers a series of concerts performed by its principal players, under the title New York Philharmonic Ensembles. All these ensembles offer a distinct advantage: they allow groupings of instrumentalists beyond the reach of most chamber groups.

The New York Philharmonic Ensembles are composed of principal or assistant principal players from the Orchestra. All are first class musicians and teachers, faculty members of our leading music schools. Yesterday’s concert offered a perfect example of the instrumental variety that can be achieved. The program featured three works, two completely unfamiliar and one a masterpiece of the chamber literature.

The concert began with the Chants d’arriere-saison by Bernard Andres for harp and bassoon, composed in 1995, and performed by Nancy Allen, harp, and Judith LeClair, bassoon. Andres is a little-know French composer, born in 1941. This seven movement tonal composition varies in mood among its short movements. There are dissonances, but they are few in number and very brief. The overall impression is a leisurely tone painting featuring this unusual combination of instruments, especially the dark coloration of the bassoon. Both performers are among the finest practitioners on their instruments and are principals in the Orchestra. Their performance had an effortless quality belying the difficulty of the parts.

The program continued with another rarity, the Sextet in B-flat major, Op. 271 by Carl Reinecke, written in 1905. The work is scored for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and two horns.

Reinecke was a German composer, born in 1824. He was a composer, teacher, administrator, pianist and conductor. He was known by Mendelssohn, Robert and Clara Schumann, and Liszt, whose daughter was later taught by Reinecke in Paris, and who spoke of ‘his beautiful, gentle legato and lyrical touch’. He was appointed as director of the Leipzig Conservatory in 1897, and transformed it into one of the most renowned teaching institutions in Europe. Among its students were Grieg, Muck, Sullivan and Weingartner. Reinecke considered it his responsibility to perpetuate the example of the Classical composers; he was very conscious of his position as a representative and guardian of tradition, and also made it his business to foster the music of the pre-Classical composers, particularly Bach.

In Leipzig, he was also the conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra until 1895, when Arthur Nikisch succeeded him. As a composer, Reinecke was best known for his numerous piano compositions, representing virtually every musical form of the time and, despite being influenced by Mendelssohn’s melodic style, was stylistically nearer to Schumann.

His Sextet is a late work, and is very Brahmsian in all respects. The opening Allegro moderato is written in true sonata allegro form, and contains a majestic first theme introduced by the first horn; the second movement is a lyrical Adagio molto with an up tempo trio section, featuring a very virtuosic flute part; the finale, marked Allegro moderato, is the briefest of the three movements and is in rondo form. The Philharmonic performers were flutist Mindy Kaufman, oboist Liang Wang, clarinetist Pascual Martinez Fortesa, bassoonist Kim Laskowski, and horns Philip Myers and R. Allen Spanjer. To these ears, the Sextet was a true gem, a complete surprise given its obscurity, and yet another example of how the chamber literature is replete with so many relatively unknown masterpieces.

The concert closed with an energetic and masterly performance of Antonin Dvorak’s Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81, performed by Michelle Kim and Hae-Young Ham, violins, Robert Rinehart, viola, Ru-Pei Yeh, cello and guest artist Eric Huebner, piano. This masterpiece of the chamber repertoire is an audience favorite, and is often performed. This reading was as fine as any I’ve ever heard, and I’ve had the pleasure of listening to the Quintet on numerous concert programs, the last one at the Aspen Music Festival several years ago when the first violinist was Sylvia Rosenberg and the pianist Anton Nell. It was a delightful afternoon of chamber music, and I look forward to the remaining four programs with great anticipation.