Krommer and Dvořák and Bruckner
I attended the Chicago Chamber Musicians concert Monday, 2/15, at the
Merit School’s Gottlieb Hall.
Embracing Dvořák’s semi-familiar Bagatelles for wind and strings were two
new ones for me. First was the Wind Partita by Franz Krommer (c.1794). Two oboes,
two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, a trumpet and a double bass.
The sound was wonderful. I was in Row B so all the oboe fingerings
were in plain sight. Amazing.
The Dvořák Bagatelles (1818), with a more diverse ensemble of flute,
oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, two violins, viola, cello & bass, was a very
enjoyable toe-tapper. I was sitting next to an “Angel” whose late husband
was a violinist. Because we were sitting so close to Joe Genualdi, I asked
for her assessment of Joe’s style. I got a non-committal reply of “everyone
is different”.
But up next was the pièce de résistance. The string quintet in F Major by
Anton Bruckner. For this performance, Jasmine Lin (violin) was in charge
of Joe Genualdi (violin), Rami Solomonow & Yukiko Ogura (violas) and
Cheng-Hou Lee (Cello).
In four movements, it didn’t sound like any Bruckner I’ve ever heard before.
But I did think the adagio third moment went on too long, ala some of the
Bruckner symphonies.
Afterwards, in a discussion with Joe Genualdi and Lee Hyla, who happened
to be there, I found out Katinka Kleijn suggested the Bruckner piece, but
wasn’t available to play the cello part. Too bad.
–
Bruce
