#Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Quartet No 2 in E flat K 493

[suetravelblog]

Beau Soleil Piano Quartet Hermanus Civic Auditorium South Africa

[theloniousbach]

MIDSUMMER’S MUSIC 2024–Program A

ALICE VERNE-BREDT, Phantasie Trio; WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART, Quartet Number 2 in E Flat Major, K 493; FELIX MENDELSSOHN, Sextet in D Major, Opus 110

With this extended stay in Door County, I have been looking forward to becoming a regular of this venerable series. We have twice before gone to one performance while here on vacation. Since we have the bulk of the series available, we found three programs that appealed equally for which we could by a flex-pack.

It looks like the Sunday 5 pm concerts in STURGEON BAY’s HOPE UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST will best suit us. Next time, I will give up trying to see the pianist’s hands and just sit in the straight ahead and not on the side.

I wish I could have seen though Jeannie Yu’s hands as she had the best parts of all three compositions and she carried it all off admirably as far as I could tell. Bassist Kris Saebo (whom I see plays with the Mark Morris Dance Group so has likely intersected with Ethan Iverson. I didn’t have that to ask about when I did inquire about the extended lowest string which allowed him basically to play in Drop D. Saebo plays with a beaming smile and striking enthusiasm. He was quite affable in talking about the bass.) called the MENDELSSOHN sextet a “chamber piano concerto” and indeed even the ALICE VERNE-BREDT trio didn’t have on first listen enough of the interweaving of three equal voices. It was piano and strings, though the cello gets the first theme, with violin and cello alternating who “played lead” with the other in a subsidiary role.

In the MOZART, it was only a small part of the third movement where more than one string player interwove with the piano at the same time. It’s Mozart so the viola had lots to do, but they all did. But it felt like an orchestration would simply have to merely add multiple players for the same part. I had seen one of these quartets, probably the other one in G, before in St Louis and I think I had the same sense. Still there was more than enough Mozart fizz.

As Saebo pointed out, that same tendency was even more pronounced in the MENDELSSOHN. The “orchestration,” yep let’s call it that, was appealingly in the lower register with two violas, cello, and bass. Violinist David Perry (part of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra who show up regularly on Sunday Baroque) whom we have seen in previous years handled the “leads” with aplomb.

I continue to explore what constitutes the chamber in chamber music and why the strings here felt more like sole representatives of a section than individual players. This is not to show lack of appreciation for violists Sally Chisholm and Allyson Fleck and cellist Ana Kim. Rather the broader discussion might lead me to minimize the distinction and appreciate larger works.

But chamber music is easier for me. It has the intimacy of jazz and folk, where people can just play music casually, informally, for the sheer joy of it.

I am so glad that we will have an extended look this summer with this venerable series. Their program is worth studying for extended program notes. In years past the Founding Director would also deliver not very edited versions of them. Ellen even more than I was glad that the introductory remarks were briefer. But I am equally glad to still have all the information in the program.