A noteworthy newcomer to chamber music scene
An exciting new chamber music group made its debut Sunday at The Met. The Aetos Trio made music with the energy of a high powered rock group but backed up by the keen technical skill of superbly trained concert soloists.
The Spokane Chamber Music Association – the parent organization of the Spokane String Quartet – sponsored the debut of the Aetos Trio, an ensemble consisting of violinist Misha Rosenker, cellist John Marshall and pianist Kendall Feeney and the trio’s guest clarinetist Todd DelGiudice. All four are members of Eastern Washington University’s music faculty.
The mixed ensembles that are possible with DelGiudice’s clarinet gave a variety of tonal color to the afternoon’s program of 20th-century works that boasted exotic sounds and made heavy technical demands on all four players.
The afternoon opened with Darius Milhaud’s Suite for Violin, Clarinet and Piano. Milhaud was one of the century’s most productive composers. His work always seems to have a fresh-air quality, with good humor breaking out just as his music seems to get really serious. What was most impressive was the musicians’ alert treatment of Milhaud’s rhythms, which often shift just enough to keep the ear slightly off balance.
Equally striking was the beautifully careful but seemingly carefree way all three players echoed one another’s phrasing in the second movement, like fine actors reciting overlapping lines.
David Schiff is a Portland-based composer who made a four-movement Divertimento for Violin Clarinet, Cello and Piano based on music he had written for his opera “Gimpel the Fool,” inspired by the Isaac Bashevis Singer short story.
No knowledge of the opera’s story line was required to enjoy Schiff’s diversions.
He has a gift for combining elements of 20th-century mainstream styles with generous splashes of klezmer sounds: DelGiudice’s high clarinet bending pitches off center, Marshall’s cello acting the role of a dance accordionist, and Rosenker’s violin sounding like a fiddler on the roof.
The score also had Marshall in solos that reminded one of the cantorial solemnity of Jewish ritual.
The program ended with a brilliantly colorful performance of Maurice Ravel’s Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano, one of the last century’s greatest chamber music works, and one of its most difficult. Feeney’s performances have always shown her audience what true musical vitality means. Sunday’s performance was no exception, whether it was in the melancholy of the Trio’s opening, the exotic clouds of harmony of the second movement, or the rush of sound that concludes its finale.
Rosenker and Marshall were ideal partners for Feeney in giving full rein to Ravel’s multihued score, a work that often takes on orchestral proportions alongside its somber and intimate moments.
The Aetos Trio is a welcome addition to the Spokane chamber music scene, and the trio and DelGiudice showed the lively excitement that fine, spirited playing and skilled programming can bring to classical concert life.