Review: Music in the Air with The Greenwich Chamber Players

By Linda Phillips

Gallic and glorious, French music filled the air, from impressionistic and lesser known French works and composers to an ensemble arrangement of Erik Satie’s “Gymnopedie no. 2”, originally written for piano. Harpist Victoria Drake and flutist Susan Rotholz simply shone in works by Camille Saint-Saëns, André Jolivet, Joseph Jongen, and Francoise Devienne.

Unfamiliar names? One of the strengths and delights of the Chamber Players is bringing lesser known composers to the attention of Greenwich audiences. And it isn’t surprising that the word “nuance”is French. The highly articulated pieces selected for this audience eschewed the better-known Debussy and Ravel, and introduced us to exquisite works and composers in the Players’ season opening concerts Oct. 11-12.

Christine Boies, President of the Chamber Players welcomed the audience at the Bruce Museum, and violist David Cresswell commented on the Francoise Devienne opening work, the Flute Quartet in D Major, explaining that the composer was the “last chair” bassoonist for the Paris Opera, all the while composing 300 instrumental works and 12 operas! Allegro, movement 1, was consonant, light, with the melody moving to violin, the flute supplying obbligato romps, the music feeling like happy children in a game of musical gadabout.

Andante Cantabile, movement two, was a sweet conversation, with a fine cello passage by Danny Miller, and a quiet ending. Rondo Allegretto, sprightly, was a game of musical tag, with accomplished trills by flutist Susan Rotholz, accelerando giving way to a questioning minor by the “Mozart of the Flute,” Devienne.

Albert Roussel’s String Trio, Op. 59, was introduced by Danny Miller, who talked about the composer Bohuslav Martinu, a protegé of Roussel’s who once lived in Greenwich. Both composers wrote in polychromatic mode. The first movement, Allegro, was urgent, modern, with moments of climax. Slightly atonal, troubled and dramatic, with great violin bowing by Krystof Wytek, the conversation continued, ending in minor key. Andante Cantabile featured a sad cello and viola in a philosophical conversation displaying anxiety, with repetitive bowing. With impossibly high notes in violin, which dropped an octave, painful emotion did not find its way out. Rising to a crescendo, the music was wrenching, with a repeated motif in violin, until ending in a major chord.

A sudden scurrying mood change occurred in Rondo Allegretto, each instrument saying “let me tell you mine!” with fine pizzicato cello in the musical competition of “oh no you don’t”.

Joseph Jongen’s Deux Pieces en Trio featured harpist Victoria Drake, Susan Rotholz, and Danny Miller, its opening reminiscent of Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring”, troubling, rushing, with exquisite trills in the harp. Mysterious, impressionistic, the flute silvery, like water flowing, the harp was celestial with great dynamics. The cello sang a song with the harp tinkling in a mysterious, subdued passage, grace notes in flute.

The second piece began with an urgent announcement, going to a quiet lilting, a flute motif against the harp, ethereal. With octave figures and flute flurries, the harp joined the ebullient conversation in the third piece, which featured staccato bursts and runs before accelerating to the ending.

The exquisite Fantaisie for Violin and Harp by Saint Saëns was moving and emotional, and begun by a tutorial on the harp by Ms. Drake, which she called “complexicated” We learned that there are 47 strings, and the instrument has the same range as a piano. Further, it is played with only four fingers!

In Allegro, the harp begins, the violin enters, the fades. The sliding violin played against a clock like beat in the harp, exploding into sound. Wonderful double string bowing by Krystof Wytek informed a stagey conversation, which faded into pizzicato. A Spanish motif, repeated in harp highlighted Vivo e grazioso, moving to a lilting discussion in Largamente, and a beautiful harp arpeggio. Highly emotive, Andante con moto - Poco Adagio ended quietly, longingly, with surpassing emotion.

Hector Berlioz once said a well-known bon mot about Camille Saint-Saëns, “He knows everything, but lacks inexperience”.

Satie’s Gymnopedie #2, arranged by Mr. Wytek, was handled beautifully by the musicians, and the dark Jolivet Chant de Linos, played by all five musicians was a tour de force. A macabre piece, and a highly dramatic reflection of the World War II years, it featured virtuosic work by Ms. Rotholz in both frantic trilling and emotional passages, and took full advantage of all the players’ talents. Of course, the Chamber Players comprise all first chair musicians of The Greenwich Symphony. They not only know their stuff, they strut it almost magically and inventively in the Chamber Music series.

The next performance of The Chamber Players will be on Nov. 8 and 9, and will feature guest artist Vincent Lionti in a program entitled “Anniversaries.” For information call 203-637-4725, or go to www.GreenwichSymphony.org

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The Alliance Française of Greenwich, headed by Renée Amory Ketcham, partnered with the Chamber Players and added to the French flavor by providing French wines and hors d’oeuvres following the opening concert on Sunday. Alas, this reviewer was a day late and a croissant short.

Linda Phillips’ classical music reviews have won four “Best Column of the Year” awards from the Connecticut Press Club, and have been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism. She is the author of the novel, “To The Highest Bidder,” also nominated for a Pulitzer in fiction.

Contributed photo: the Greenwich Chamber Players.