CHAMBERFEST I

Mixon Hall

June 20

The family that plays together: Diana, Alex and Franklin.

Chamber music concerts tend to be cerebral affairs, with smaller ensembles and venues giving listeners an opportunity to focus on the intricacies of complex music. ChamberFest Cleveland has that part right. But as the opening concert demonstrated, this festival comes from the heart.

The opening piece set the tone: Start-time, a new work by Matan Porat written expressly for the festival’s founders and directors, Franklin Cohen and his daughter Diana. Joined by brother Alexander on timpani, they premiered what is likely the first modern piece composed for clarinet, violin and timpani – an odd combination, to say the least. But the Cohens made it work with a finely calibrated interplay of the three instruments that gradually rose in volume and intensity to the fevered pitch of a tribal dance.

Cohen Sr. could not have been prouder in noting that it was the first time he and his children had performed together. And the piece could not have been more appropriate, a fresh blast of harmonics and propulsive rhythms played in a celebratory spirit.

An ad hoc ensemble of string players followed with a more conventional repertoire work, Mozart’s Quintet for Two Violins, Two Violas and Cello in G minor (K. 516). In any other context, the piece would hardly seem conventional. It’s a late work filled with uncharacteristic dark tones and emotional anguish, with the G minor key setting a somber, melancholy mood. And the combination of instruments was still considered experimental at the time Mozart composed the piece in the spring of 1787, when his personal fortunes were at a low ebb and falling.

All of which helps to explain why the Quintet sounded so flat. The group – violinists David McCarroll and Diana Cohen, violists Yura Lee and Dimitri Murrath, and cellist Julie Albers – gave it a professional reading and played with intelligence and sensitivity. But there was little of the internal logic that characterizes high-caliber Mozart, and only hints of emotional depth. It may be unrealistic to expect more from a group of musicians who don’t normally play together, no matter how skilled they are individually. Still, the energy and passion that finally emerged late in the final movement suggested that the ensemble was capable of more.

By contrast, the final piece was superb. Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time is a work of breathtaking beauty and demanding virtuosity, which made it ideal for the senior Cohen, who has been the Cleveland Orchestra’s principal clarinetist for nearly 40 years. The level of playing and interpretation went up several notches with him leading a group that included violist Lee, cellist Gabriel Cabezas and pianist Orion Weiss. The opening “Liturgy” movement was sharp and smart, and Weiss displayed impressive range in the “Vocalise,” segueing smoothly from controlled banging to soft cascades.

Cohen showed perfect control of his instrument in the “Abyss of the Birds,” adding some flourishes to the sound with swipes of his clarinet. Cabezas struck a compelling tone and drew some clever effects from his instrument for the following “Praise” movement, setting up an outstanding “Dance of Fury” – vibrant and clean, played with an integrity and rhythm that gave it a jazzy feel. The concluding “Angel” and “Immortality of Jesus” movements were less impressive, but only by comparison. The entire piece was so riveting that there was an audible exhale when it ended, one of those rare moments when the entire audience has been transfixed.

The only sour note of the night came in a short program that preceded the concert. “This is an unusual way to start,” Diana Cohen acknowledged in introducing Cabezas and Weiss for a two-piece recital designed to showcase the cellist. He is a young player of considerable talent who did not seem very comfortable with delicate works by Janáček and Debussy. And the placement of the recital was puzzling. Supporting young artists is an admirable goal, but not to open a festival. Caberzas needs some seasoning and the schedule needs refining.

Meanwhile, Mixon Hall continues to surprise and delight. At a certain point as twilight set in, there was a mirror image of the performers in the double glass wall behind the stage, as if an ethereal second group was performing in the garden. The effect was dreamlike, adding a magical moment to an already enchanting evening.

For more on Franklin Cohen: http://chamberfestcleveland.com/portfolio/franklin-cohen/

For more on Matan Porat: http://chamberfestcleveland.com/portfolio/matan-porat/

Photo by Gary Adams

CHAMBERFEST II

Transformer Station

June 21

Synergy in a high-powered industrial space. 

A good festival breaks new ground even as it builds a core audience around familiar programming. A great festival takes listeners places they’ve never been – musically and, in the case of Cleveland, to the West Side.

Though a confirmed cosmopolite, this critic had not been to the Transformer Station in Ohio City before the Friday night ChamberFest concert. The building proved to be as interesting as the music. A one-time electrical substation that powered the Detroit Ave. streetcar line, it is a solid and attractive piece of industrial architecture built in 1924. Owners Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell preserved and refurbished all the best elements, including an eye-popping ceiling crane capable of lifting 15 tons, and grafted on a clean, modern addition that mirrors the 1971 Marcel Breuer addition to the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Transformer Station now houses the Bidwells’ collection of modern art, and will be mounting exhibitions in conjunction with CMA.

The concert took place in the expansion, where the sound was surprisingly good. Actually, it was amazingly good, to the point where commentator Patrick Castillo declared it one of the best chamber music venues he’s ever heard. That may say more about Castillo than the facility, which supports a warm and full though not very crisp sound, with powerful resonance in the lower registers. An array of portable sound baffles helped. Still, there’s no question that along with a fine new gallery, the Bidwells have created a promising performance space.

“I will encourage ChamberFest to put us on their calendar next year,” Fred Bidwell says. “I thought the program and the performances were terrific, particularly the more contemporary pieces, which seemed to be really well-suited to the space.”

Did the Friday concert really need to open with a repeat of Mozart’s Quintet from the previous night? From a planning standpoint, probably. Musically, it wasn’t much of an improvement, once again technically flawless but emotionally bloodless. The tight quarters gave the piece a little more life, but could not instill passion and urgency.

The star of the evening was violinist/violist Yura Lee, whose feet barely touch the ground when she is sitting on a piano bench. But she is a giant as a performer, with sharp technical skills and an absolutely fearless attitude, attacking pieces head-on and plumbing them for expressive depth. Her version of Schnittke’s A Paganini was strikingly mature in both sound and style, with virtuoso control in the closing fadeout. The tone of her highest notes was so pure, they could have been produced by a theremin.

“This is one of the most neurotic things you’ve ever heard” Castillo said by way of introducing Janáček’s String Quartet No. 1. That’s one way to describe it. Another would be as one of the most groundbreaking chamber works of the 20th century, written in the composer’s unique and highly influential musical language. Cleveland’s Omer Quartet gave an impressive reading of the piece last month to conclude the Cleveland Chamber Music Society’s 2012-13 season, then took it to South Bend, where they won the Grand Prize in the Fischoff Competition.

Again, the virtues of a standing ensemble over an ad hoc assemblage came to the fore. The players – violinists David McCarroll and Ying Fu, violist Dimitri Murrath and cellist Gabriel Cabezas – were smart and skilled, and handled the work’s technical challenges with aplomb. But the fine edges, shifting tempos and emotional integrity of the piece came up short. To be fair, this is a difficult work for even experienced quartets to realize properly, and the organizers deserve credit for putting it on the program.

The concert concluded with a Handel Passacaglia arranged for strings by Johan Halverson. Lee and Murrath hit it at a fast clip and never let up, showing blazing technique and developing some interesting tones and contrasts in the work’s short duration. It’s an unusual choice for a concert closer, but the performance brought the audience to their feet, eliciting cheeky whistling and yelling along with enthusiastic applause.

Great music in a stimulating setting will do that.

For more on the Transformer Station: http://www.transformerstation.org/

For more on Yura Lee: http://chamberfestcleveland.com/portfolio/yura-lee/

Photo by Gary Adams