Concert Review - Mammoth Lakes Chamber Music Festival 7-25-07

Considering the wild swings in temperature and humidity yesterday, the Mammoth LAkes Chamber Music Festival performance last night was fantastic, although not without some cracked notes.

"Like Night and Day" adeptly describes the middle piece, Bartok's "Contrasts for Piano, Clarinet and Violin" and explained the difference in styles and instrumentation throughout the night. Before starting with Mendelssohn's String Quarter in D Major, opus 44 no. 1, the evening got off to an abnormally abrupt start. Our local audience has been trained to expect longer introductions by Rebecca Hang, the Felici Trio's violinist (the Felici Trio hosts the 3-week festival and collaborates with classmates from Indiana U. for the M,W,F night concerts), who usually gives more in depth background about the composer and his composition. I suspect this was to help shorten the overall program, which went for 2 hours. But what was lacking in her speech was more than made up for in her always thorough program notes.

The lead violinist seemed to be cracking some notes, at least that's what us brass players call it when it takes a split second to hone in on a note after first creating some dischordant sound. Maybe it is my unfamiliarity with string instruments, but it distracted me and made me think of how the temperature was 44° at midday during a freak thunderstorm that made Canyon Blvd look like a muddy portion of the Colorado River, and then 66° right before the concert and how that could have contributed to it.

The third movement, however, intrigued my ears as the minor key would, for an instant, throw a short twinkling of the major key on every few downbeats and then quickly continue in its minor key. What is the name for this composition technique? Anyone know?

The Bartok "Contrasts..." piece was wild, employing two violins for the one violinist, Corey Cerovsek; his second instrument tuned to "the devil's interval" for a country swing sound. Bil Jackson, the clarinetist, while technically amazing, has a breathy approach to his instrument (you can hear the wind leaking out of his instrument). Again, I am overly critical without the expertise to back it up. (I also like $8 bottles of wine because I cannot taste the difference in anything up to $35.) And again, it may be due to the altitude up here. But I have played in many orchestras and ensembles and took music lessons in two instruments for many years, once being selected as 1st chair horn player in the All California State Honor Band. Ooh, impressive. I am only a novice critic and an even more novice blogger.

Finally, Richard Strauss' Piano Quartet in C minor, opus 13 featured non-Felici musicians, which is a nice twist on things, giving Brian, Rebecca and Wen-Ting a much deserved rest in the audience. The Vivace was a well-timed dance that evoked an unfortunately all-to-common standing ovation. My favorite parts of the concert were watching how all of these talented performers communicate with each other and perfectly time their ritardandos and accelerandos. Such pros they are. We are proud to have them here in our town.

The only bummer about the concert was that our babysitter didn't show up, so I went alone, leaving the wife with the kid. Oh, and it was weird to see some of my local friends in their 50's with their dates and seeing them avoid their exes at intermission who were in attendance at the same time. Small town...