Mooredale Live shows | Brahms: Violin Sonata Op. 108; Scherzo from the F-A-E Sonata. Ravel: String Quartet. Mendelssohn: Concerto for Violin, Piano and Strings in D Minor. Andrew Wan, violin. Charles Richard-Hamelin, piano. Dior Quartet. Walter Corridor, Feb. 23, 2025.
We stay in an period that values repertoire renewal and the music of dwelling composers. On Sunday afternoon the Mooredale Live shows group introduced a lot happiness to a midsize crowd in Walter Corridor with a program of largely acquainted works by long-gone masters. It has been some time since I’ve had such a satisfying chamber expertise.
Within the highlight have been two guests from Quebec: Andrew Wan, concertmaster of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, and pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin, who has parlayed his 2015 Warsaw Competitors silver right into a busy solo profession. They usually seem collectively, stay and as recording artists. Having established their compatibility with a cycle of Beethoven Violin Sonatas on the Analekta label, they moved on to Schumann and now have plans for Brahms.
It’s simple to foretell successful after listening to this magisterial efficiency of the Sonata in D Minor Op. 108. High-quality stability coexisted with particular person character. The well-known growth part of the primary motion, during which Brahms assembles one thing near a complete catalogue of what may be achieved harmonically over a dominant pedal, was a marvel of refined gentle and shade, all of the extra fascinating for its regular, inexorable pulse.
No period-practice fusspot, Wan utilized a beneficiant (and becoming) vibrato to the principle theme of the Adagio. Richard-Hamelin, in flip, drew burnished sounds from his Steinway. This was excessive romanticism. Justice was executed to the shadowy turbulence of the third motion and to the fury of the finale. Introduced nearly as a mid-concert encore, the Scherzo from the F-A-E Sonata (a collaborative effort of 1853 to which Schumann and Albert Dietrich additionally contributed actions) typified the complete command of those gamers over the lyrical and assertive components of Brahms’s idiom.
Subsequent up was Ravel’s String Quartet — a bracing distinction, one may suppose, though the nuanced efficiency by the Dior Quartet (former ensemble in residence on the Glenn Gould Faculty) prompt an array of commonalities. Right here additionally have been light touches of chiaroscuro and exacting moments of pressure and launch.
Execution was faultless. Strumming and pizzicato passages have been each precise and evocative. From first violin Noa Sarid we heard taking part in of raindrop delicacy. Sluggish-movement solos by viola Caleb Georges have been heat and pressing.
After intermission, Wan and Richard-Hamelin joined the Diors in a trimmed-down model of the Double Concerto for Violin and Piano in D Minor by the 14-year-old Mendelssohn. Strings and soloists work together significantly within the finale. The impact elsewhere is of a quartet and duo taking part in concerto-grosso volleyball.
Nonetheless, it was a splendidly spirited piece, contemporary in impact regardless of of its size and prolixity. The piano indulges extensively in double octaves, a novel gadget in 1823. It was attribute of Richard-Hamelin’s artistry that he made these passages sound musical moderately than mechanical. Wan additionally had bravura turns to perform, which he did with nice aptitude.
All involved then carried out the Sicilienne from Ernest Chausson’s Live performance Op. 21, the one repertoire piece for this mix of devices. Softly undulating, the encore left the group each comfortable and buzzing.
A stunning footnote is important. Cellist Joanne Yesol Choi introduced from the stage that Georges and second violin Tobias Elser have been taking part in their final live performance with the group, which was based in 2018 at Jacobs Faculty of Music at Indiana College. Appears a disgrace. The seek for new members is reportedly beneath means.
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Arthur Kaptainis was classical music critic of the Montreal Gazette from 1986 to 2022 and wrote for the Nationwide Submit from 2010 to 2016. His articles seem in Classical Voice North America and Gramophone in addition to Ludwig Van. Arthur holds an MA in musicology from the College of Toronto. He’s president of the Music Critics Affiliation of North America.
