The American Chamber Players were formed in 1985 by violist Miles Hoffmann from a core group of musicians from the Library of Congress Summer Chamber Music Festival. An eclectic mix of players tour, performing in a diverse combination of duos, trios, or quartets partnering lesser known masterworks as well as gems by neglected composers. This concert, held in the SECU Auditorium of the North Carolina Museum of Art, was a typical example. Less frequently heard pieces by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) and Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1759) were paired with neglected works by Gabriel Pierné (1863-1937) and Guillaume Lekeu (1870-1894). The players were flutist Sara Stern, violinist Joanna Maurer, violist Hoffman, cellist Stephen Balderston, and pianist Anna Stoytcheva. (Biographies of the musicians are posted on the ACP website.)
Belgian-born Pierné studied organ with César Franck and composition with Jules Massenet at the Paris Conservatory. He won the coveted Prix de Rome in 1882 and was a significant conductor with the Concerts Colonne from 1910-34 where he was a strong advocate of contemporary music. As a composer, he sought to combine the exalted seriousness of purpose of the Franck school with a lighter popular melodic flavor reminiscent of Massenet.
The concert opened with Pierné’s Sonata da Camera for Flute, Cello, and Piano, Op. 48 (1927). It is in three movements: Prélude, Sarabande, and Finale. Pierné’s lighter, melodic approach is evident in vivacious scoring of the outer movements while his earnest vein is heard in the stately and somber middle Sarabande. With the piano’s lid fully raised, kudos go to the marvelous balance pianist Stoytcheva maintained with her colleagues in this and the last two works on the program. Stern’s breathe control and palette of refined tone was superb as was that of cellist Balderston. Their playing of the mercurial Prélude with its sudden shifts of tempo and instrumental prominence was delightful. The rich texture they brought to the Sarabande was superb.
While the first two string trios of the 28-year-old Beethoven’s Opus 9 set are little more than salon music fit for amateurs, Trio No. 3 in C minor (1798) has a thematic richness and almost symphonic elaboration. Violinist Maurer, violist Hoffman, and cellist Balderston brought out all the drama and tonal richness of this work’s four movements. They captured the thematic complexity of the Allegro and unveiled all of the brilliance of the virtuosic Scherzo and Presto finale. The gravity of the melancholic Adagio was brought out well.
The Sonata in G minor for Flute and Piano, S. 1020 is one of several attributed flute sonatas not included in the Johann Sebastian Bach: Neue Ausgabe Sämliche Werke (Leipzig, 1954- ). According to Jeanne Swack, in her article “Flute Sonatas and Partitas” in Oxford Composer Companion: J. S. Bach, this G minor sonata is “probably a work, albeit somewhat anomalous, by C.P.E. Bach.” According to Kenneth Cooper, the polyphony is lightweight and anticipates the homophony of early classical sonata-allegros while the middle Adagio is evocative of the “lyrical, pastoral atmosphere of the Dresden operas of the 1730s or 1740s” that Bach would have heard on “visits with one or another of his sons.”
Stern and Stoytcheva gave a fine performance, beautifully phrased with every musical line clearly articulated. The piano’s sound was scaled down so as to evoke a harpsichord. The flute’s line seemed seamless with Stern’s breathing well camouflaged.
The unfinished Quartet in B minor for Piano and Strings (1894) by Guillaume Lekeu (1870-94) concluded the concert. Lekeu had come to Paris to study with Franck, and after Franck’s death, with Vincent D’Indy. Among Lekeu’s better known works were the Sonata for Piano and Violin (once a repertory staple of Heifetz, Menuhin, and David Oistrakh) and the Sonata in F for Cello and Piano. The Piano Quartet is only in two movements because Leheu died of typhoid before completing the second “Lent et passionné” movement (which was later finished by D’Indy.)
Hoffman’s program notes extensively quoted Lekeu’s comments about the two movements. Lekeu described the first movement as “the framework of a poem of the heart, where a thousand feelings collide… where cries of love follow the most dismal despair.” The second movement “will show love as the source of this pain” from despair. He had planned to draw upon these elements in an even more beautiful concluding third movement which was doomed, never to be composed.
Stoytcheva was joined by Maurer, Hoffman, and Balderston for a revelatory performance of this neglected work so sadly never completed. Balance between players was superb. Lekeu gave each player multiple opportunities to shine as a soloist besides numerous pairings and juxtapositions. The consummate musicianship exhibited by each player, combined with imaginative programing, makes every American Chamber Players’ concert a must-attend event.
