A Concert of Remembrance, Reflection, And Renewal

By Wendy Wipprecht

Newtown Friends of Music began its 34th season of sponsored concerts on Sunday, September 11, with a performance by Winsor Music, a Boston-based chamber ensemble, at Edmond Town Hall. That day was also the tenth anniversary of the event we’ve come to call 9/11 — as if giving it a title other than its date (and, embedded in that date, the signal of emergency) would somehow never adequately express its scale or its devastating effects. No public event could go forward without recognizing the anniversary in some way.

Going to a classical concert involves clearing a “sacred space” for intense listening, for emotion, and for reflection; it is perhaps the best way to give each person on stage or in the audience the benefit of simultaneous privacy and community. Winsor Music’s program began and ended with beautiful, intriguing, even sparkling music, with a brief, meditative core that featured a Bach chorale prelude and the world premiere of a piece by a young composer and cellist about his experience of September 11, 2001.

Performing that day were oboist Peggy Pearson, who is also Winsor Music’s founder and artistic director; violinist Gabriela Diaz, violists Dimitri Murrath and Noriko Henderson, and cellists Rafael Popper-Keizer and Lev Mamuya.

The concert began with Haydn’s Quartet in B minor, Op. 33, No. 1, part of a set of six string quartets published in 1782. In this performance the oboe played the first violin part, which made for an interesting change in the piece.

Haydn was a master at operating on more than one level, and possessed a sense of humor equally at home with slapstick and sophistication. He wrote for court audiences, where connoisseurs and empty heads could both be found. If he were writing today, we’d say he appeals to the ordinary concertgoer and the musicologist alike, producing pleasing, elegant music that conceals its own complexity. This might also describe Winsor Music’s playing, in which a beautiful surface masks formidable technique.

The quartet’s opening movement, “Allegro,” switches from major to minor, juggles themes, and allows each instrument to have its own say, instead of merely accompanying the lead instrument. The second movement, “Scherzando allegro,” was marked by very sensitive playing and by the interesting contrast of cello and oboe, in which briskly paced figures are set against more legato phrases.

The “Andante” that followed was slower, beginning as a minuet, hence with a touch of playfulness, and then moved into a softer, more tranquil, almost meditative section. The last movement, “Presto,” subtly brings in Gypsys rhythm and then culminates in a lyrical outburst led by the oboe at breakneck speed. The replacement of the violin by an oboe had an amusing effect: the oboe barked like a terrier in full pursuit of a tennis ball. I heard a ripple of laughter in the audience, and thought how much that would have pleased Haydn.

Next on the program was the world premiere of The Eagle (A Song without Words) by the 15-year-old cellist and composer Lev Mamuya. Tennyson’s famous six-line poem, “The Eagle,” which inspired the piece, was read aloud by Ellen Parrella, president of Newtown Friends of Music, so that the recording of the premiere would include its central text.

The composer explains the work in this way: “In addition to reflecting on the simultaneous frailty and fierceness of the eagle, I have also tried to incorporate my experience as a five-year-old during the events of 9/11 and to express the tension I perceived between the innocence and playfulness of my childhood world, and the strain and tension of the adults around me.”

The young composer joined the members of Winsor Music on stage to play the brief work for oboe, violin, viola, and two cellos.

“The Eagle” opens with a beautiful cello solo, perhaps intended to represent the solitary high flight of the bird. The other instruments enter one by one, and then the cellos play arpeggios against the mournful sounds of the upper voices. Then the cellos play plucked notes against the other strings and oboe, which are sometimes scratchy and spooky-sounding, sometimes lyrical. A broader, more melodic section is ended by a long note on the oboe — perhaps a signal or warning, but definitely a dividing line — and the piece concludes is some ethereal region: the cellos’ sad melody is offset by shimmering strings, which continue their otherworldly sound even as the oboe ends the piece with three firm, detached notes.

It is both exciting and daunting to hear a work that (almost) no one has heard before. The audience, after hesitating a beat or two, burst into vigorous applause. Later, I heard several comments about how remarkable it was that a 15-year-old could compose this work. The remarkable thing is not the composer’s age, but his talent. Who knows if, years on, we’ll be saying that we were early witnesses of a brilliant career?

Bach’s Chorale Prelude: “Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland” brought the first half of the concert to a wonderful close.

Toward the end of his life, Bach reworked 18 chorale preludes that he had composed long before; both sets were composed for organ. 

Winsor Music performed this piece on oboe and strings, an arrangement I imagine Bach would have loved, since he wrote so gloriously for solo oboe. The chorale prelude features a walking bass cello part, against which the violin and viola move forward in canon, and a beautiful, endlessly prolonged, endlessly circling melody for the oboe.

Ms Pearson played with amazing expressiveness a part that must pose a severe challenge to any woodwind player. All played together so well that this listener, at least, lost track of parts and surrendered to the meditative whole. Having listened to the drama of 9/11 in “The Eagle,” we were brought by Bach to a place of reflection and healing.

The second half of the concert was given over to Mendelssohn’s Quintet No.2 in B flat major, Op. 87, a work originally written as a string quintet.  In Winsor Music’s performance, the first violin was replaced by the oboe, and a second viola was added, bringing Noriko Herndon onstage for the first time.

The quintet was written with Mendelssohn’s usual skill and flair, but it odd in one respect: it so emphasizes the first violin (in this performance, the oboe) that it is easy to hear the first and third movements as works for solo violin, with the four other instruments providing accompaniment. Giving that part to an instrument from a different family emphasizes the work’s imbalance, but it also creates amazing opportunities and challenges for the oboist.

The first movement, “Allegro vivace,” features a soaring theme for the oboe that is set against a pulsing accompaniment. A more relaxed and lyrical section provides some relief, but the main theme keeps returning, and the accompaniment becomes more agitated with each repetition.

The “Andante scherzando” that follows begins with a brief oboe solo that sets a slower pace and more thoughtful mood, both of which are soon mischievously undercut by a three-beat dance-like rhythm in the strings. The composer sets a game, and the musicians respond, passing fugues between the instruments, setting the oboe’s sustained notes against the strings’ pizzicato playing, changing dynamics with swift precision, and stopping everything short, twice, with chords that approach dissonance. A few very quiet, detached notes end the movement.

The next movement, “Adagio e lento,” opens with a dirge-like theme that is simply and squarely played. Next, another version of that theme is set against the cello’s walking bass, recalling the “Processional” movement of the Italian Symphony.

The rest of the movement can be seen as an opera, in which the oboe performs in the virtuosic style of a coloratura soprano, and the remaining instruments play in an almost over-the-top, operatic style, with insistent rhythms, increasing tension, and sudden and marked dynamic changes. After the oboe has reached the drama’s high point, the violin emerges as a solo instrument and repeats that climax in a delicate, serene manner. The movement soon comes to a quiet close, ending with three soft chords.

The final movement, “Allegro molto vivace,” takes off at a gallop. The musicians seem effortlessly to juggle flying notes and daring syncopations; they hand off fugues with the speed and precision of knife-throwers; and then, after playing even faster and with greater intensity, they come to a sudden stop. After a few moments of slow, sweet melody, the movement returns to high speed for just enough time to bring itself to a quick, emphatic end. It’s the kind of surprise Haydn would have loved.

 Winsor Music devised and performed a musically rich and varied program that was also perceptively attuned to the emotions surrounding the 9/11 anniversary. The same sensitivity informs their playing. These musicians, each distinguished in his or her own right, are also fine ensemble players. They leave their egos at the door, they decline attracting our visual attention, they ask us only to listen.

It happened that two works on the program featured the oboe, which gave us a chance to listen to Ms Pearson’s remarkable playing; but when a solo occurred (particularly Gabriela Diaz’s brief solo at the end of the Mendelssohn quintet’s third movement) or when one could pick out an individual voice making an entrance or performing an especially difficult passage, all members of the ensemble gave masterful performances.

This concert, which was intended to celebrate Newtown Friends of Music’s 34th season, to commemorate a national tragedy by showing us how one person, at least, transformed it into art, and to delight and instruct our minds and ears, succeeded at every point.