Bargemusic (7/13/13)

 Saturday afternoon’s concert was a flute, viola, harp trio—Brandon Patrick George, Andy Lin, and Meredith Clark, respectively. The concert opened with a Rondo-Menuet from Partita #3 by J.S. Bach for solo violin played, and very well played, by Mark Peskanov, Bargemusic’s Executive Director. These free Saturday concerts are family concerts, and there were quite a few children there, so the noise level in the audience was higher than usual.

The program, announced from the stage, was Elegiac Trio (1916), Sir Arnold Bax (1883–1953); Sonata for flute, viola and harp (1915), Claude Debussy (1862–1918); and Triolet (1989), Samuel Adler (1928–). All in all, three very different works.

Sir Arnold Bax was an English composer, and his work was gentle and graceful, with a touch of added strength, especially from the harp—a reminder that it can be quite percussive. It was nice, though it had a slightly rambling quality toward the end. Debussy’s sonata – Pastorale, Minuet, Allegro Moderato – began with shifting moods and somewhat more fragmented and short-ish lines and phrases. It was hard for me to sense the Minuet in the second movement. Debussy was stretching form, as well as tonality, too much. The final movement had an ostinato-like figure (a repeated rhythmic and musical phrase) from the harp, pizzicato (plucked) strings from the viola, and then a much spikier sound from all three instruments. Overall, it seemed to me that Debussy set out to be deliberately modern, presenting his music in a new and distinct style. It was a nice piece but I’m not sure I would seek out a second hearing. These were two very different trios from the same era.

If Debussy was aiming for modern, the Adler trio upped the ante. This music was truly modern, including dissonances and, at times, even disjointed phrases. All three artists played very well and seemed to approach the three different styles head on.

There was a fun Q&A at the end that included a demonstration of the three positions for each of the seven pedals on the harp. As Ms. Clark said, “Sometimes it seems like you’re tap dancing as well as using both hands on the strings!”

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