This Saturday afternoon freebie was pretty much a dress rehearsal for their Saturday evening Bargemusic concert. Mark Peskanov, violin; Evan Drachman, cello; and Doris Stevenson, piano played a Bach Sonata for Violin and Keyboard in E Major, Beethoven’s Seven Variations on a Theme of Mozart, and the Dvorák “Dumky” Trio in E minor.
The opening (adagio?) [no printed program] of the Bach was pleasant and straightforward, with the piano as accompaniment yet somehow as an equal partner. The second movement opened with a piano solo that was then joined by the violin for a livelier, sunny, much more extensive movement. The third, slower, movement also opened with a piano intro followed by the violin with a tune that sort of tugged at the heartstrings, but not in a sappy way. There were a couple of sections with lots of double stops (essentially the violin playing harmony by itself) leading to an up-in-the-air ending. The final movement (presto?) was lively, jaunty, and just plain fun. Mr. Peskanov loves his Bach. Ms. Stevenson was with him all the way.
Beethoven’s Variations on a Theme from The Magic Flute is my kind of Mozart. While I couldn’t really discern each movement/variation, there was the tune in the piano, then the cello, then segue(?) into the other movements. One was somber and quite nice, while another slower one had nice filigree work for both the cellist and the pianist. I preferred the slower, more somber movements to the quicker (and somewhat sillier) movements. But that’s just me and Mozart.
The Dvorák “Dumky” Trio, in six movements, was rich and dramatic from the very beginning (cello and piano), then the solo violin was joined by the cello. It’s hard for me to hazard a guess, but I found myself wondering whether this was Dvorák exploring a brash, new compositional style. Think about it—things we take for granted, compositionally, were brand new at one point; we grew into them. All three players were then into a section that reminded me of Hungarian/Romanian dances. It was a very eclectic work in terms of style. At one point, I had the feeling of the piano providing a tolling of bells section, but with all three players great in their own ways. After a sort of chorale feel, followed by a cello tune against a piano/violin ostinato, I just stopped writing and basked in listening. I think that’s the best thing to ‘not be said’ about a concert.
Make no mistake, we were on a barge, albeit docked. There were several relatively strong wakes that set us slightly atilt. That’s part of the fun about these Saturday afternoon concerts—you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get, musically or nautically.
ConcertMeister
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