May 10, 2025
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
Fort Worth, TX – USA
Alexandre Moutouzkine, piano; Daniel Uglunts, baritone; Gary Levinson and Chloé Kiffer, violins; Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola; Bion Tsang, cello.
Reinhold GLIÈRE: Eight Duos for Violin and Cello, Op. 39 (selections)
Clara SCHUMANN (née Wieck): Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 17
Samuel BARBER: Dover Beach for Voice and String Quartet, Op. 3
Robert SCHUMANN: Piano Quintet in E♭ major, Op. 44
Gregory Sullivan Isaacs | 22 MAY 2025
As usual, the Fort Worth Chamber Music Society’s season ended with an excellently performed concert with a fascinating program. While there were some welcome but rarely heard selections, it ended with one of the most well-known masterpieces of the genre. The program may have opened with a duo, but it ended with a full-blown piano quintet.
The performance opened with only violinist Gary Levinson and cellist Bion Tsang. They played some selections from Reinhold Glière’s Eight Duos for Violin and Violoncello, Op. 39. Of German and Polish descent, he became one of the most famous of Russian and Soviet composers.
Glière eschewed the wave of modernist compositional experimental movements that quickly spread worldwide in the late 1920s, sticking with his conservative and “Russian-influenced” musical style. Thus, he was protected from the widely condemned Tsarist and Soviet government purges of composers who succumbed to such “bourgeois decadence” during the mid-twentieth century.
His eight pieces for just the two players are miniatures, although they drew on existing and more lengthy forms. The two players opened with the Prelude in G minor and ended with the finale, a quick-paced Scherzo in B♭ major. In between, there was a Gavotte, a throw-back to the 18th Century, and a graceful, tuneful Canzonetta.
Both the virtuoso players clearly brought out the different characters of the movements, even with their short temporal existence. Also, they were careful to modulate the balance between the two voices so we always followed the melodic material as it was gracefully tossed back and forth.
The next selection was Schumann’s Piano Trio in G minor Op. 17 (1846). But rather than being composed by Robert, this graceful Trio was composed by Clara Wieck Schumann. She was not well known as the fine composer she was, even though she garnered praise from luminaries such as Frédéric Chopin. However, she was world-famous as a virtuoso pianist. Lately, as in this program, her music is getting a much-deserved rediscovery.
While surprisingly original, you can hear traces of her husband’s unique style with some added hints of Mendelssohn. It is a fine work overall and really shone in the excellent hands of pianist Alexandre Moutouzkine, who was added to the ensemble.
The first movement is in the standard “Sonata” form, with each player taking full advantage of their moments in the spotlight. The players imbued the music with energy and also brought out the composer’s foray into some chromaticism.
The second movement is marked “Scherzo,” “Trio,” and “Scherzo.” The Trio took a more leisurely pace than what is usually thought of for a Scherzo but kept a spirited mood throughout.
The third movement is marked “Andante” and moves to G Major. Moutouzkine started things off with a lovely solo passage that he handed off to the other two players. While this movement is not exactly “sad” in nature, it is tinged with melancholy, which the ensemble communicated. The last movement – a finale – allowed the players to hint back to the first movement, but it contains a skillfully written fugue, which the three players brought out with their excellent playing.
After intermission, we heard a real rarity: Samuel Barber’s evocative setting of the Victorian poet Mathew Arnold’s poem, Dover Beach, for baritone and string quartet. Singers are a rarity at chamber music concerts despite an extensive existing repertoire. This work is certainly deserving of more frequent performances, and we were pleased to hear it.
The string quartet (Levinson, Tsang, violinist Chloé Kiffer, and violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt) was appropriately joined by the young baritone Daniel Uglunts, who was approximately the same age as the composer when he wrote this for his own performances. At the time of its composition, Barber was only a student at the world-famous Curtis Institute, but you could certainly predict his rise to fame as a composer from this dark, brooding, and melancholy work.
Uglunts has a beautiful lyric baritone instrument that is slightly reminiscent of the composer’s own recording of the work, which can be heard here on YouTube:
The poem was printed in the program, but Uglunts’ clear diction made that unnecessary.
Occasionally, performances of this work are conducted, but not here. However, the string quartet did an admirable job staying with the singer while he negotiated all of Barber’s extensive use of operatic style of expressive rubato throughout.
The program ended with a rip-roaring performance of Schumann’s (this time Robert) Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 44 (1842). This is a familiar and much-loved work that is welcome in any program. It is especially well known in Fort Worth because of its appearance as one of the chamber work requirements of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. (Of course, Clara played the first performance.)
It is a dazzling work, and it received a dazzling performance by the performers. In fact, it was probably one of the finest performances in recent memory. Even though this was not a quintet that tours together constantly, they sure sounded like that was the case. Sometimes, a familiar work reaches the right chemistry between the players to deliver something extraordinary. Such was the case on Saturday afternoon. ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth: cmsfw.org
- Alexandre Moutouzkine: moutouzkine.com
- Gary Levinson: glevinson.com
- Chloé Kiffer: chloekiffer.com
- Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt: milenapvds.com
- Bion Tsang: biontsang.com
- Daniel Uglunts: danieluglunts.com
Read more by Gregory Sullivan Isaacs.
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