Music Reviews

Jul 7, 2000 - Music from Nightingale Opener, Partly Impressive, Partly Not

By Jack Neal

What was once known as A Little Summer Night Chamber Music series has changed its name, Music from Nightingale, its number of concerts, four to three, and the overall quality of its work, from consistently terrific to spasmodically terrific.

Designed to star the University of Nevada, Reno's splendid Argenta Quartet (violinist Phillip Ruder, violist Virginia Lenz, cellist John Lenz and pianist James Winn) as MFM's centerpiece, when the Argenta is left to its own devices - and plays - all IS terrific. But when the series becomes drenched in family-and-friend night at the Bijou, no matter how wonderfully they play individually, there's trouble in River City when it's presumed proper rehearsal time is but a minor issue for collaborations.

The series opened last night (7/6/2000) before a reasonably large audience at Nightingale Concert Hall on the UNR campus. The curtainraiser was a heavily flawed performance of Copland's Nonet for Strings. The work, conducted by Mark Lenz, suffered as much from a lack of preparation as it did from Lenz's too casual and imprecise leadership. Chalk one off for being too laid back this time out for an event that has always been a superb summer listening experience.

With the exceptional pianism of James Winn anchoring Saint-Saens's Septet in E-flat Major, a work noteworthy for including the trumpet with a quintet of strings and a piano, the Saint-Saens fared somewhat better than the Copland, but not enough to elevate the program's first half to anything approaching artistic satisfaction. The ensemble playing was just too scattered to be true to the septet's fastidious writing. Trumpeter Paul Lenz was on target as was pianist Winn, displaying on his sleeve as he was forced to do the yeoman effort he must have felt required to put forth to give the performance some semblance of togetherness.

Holst's Terzetto for Flute (Mary Miller), Oboe (Andrea Lenz) and Viola (Virginia Lenz) finally got things moving along, and charmingly so. The Holst is lightweight but it's so beautifully constructed and was so hypnotically played it paved the way in platinum, if not gold, for what the audience had come to hear and finally got; a thrilling performance of Robert Schumann's Trio in D Minor.

The collaboration of Ruder, Winn and John Lenz was, as always, sensational. Their performance of the Schumann had it all: grace, rapture, architectural balance, in-depth musicianship and stunning virtuosity. The instinctive rightness of their sense of ensemble and the intuitive majesty of their sense of Schumann made for as sumptuous a performance as most chamber music buffs are ever likely to hear.

Bravo.

Music from Nightingale featuring the Argenta Quartet continues Monday (7/10/2000) at 8 p.m. at Nightingale Concert Hall, 900 North Virginia Street, Reno. The concert will include the music of Richard Strauss, Mahler, Brahms and Britten. For information call 775-784-6847.