Music Reviews

Jul 7, 1999 - Vibrant Biggest Little Chamber Music Opens at Nightingale Hall

By Jack Neal

It's not polite to brag, but if you've got it flaunt it! If only there was a courteous way to let people know what's good for them - that there's something terrific going on in Reno. That terrific something is the Biggest Little Summer Night Chamber Music Series which opened Wednesday night (7/7/99) at Nightingale Concert Hall. It deserves SRO crowds rather than the all-too-small crowd which greeted the artists on opening night.

The series originated years ago as a way for pianist James Winn and cellist John Lenz to strut their extensive talents for themselves and anyone who cared to listen. Winn and Lenz are still on board, and - along with violinist Philip Ruder, a relative upstart at these events - anchor what is one of the least known, but most goregously programmed and vibrantly played four-concert chamber music series anywhere.

What makes the experience even more inviting, the concerts are not just platforms for three musicians, as superb as they are. The door is open for many of the other best musicans northern Nevada has to offer. Many wind up sharing a spotlight that just happens to create a jackpot of diversity for fans.

The risk of diversity for Wednesday's opener, lots of musicians performing a wide-ranging repertory, paid off by panning out to be virtually all a great concert should be. Winn, Lenz and Ruder play together so often their work is not just inspired, it's instinctive. Their performance of Beethoven's light, teasing Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello in G Major, Op. 1, No. 2, was not just perfection, it had the whimsy of a drolly acted Noel Coward play. While Beethoven plays at extending his bags of multiple ideas, Winn, Lenz and Ruder toyed with the wit of those ideas for a performance that was never anything less than marvelously entertaining.

Then, pow! Think of it, an X-rated chamber music concert!

For one of those utterly stunning changes of pace for which these programs should be famous, soprano Katharine DeBoer joined Winn and Lenz, this time playing the French horn, for a reading Bernhard Krol's Horati de Vino Carmina for Soprano, Horn and Piano, Op. 30, that had as much gutsiness as Krol's songs with their vulgar Latin texts would have for raising eyebrows, if anyone understood what was being sung. This is very naughty stuff. DeBoer brings an accuracy to these hard-to-hit-pitch songs that's uncanny. Not only is she accurate, but she's sublimely musical. Lenz's robust horn playing fit the let's-not-be-too-reserved mood of the three Krol songs, and Winn's pianism is always as much a joy to hear as it's enlightening to experience (there's nothing pat about Winn's approach to anything musical).

Dvorak's Sextet for Two Violins, Two Violas and Two Cellos in A Minor, Op. 48, is a tour de force for somewhat larger than usual chamber-music forces. It's the adventuresome aspects of the Dvorak - muscular, frenzied and lush - that make it such fun for younger musicians to tackle, then be pushed along by Ruder's individualistic notions of how this kind of piece should sound. (Ruder is one of the major gurus of interpretation for the series.) No-holds-barred Dvorak, from nostalgia to ferocity, was the result. A bit messy at times, but when its so wildly exciting, who cares? The team that gave things that aforementioned Ruder push - Ruder and violinist Ruth Lenz, violists Soo Kyong Kim and Richard Woehrle, cellists John Lenz and Peter Lenz - gave the Dvorak close-to-the-edge, cliff-hanger status. A bit Hollywood for a chamber-concert ending, perhaps, but what a way to go.

The series continues tonight (7/9/99) with works by Brahms, Beethoven and Shostakovich.

Monday's concert (7/12/99) features the music of Beethoven, Rorem and Hummel. Wednesday's closing concert (7/14/99) features music by Hindemith, Dohnanyi and Mendelssohn. All concerts are at Nightingale Concert Hall on the University of Nevada, Reno campus and begin at 7:30 p.m. For information call 775 784 4046. For tickets call 775 784 6847. Tickets are available at the door one-half hour before concert time.