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| Matan Dagan,Tali Goldberg,Myrna Herzog,Rachel Ringelstein,Gili Rinot (photo:Yoel Levy) |
Arousing much curiosity among the audience, the program opened with Quintet
in E-flat major for clarinet and strings, Op.57 by German violinist, composer
and court musician Andreas Romberg (1767-1821), Not really a familiar figure to
today’s audiences, Romberg’s oeuvre includes eight operas, ten symphonies and
twenty violin concertos. It was in Bonn in the 1880s that he and his
cousin Bernhard Heinrich Romberg played in the orchestra of Maximilian of
Austria - the orchestra in which Antonín Reicha (1770-1836) played 2nd flute and
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) played viola! After spending time in Paris,
Andreas Romberg settled in Hamburg, where he became a central figure in the
city's musical life, in 1815 succeeding Louis Spohr as music director at the
court of the Duke, in Gotha, Thuringia. Scored for clarinet, violin I,
viola/violin II, viola II, and ‘cello, the PHOENIX artists performed the
two-violin option, with Matan Dagan playing first violin. They gave explicit
expression to the sense of well-being prevailing in Romberg’s music, maintaining
diligent balance between strings and clarinet, giving attention to motifs and
the individual colour of each key visited. How warm, amiable and well-shaped
Rinot’s playing of the Menuetto melody was, with the minor-key Trio given a
suave reading by Dagan, the interpolated Allegretto hinting at the country
dance style, but devoid of bucolic heaviness. There was a building up of
tension in the following Larghetto, but not reaching dramatic proportions. As to the Finale, the players coloured each
gesture and change (Romberg is not able to stay away from exuberant utterance
for very long) as they good-naturedly teased the listener with the occasional tempo
change and other kindly surprises. Inventive, melodious and inviting players to
engage in Classical directness and fine musicianship, Romberg’s E-flat major
Quintet, clearly paying homage to Mozartian charm, deserves to be heard more
often.
Then, to Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in D minor, Hob.III:43 Op.42, 13
minutes of pure beauty, a mature work (the autograph is marked 1785) showing
the composer’s heightened attention to the ‘cello role (and, in fact, to that
of the viola), as its score displays Haydn’s perfection of balance and
proportion. From the first movement, with its puzzling inscription of “Andante
ed innocentemente” (Herzog commented that Haydn was far from naive) presented
as elegant, serene and profound but not austere, the PHOENIX players indeed
highlighted the joyous sophistication created by the interplay of instruments
as well as that of its phrases. For the second movement, they engaged in the
juxtaposing of textures in playing of charm and delicacy, this to be followed
by Dagan’s reflective and poetic playing of the melodic course of the third
movement. Goldberg then whisked the listener into the Haydnesque freshness and
energy of the Finale, as all four artists “breathed” the music as one in a
radiant ensemble blend, giving meaning to its gestures and small silences.
Gili Rinot re-joined the string players to perform W.A.Mozart’s Clarinet
Quintet in A major, K 581, this time on a basset-clarinet. Referring to its
“soft, sweet breath”, Mozart loved the clarinet, considering it ideal for
chamber music with strings. A new instrument still undergoing change, Anton
Stadler, the second clarinet of the Viennese Imperial Court orchestra and a
member of the Kaiser's wind octet, was motivated to experiment with extending
the instrument's “chalumeau” (lower register) through the addition of length
and several keys. The resulting instrument was the basset clarinet, nowadays
almost universally recognized as the correct instrument for performance of the
Mozart Concerto K 622, of this quintet and the late operas. Gili Rinot referred
to the basset clarinet as an “impractical instrument” which quickly sank into
obscurity, only now enjoying a revival. Rinot’s basset clarinet is a replica
made by Agnès Guéroult (Paris). The A major Quintet is not a work for solo
clarinet and string accompaniment; Rinot and the string players were equal
partners where the clarinet blended splendidly with the strings, as individual
strings occasionally took centre stage, to be accompanied by the clarinet.
Mozart’s wealth of sublime themes and their development emerged via the unique
magical sound world created by Mozart’s mix of the five instrumental timbres.
Add to that the first movement’s string solos graced by a variety of
appealing clarinet comments and ornamenting, sensitive melodiousness passed
from Dagan to Rinot in the tranquil Larghetto fashioned with punctilious
coordination, the appealing Menuetto with its two Trios - the first for violin,
with Dagan’s gentle flexing pulling at the heart strings, the second, a
Ländler-type dance for clarinet - and the Allegretto with its set of variations
- good-humoured, reticent, serious and moving - with the fourth showcasing the
virtuosic ability of the clarinet.
PHOENIX members play on period instruments, on gut strings and with early
bows, stimulating a warmth of sound and natural timbral beauty that go
hand-in-glove with Classical works of the kind performed at the Tel Aviv
concert. Clearly delighted by the evening’s program, the festival audience
sensed it was in the hands of five outstanding musicians, their renditions of
the three works the result of deep, detailed and informed enquiry enmeshed with
emotional involvement. The spacious Mizne-Blumental Gallery, surrounding the
listener with its 19th- and 20th masterpieces, made for a most delightful
concert venue.
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