by Kevin T McEneaney
The Baldouret Quartet became a Quintet on Friday afternoon in a free concert sponsored by The Millbrook Music Salon. Sophia Zhou, the Artistic Director of the Salon, welcomed the audience and described the renown of the accomplished players.
They opened with Variations from Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K. 33 (1783), arranged by clarinettist Greame Steele Johnson. Appropriating rhythms and melodies from Mozart’s sonata, fierce brashness gave way to autumnal Late Romanticism. Early on, there was a standout, eloquent, solo homage to Mozart from the viola of Benjamin Zannoni (Mozart played the viola as well as piano). Then there was some exciting dialogue between the lead violin of Justin DeFillipps and Zannoni, and Angela Bae on second violin. There were some well-placed cello strokes by Russell Houston in the fraternal dialogue as Johnson appropriated Mozart’s melodies as if he were interviewing the Quartet. This was an odd, stimulating work, yet it all sounded like late Brahms, rather than the witty twinkle of Mozart.
They then performed three movements from Souvenirs of Brazil (1921) by Darius Milhaud, an unusual and prolific composer who spent two years in Brazil as a French soldier who fell in love with Brazilian jazz and its polyphonic rhythms. Milhaud had composed a twelve-movement piano-jazz extravaganza based upon Brazilian dances. Of the three Souvenir movements arranged for the Quintet, Copacabana was the most exhilarating with muted syncopation and emotional flare. (I wished they would play it twice.)
They next performed Compass (2025) by Viet Cuong, a young, dynamic composer who composed this quintet for Graeme Johnson. This was the New York State premiere of the work, which was based upon his mother’s successful flight to California at the close of the Vietnam War. There were rollicking sea rhythms suggesting danger and death, yet the conclusion offered Otherworldly, triumphant transcendence in this extraordinary masterpiece! You can listen to some of his music on his website, and I heartily recommend everyone to do so! His music is at the forefront of a new world!
After Intermission the Quintet performed one of Johannes Brahms late quintets, Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115. (1891). In this Quintet the clarinet is supreme, while other instruments follow and support the clarinet with sympathy which seems to be the voice of Brahms calling from the present into the past. The gentle opening projects tender reverie, anguish on Clara Schumann’s passing, golden memories of their conversations, and a scrapbook of poignant moments in her many conversations with Brahms. This distillation of this warm reverie is the apex of the clarinet quintet, played here exquisitely with sensitive passion by Johnson. First violinist Angela Bae soared as the angelic voice of Clara, while the other instruments echoed the lost voices of revered musicians whom both knew so well. This was an astonishing summation of Brahms’ love of music and his secret muse.
This remarkable concert was free and open to the public. Earlier in the day, The Millbrook Music Salon had underwritten an instructional visit by the Quintet to the Millbrook public schools. The next production of The Millbrook Music Salon features The Renaissance String Quartet on June 12 at 6 pm in the Thorne Centre on Franklin Street.
