A welcome return of Cincinnati’s Immaculata Chamber Music Series

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

The impressive Sunday September 26 concert that brought the long overdue return of Cincinnati’s Immaculata Chamber Music Series opened with Ernst von Dohnányi’s Serenade in C major, Op. 10, for string trio.

An early 20th century work written when its composer was in his mid-twenties, the five-movement suite is structured as a collection of five movements: an Allegro in the form of a lively March, a melodic Romanza, a Scherzo, a theme and variations, and a finale in the form of a Rondo.

Unlike those of his fellow Hungarians Bartók and Kodály, Dohnányi’s compositions do not find their inspiration in Hungarian folk songs, instead being closer to the post Romanticism much in vogue in Europe at the turn of the 20th century: still tonal, occasionally melodic, shunning any influence from the Second Viennese School, the Serenade in C major sounds at times like a chip off the old Brahms block, correctly structured, but more compositional perspiration than inspiration.

Violist Martin Hintz, cellist Jonathan Lee, and violinist KayCee Galano played with precision and boundless energy.

The second half of the concert featured the String Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20, written by Felix Mendelssohn at the age of 16.Conceived for a double quartet: four violins, two violas, and two cellos little did its young composer know that he was creating a new kind of work in the field of chamber music, a composition that set the name of Felix Mendelssohn on the musical map of 19th century Europe.

Structured in four continuous sections: a breathless Allegro moderato ma con fuoco in E-flat major, a lyrical C minor Andante, a G minor Scherzo that reminded one of the similar movement in the incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and a race to the finish finale in Presto tempo that returns to the initial E-flat tonality, the Octet is a miraculously unpredictable composition, every bar filled with melodic and harmonic riches.

KayCee Galano, Maggie Niekamp, Kanako Shimasaki, Mwakudua waNgure, Martin Hintz, Judy Huang, Jonathan Lee, and Lucas Song were the eight players of the Mendelssohn, some of whom previously performed the Mendelssohn Octet in concert at the Immaculata Chamber Music series. With the peerless Kanako Shimasaki leading the ensemble, the eight musicians gave an exhilarating performance, marked by faultless intonation, technical accuracy, agility, and superb musicality. In short a great performance.

Information about upcoming concerts in the Immaculata Chamber Music series may be found on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ImmaculataCMS

Rafael de Acha        ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”