UW Gazette, March 6, 1996 Conducted by Jan Narveson Wednesday: A packed house was on hand for the The Penderecki Quartet's all-Mozart program at KWCMS Music room, with pianist Yumi Takagi as guest. It proved to be a most interesting program, beginning with two very different earlier Quartets - different both from the later and familiar masterpieces, and from each other. K. 156 in G is an Italianate three-movement work that sings out in true teen-age Mozart fashion: charming, uncomplicated, yet not without its adventurous moments, and pregnant with hints at what is to come. To make these early works fly, one must, as we observed in the case of the St. Lawrence's December performance of K. 157, play them to the hilt. The Penderecki has likewise learned this lesson, and their account was full- voiced, forthright, and eminently successful. K. 172 in Bb, on the other hand, is the work of the young student genius who has just been knocked over by hearing the latest Haydn works, and is determined to apply the lesson. It's fascinating - and it doesn't work very well: instead of brilliant, from-the-soul Mozart, we get imitation Haydn. This is not a good idea - like all great composers, Haydn's genius is inimitable. So there are awk wardnesses and struggles - though of course some successes, especially where the Mozart who wants to sing finds a way to do it for a bit. The late Adagio & Fugue, K. 546, is another intriguing effort in an essentially foreign medium: this time Mozart had heard Bach, and was likewise blown away by the experience. This work, a re-setting of a fugue for two claviers, K. 426), has a short and quite good adagio leading into a strange, galumphing fugue theme, fully worked out - but it doesn't swing (compare any real Bach fugue). Again, most fascinating! And played with panache, as usual, by this virtuoso ensemble. After intermission, the superb Piano Quartet #2 in Eb, K. 493 is the real Mozart - beautiful, singing, ingenious, carved from crystal by a composer who knew exactly what he was doing. Getting the tempii just right is a challenge in this work: do the opening allegro too fast and you get a driven feeling, at cross purposes to this work's message. Last autumn's performance by Millennium had this problem; Penderecki/Takagi were decidedly better, though we still felt the need for a touch more relaxation. The pianist's fingerwork in these rippling passages was immaculate, precise and yet delicate - very nice. In the ada gio, the soulful violin sound of Jerzy Kaplanek was something to revel in, and the overall effect was lovely. And the finale was perfect - splendidly clear and high- spirited without being at all frantic. In short, a fine performance of a work that is a masterpiece even by Mozart's standard - what more can you ask? Thursday: The KWS Pops concert with the famed percussion ensemble, Nexus, was very much another case of tail wagging dog, as the only piece that the orchestra had a major hand in was the opening overture by Rossini, La Gazza Ladra, ably (and charmingly) conducted by Nexus member Bill Cahn. The rest of the evening had Nexus in the limelight, sometimes with orchestra in the background and sometimes by themselves. They are certainly a fabulous team, and they got up an entertaining set of pieces, mostly based on early-20th- C. popular repertoire, with xylophone demon Bob Becker often the virtual soloist. (As in the Spanish Waltz, where he was simply dazzling.) The one musically out-of-the-way item was their first, "The Birds", in which the five Nexus players made their way through several dozen bird sounds, against New-agey string backdrop from the orchestra. Good fun. As were such very old staples as Yes! We Have no Bananas and The Mocking 'Bird Fantasia. At the end we were treated to a genuine Silent Film Era item: Teddy at the Throttle, Mack Sennett, 1916, with music by various including Victor Herbert, done up for xylophone/marimba ensemble, in the main. Nothing musically remarkable about it, all done with superb ease and style. But it does seem a pity to keep a perfectly good orchestra so far in the background. Friday, at WLU's much-improved Theatre-Auditorium, we got to the Faculty of Music's opera production of Ravel's "The Spanish Hour" and Puccini's Suor Angelica. A major factor on the scene now is the Faculty's fine orchestra, which is really the hero of the Ravel work, really a symphonic essay with voices, who have no real arias, but more like a sustained exercise in fabulously orchestrated recitative. Still, the vocal lines are taxing enough, and Caroline Dery did a brilliant job in the role of Concepcion, the sexually enterprising shop-wife; the four males were also excellent: Michael Cressman, a standout as Ramiro, the rewarded muleteer; Kelly Robertson, a scream as the star- struck poet Gonzalves; Nicolas Lemieux as the bemused watch maker; and Alex Fleuriau-Chateau, not quite corpulent enough, though quite funny enough, to be believable as the too-wide-for-his-clock Don Inigo. The orchestra was sen sational, getting through the difficult score in fine style. It wouldn't be easy to find a greater contrast from the frivolous plot of the Ravel to Puccini's heart-wrenching one-act masterpiece. The cast is all women, all but one in a convent, with Angelica herself played by Catherine Tait, featured soloist in the WLU orchestra concert of a few weeks ago. Once she got above the piano range, she blossomed out most convincingly, and in the tragic ending proved herself an actress of accomplishment as well. One doesn't hear much individually from most of the other women, except for the dour Princess, played all too credibly by Agnieszka Zakrzewska, and the Abbess, well handled by Jill Hodge. All of these singers have accomplished voices and blended well. But the spotlight was on Ms. Tait, who is a major find; we will surely see her on important stages before very long. A word for the stage direction and sets of both productions, too: these were pretty classy, in every way. A very impressive evening. Saturday at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, the Renaissance Singers performed. We will have heard this via their excellent recording - the review will appear next week. Saturday: Pianist Alma Petchersky has performed several times for the K-W Chamber Music Society; this time was a special event, in which she donated her services toward the goal of the Society's completing purchase of its eloquent Steinway piano. The event may have been only a medium success at the gate, but it was a resounding success on the artistic front. Indeed, we venture to rate this the best of her several solo appearances for KWCMS. Starting off with three particularly beautiful works of Schubert - two of the three late pieces, D. 946, and the 2nd of the Moments Musicaux - the artist brought a profound sensitivity and commanding technique to her task, resulting in truly eloquent Schubert, the melodies singing out strongly, the inner voices clean and firm. And the more familiar Moment Musicaux #2 in Ab has glorious melodies, which she brought out in a delectable way. Moving on to Beethoven's "Tempest" Sonata (#17 - Op. 31, #2), we had a chance to hear the artist in a work where structure is of the essence. And we were struck by the integrity of this performance, which avoided temptations that can make the work more immediately appealing at the cost of the whole. For example, the concluding movement, 'allegretto', is often taken allegro - which is exciting, but ultimately costs coherence. By the end of the movement, we were quite convinced by her view of it. The drama of the opening movement was particularly well realized, and the adagio imbued with emotional commitment. An outstanding performance, in short. After intermission, two blockbuster works of Liszt - the Fantasia and Fugue on the name of BACH, and the Vallee D'Obermann - provided ample evidence that she is also a virtuoso of major attainment. How does such a diminutive frame get such power out of a piano? The Fantasia soared, and the immense Fugue thundered forth with splendid power and conviction. We were then taken for a tour of the Alps, peering into the depths of Obermann's valley in equally impressive style. Finally, there was the Latin American entry, three works of Villa-Lobos. We had an impressive performance a couple of weeks earlier of the whole of Bachianas Brasileira No. 4 by Flavio Varani; but Ms. Petchersky's account of the Aria-Cantiga from that work was even more powerful; and the Dance of the White Indian was wonderfully exhilarating. It's remarkable that she can sail with equal authority through works so far removed from the European mainstream. All in all, this was an outstanding evening's pianism. Sunday afternoon: The K-W Community Orchestra's winter concert at Parkminster United Church, with cello soloist John Marshman, proved to be a remarkable event. This amateur orchestra has a way of tackling material that ought to be well beyond it. Schubert's overture to Rosamunde, which opened the concert, is in the manageable class, and after some slightly scrawny string tone and a bit of hesitancy, this turned into a nice enough thing. But then, in Elgar's towering Cello Concerto with its tricky rhythmic shifts, the orchestra held up remarkably well, as the young soloist turned in a very impressive performance in the solo role. This concerto has a way of sending the soloist on sudden runs right up beyond the end of the fingerboard, but Marshman got every one of them in professional style. He also understands and feels this masterwork, and conveyed it. He has indeed come a long way. If the Elgar was amazing, still more so was the Beethoven Second Symphony, a late-classical work that assumes one is the Philadelphia Orchestra or thereabouts. With only slight concessions to his players' level of accomplishment, Fabio Mastrangelo had them moving along at a sprightly pace quite capable of conveying the spirit of this exuberant piece. One could employ the term 'miraculously' for the result: scarcely a string player was seriously out of place in the whole piece, and time and again the shape of these ferocious parts was quite intact. We weren't just impressed - we were astonished! One expects the wind players to be way ahead of their string-playing colleagues in such an ensemble, but in truth, the strings outclassed them this time around (but we noted life-saving support in the trio of the scherzo by veteran oboist Beryl Hultin). We came away not only impressed at the orchestra, but at this piece, probably Beethoven's least celebrated symphony: it's a wonderful work, and the music shone through. Sunday evening at Centre in the Square, the K-W Youth Orchestra had its third outing of the season; the review is delayed to next week, as is our account of the K-W Chamber Orchestra's simultaneous concert, which we will hear on tape. Forthcoming: This noon (12:30), Conrad Grebel College Chapel: Margaret Elligsen, soprano; Sandra Mogensen, piano: Arts Songs. Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m., Conrad Grebel College Chapel: Harpsichordist Viviana Sofronitsky performs a program of "Russian Music at the Court of Catherine the Great", along with a lecture by G & S dept. professor Robert Karpiak. It's sponsored jointly by the Waterloo Early Keyboard Society and the CG Music Department; Ms. S. is a good performer as we know from two earlier local appearances this year. Admission is free, but voluntary donations are "gratefully accepted". Sunday, 8:00: At KWCMS Music Room, another fabulous- level ensemble, Proteus, which is the Ensemble-in-Residence at McGill University, generally regarded as Canada's top music school. Yehonatan Berick, violin, Douglas McNabney, violin, and Antonio Lysey, cello are all known as soloists and chamber musicians in their own right. Mr. Lysey has performed in the Music Room, a legendarily perfect concert of a couple of years back; his colleagues, we are assured, are in the same class - dynamite, in short. The extremely unusual program has works by Mozart/Bach and Bach: by Mozart , Three Adagios for for String Trio, preceding three fugues from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier arranged by Mozart for string trio. After intermission, there is Dmitri Sitko vetsky's remarkable arrangement of Bach's Everest-level work for keyboard, the Goldberg Variations. This should, in short, be a sensational event. Tickets $23; sr., $18; st $15. If space is available, students at the door are $12. 886-1673 to reserve. Tuesday noon (12:00) at WLU's MFRH, the Penderecki Quartet performs Haydn's tour de force, the Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross. First assayed at the Music Room a year ago, this set of seven consecutive slow movements nevertheless manages to maintain the most intense level of interest. Don't miss it, if you can possibly get there. Wednesday, March 13: Only three days after Proteus comes another top-notch international ensemble, the YsaŘe Quartet from Paris, France. Reputed to be the finest string quartet from that country, the YsaŘe was the first French quartet to win the Grand Prize at the Evian Festival; it has since had a major career on the Continent and in North America, and records for Decca. Like most such KWCMS concerts, the foursome is on tour at the major venues in North America and we get them on the fly. They perform Shostakovich's riveting Quartet No. 8, Stravinsky's wispy Three Pieces for String Quartet, and Schubert's amazing Quartet in d, "Death and the Maiden". This one is a bargain at reg. $19; sr., $14; st $12.