Lammermuir Festival: Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective II
North Esk Church, Musselburgh - 12/09/23
The second of three recitals by members of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective in this year’s Lammermuir Festival brought another eclectic programme, with two of the three works advancing their mission of promoting neglected high-quality repertoire, but the third being Schubert’s scrumptious un-neglectable Octet. The works before the interval were Britten’s youthful student work, the Phantasy Quartet of 1932, and Reynaldo Hahn’s Piano Quintet of a decade earlier. The venue was again Musselburgh’s Northesk Church, on 12th September the night after the first recital.
Britten’s Phantasy Quartet is scored for oboe, violin, viola and cello, with prominence given to the oboe, played by Armand Djikaloum. Violinist and co-director of the Collective, Elena Urioste, violist Rosalind Ventris and cellist Laura van der Heijden competed the line-up. The piece was an entry in a competition for a chamber piece no longer than 12 minutes to be played without a break, though it could have sections. Britten opens and closes the piece with a swaggering march, fading in on cello to begin and out at the very end. In between, there is a fast, scurrying bucolic romp, a declamatory oration, a meditation, a plaintive string interlude, a meltdown and a rustic idyll. In short, an extraordinarily compressed microcosm. Enthusiastically played and awarding it the utmost advocacy – I’m convinced.
For Hahn’s 3-movement Piano Quintet, the three string players of the Britten were joined by Savitri Grier on second violin and director of the Collective, pianist Tom Poster. From the start, the first movement presents impeccable Late Romantic credentials, suggestive perhaps of Dvořák, but also his French contemporaries. A striding confident first theme is followed by a tender songlike second theme, rich harmonies abounding. The development reaches a magnificent climax, the passion sustained through to the emphatic end. The slow movement begins sombrely with a measured tread of piano chords and a cello melody, joined by all but the first violin. When it does, the key and mood change to a tender dialogue with cello and then piano, all performed with exquisite delicacy. A more turbulent episode passes, the plaintive melody concludes the movement quietly. The rondo finale exudes a gentle charm with a folksong-like main theme and each episode characterising a different mood. A reference is made to themes of the first movement, before the main theme returns on full score to deliver a confident and affirmative end. Hahn’s Quintet is a real gem, but for me the fullest enjoyment derived from observing the joy of the players, the smiles and the eye contact, the thrill of chamber music-making. Fabulous.
For Schubert’s Octet, the 4 string players in the Hahn were joined by clarinettist Matthew Hunt, bassoonist Amy Harman and hornist Ben Goldscheider. It is a huge 6-movement divertimento, chock-full of some of Schubert’s most memorable melodies. In a piece commissioned by a clarinettist, the instrument has a prominent role and Matthew delivered a particularly stylish and characterful performance, but he was aided and abetted by 7 accomplices, equally willing and at least as able. The suspenseful opening Adagio launched the confident Allegro, the teasing minor-key second subject beautifully pointed by Matthew. The lyrical Adagio second movement was elegantly rendered. The bouncy Ländler scherzo, always a joy and my favourite movement of the 6, was a gleeful hoot. The theme-and-variations Andante exuded warmth and fellowship and is what chamber music is all about. The minuet-and-trio fifth movement added charm and elegance to the burgeoning store of welcome earworms for the journey home. The dramatic contrasts of the finale’s scary introduction with its ensuing genial cheery narrative were fully exploited, with the former making a reappearance before the cheery coda.
Notwithstanding the length of the programme (the Octet is a bit of a beast, topping the hour in duration), the audience were in the mood for an encore and, as attendees of the previous evening may have expected, we got another of their bespoke Gershwin arrangements for the 10 musicians performing, ‘The Man I Love’. Gorgeous.