Serenaded Back to School

On Wednesday, September 8, the Lewis & Clark College Music Department introduced some of their new faculty, Gregory Ewer and Susan Smith, at the Faculty Recital in Evans Auditorium on the Lewis & Clark College campus. Ewer, violin, and Smith, piano, were joined by Miriam English Ward, viola, Dorien de León, cello, and Jason Schooler, bass. The turnout was very good for a weeknight—at its peak filling at least half of the auditorium. The program was classically orientated featuring Mozart, Rossini, and Schubert, making the program very balanced stylistically, and the pieces selected were composed for slightly peculiar ensembles.

Much of W.A. Mozart’s Piano Quartet in E-flat Major K. 493 felt like a conversation between friends with the metamorphosing theme that returned throughout the piece. The second movement, “Larghetto”, brought soothing, lulling melodies—like a consoling talk with a friend. The pairing of the strings and playful interactions with the piano made for a pleasant listen. Smith did a brilliant job at balancing beauty with technique and interacting with the violinist’s cues. The cello seemed to act as the metronome throughout bulk of the piece but had its fair share of melodic prominence. The quartet was fluid, but the cellist and violist did not seem as comfortable participating in the theatrical aspect of the performance.

The most atypical instrumentation of the concert resided in Duo for violoncello and contrabass by Gioacchino Rossini. It was refreshing as a Classical music listener to hear the contrabass being focus of a piece. “Allegro” easily showcased the skills and extremes of each instrument—range, bowings, and quick fingers. The second movement had many exchanges of the theme that were completely fluid, as well as the switches from two-part harmonies to three- or four-part harmonies. The technical change to double-stops was likely unnoticed by the non-string players in the audience. The third movement was extremely playful, but the performers demeanour did not reflect such. During this movement, a group behind me kept giggling—never did find out what was so amusing in the back of the auditorium.

During intermission, a number of people blitzed the food for the reception; de Leon entreated the audience members join the performers afterwards to continue the celebration. Unfortunately, for much of the student audience that left during intermission, the group saved the best for last.

Franz Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A Major D. 667 “The Trout” seemed like it was played to help the students say goodbye to the scintillating summer sun and hello to the cool fall rain—a perfect close to the summer. The piece—composed for violin, viola, cello, bass and piano—rotated through the excitement and nonchalance of summer to the advancing autumn with its playful folk melodies, false endings, varying accompanying and melodic structures. However, the visual aspect at the beginning of the piece was imbalanced; the visible emotion was not coming everyone. By the last movement, the emotion and theatrics seemed to be flowing throughout the group—like a child getting accustom to a cool pool.

Overall, this concert was a great way to break the mundane normal schedule of the week.