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While many University of Maine students were rocking out for Haiti or cheering on the Black Bears hockey team Friday night, Minsky Recital Hall was ringing with the sweet sounds of chamber music. Seeing “Curtis on Tour” demanded a hefty ticket price, but compared to what they charge in New York, it was a bargain to see such a quality performance.
As host Ludlow Hallman explained, it’s called chamber music for a reason. “This is the way chamber music is intended to be,” he said.
Acoustically, Minsky is the perfect venue for the more intimate experience of a chamber ensemble, as opposed to a large concert hall more fit for a full orchestra. Sometimes, bigger isn’t always better, since a piano, cello, viola and two violins add up to more than the sum of their parts.
“The Curtis Institute is sort of like the Hogwarts of Music,” said violinist Ida Kavafian. Founded in Philadelphia in 1924, the institute is one of the world’s most prestigious and exclusive music schools — it has an acceptance rate lower than Harvard’s. In a given year, only 3 of 100 applicant violinists are accepted. All enrollees receive full tuition, and piano majors even get a free piano for their home. And as the performance proved, if these students aren’t the crème of the crop, I don’t know who is.
The program order progressed backward in time, with the first half of the concert featuring pieces by Curtis alumni. The first song was composed by a current student, and violinist Benjamin Beilman expressed his delight to play one of his classmate’s pieces. Titled “No Bad Dreams,” the piece was a demonstration of both the creative composition and passionate performances Curtis can produce. What begins as a tranquil lullaby quickly launches into a whimsical, then nightmarish, dream sequence. It was the kind of piece that demands youthful energy, which Beilman and pianist Yekwon Sunwoo charged into the work.
Next came a work by modern composer Daniel Shapiro, a challenge for both the listener and the performer. Violist Hyo Bi Sim dismissed the bad reputation of violas — often the butt of jokes. Youthful passion breathed life into the more melancholy, and at times unsettling, sound of the piece.
Joining the students were Kavafian and cellist Peter Wiley to take on Samuel Barber’s “Quartet in B Minor,” featuring the mournful adagio made famous by the Vietnam War flick “Platoon.” Given how overplayed it is on radio stations like WBACH, it’s an immediate crowd pleaser. However, the Curtis players wrenched the hearts of even those hearing it for the umpteenth time. It gave the audience a chance to hear the often underappreciated and overlooked first movement of the opus.
The grand finale featured the whole kit and caboodle for a dazzling rendition of Romantic era music by Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. His “Quintet No. 2 in A Major” explores the full range of musical landscapes, with which the group masterfully filled the hall. They paid close attention to the composer’s specific instructions on tempo; the first movement is “Allegro Ma Non Tanto,” i.e., “brisk but not too brisk.” They also took seriously the playful meaning of “scherzo” (joke).
Multiple standing ovations came from an audience mostly two generations older than the performers. This contrast was the only disappointment, one also seen at recitals on Portland’s Kotzschmar organ. It could have been the aforementioned music and sporting events or the steep admission price, but there were only four or five college-aged audience members. The truth is, classical music is just like hockey. It’s much better to see it live.
Bangor Daily News