Lawrence.com, Kansas
Nov 16 2004
Cohesive chamber orchestra unites for priceless performance
By Sarah Young – Special to the Journal-World
Not even technical difficulties involving the Lied Center’s stage
lighting could dim the musical fire emanating from the stage Sunday
afternoon during the concert by Camerata Sweden. Also known as
Camerata Nordica or Camerata Roman, the 15-member chamber orchestra
performs without a conductor, relying on the heightened sense of
collective unity usually reserved for small chamber ensembles.
A traditional orchestra’s lines of communication run primarily from
individual players through the conductor. In a quartet or other small
ensemble without a conductor, the individual players must connect to
one another in ways that are sometimes difficult in the larger
orchestra. In a camerata, the difficulties multiply because there are
so many players. The possibilities for loss of cohesion multiply when
more individuals are added to the group.
However, Camerata Sweden excels at that kind of cohesiveness.
Everyone – with the exception of cellists – performs standing,
accentuating the possibilities for physical communication. Through
direct eye contact and body language, the members of the ensemble
maintain an intense, high-level, sensitive connection with one
another, moving as individuals yet playing with one glorious sound.
Saying the ensemble is not being led is false, however. Just as a
quartet follows the lead of the first violinist, Camerata Sweden
relies on the subtle direction of its music director and violinist
Levon Chilingirian, whose expressive body language guides the
ensemble through intricate musical phrasing.
Special to the Journal-World
Camerata Sweden, a 15-member chamber orchestra, performed Sunday at
the Lied Center.
Chilingirian was also the featured soloist in the aurally striking
`Violin Concerto’ by Alan Hovhaness, which was an alteration from the
announced program. Hovhaness, a 20th-century composer of Armenian and
Scottish descent, found much of his musical inspiration in Armenian
church music. The `Violin Concerto’ is a haunting piece whose first
movement – `Pastoral’ – sets the scene for the concerto’s evocation
of lazy summer days. During one of the later movements is a moment of
spectacular sound and bowing technique as the instruments emulate the
buzzing of bees. All the while, the sound of Chilingirian’s violin
soared above the ensemble with crystalline clarity.
The concert began with the Mendelssohn `String Quartet in F minor,’
which established the intense emotional content of the afternoon’s
selections. Obviously reflecting the composer’s state of grief and
despair following his sister’s death, the music is often strikingly
dissonant and macabre, but its emotional peak occurs in the third
movement, when the violins and cellos cast out the opening phrase of
profound sadness that is borne throughout the sections in an elegy of
despair.
The second half of the program contained the familiar Barber’s
`Adagio,’ played with breathtaking delicacy; however, the featured
number was the Beethoven `String Quartet in F minor.’ Mirroring the
emotions of the Mendelssohn, it is moody and intense, written in 1810
during the composer’s bleak years of worsening deafness, ill health
and familial frustration. With its emotions ranging from violent
anger to anxiety and despair and finally to hopeful resolve, it is a
piece well-suited to the chamber orchestra’s talent for emotional
investment.
Overall, Camerata Sweden’s performance offered priceless
opportunities for intense, complex musical experiences.
Sarah Young is a lecturer in Kansas University’s English department.
She can be reached at [email protected].
