UPCOMING CHAMBER CONCERT IS CULTURAL, EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE
Jay Karr

Hilton Head Island Packet
Jan 31 2008
SC

Chamber Music Hilton Head will present its next concert Monday,
at All Saints Episcopal Church. Two pieces make up the program, the
first is an exotic trio for mixed instruments, and the second is a
famous string quartet called, "Death and the Maiden."

Aram Khachaturian is best known for writing ballet music, particularly
"Sabre Dance." But his trio is an earlier piece that captures the
flavor of Khachaturian’s native Armenia.

Sitting squarely on the "Silk Road" trading routes, Armenian folk
music is a blend of Eastern and Western styles, nuanced and complex.

For instance, instead of major and minor keys, there are dozens of
tonalities, and rhythms are so unique they cannot be notated

but must be passed down by oral tradition.

"Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano" is scored for modern instruments,
but the listener can hear a bit of snake charmer in the clarinet
part; a piano more akin to the Persian zither; and, in the violin,
the voice of Scheherazade. Violinist Asako Kremer and clarinetist
Russell Floyd are members of the Charleston and Hilton Head Symphony
Orchestras, respectively. Pianist Jean Shamo and her husband, Bob,
are founders and artistic co-directors of the ensemble.

Of Franz Schubert’s many string quartets, "Death and the Maiden"
generally is regarded as the most inspired. The title pertains to
the second

movement, which is based on a song by that name Schubert had written
a few years earlier. (One wouldn’t think so, but the theme of death —
imagine a skeleton — seducing a

virgin was quite popular in the early 1800s, with depictions by many
artists and poets.) Schubert’s song is, indeed, dreadfully beautiful,
made even more so by five variations the composer wrote to characterize
the conversation between the Devil and the Maiden.

While the second movement is the emotional core of the quartet,
the other movements present comparable dialogues between life and
death, good and evil, choice and inevitability. The opening allegro
is terrifyingly decisive on the one hand, limpid and feminine on
the other.

The scherzo is a grotesque dance of death, with a gruff sort of
allure. And the finale is all coiled tension and bundled energy,
accelerating to a breathless conclusion. "Death and the Maiden"
will be performed by violinists Melissa Barrett and Tristan Lehnert,
violist Yvonne Johnson, and cellist Angela Maleh.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress