ORION ENSEMBLE LEADS OFF WITH ROBUST, THOUGHTFUL PROGRAM
By Wynne Delacoma
Chicago Classical Review
Tue Oct 13, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Thoughtful programming has been a major strength of Chicago’s Orion
Ensemble since its founding 17 years ago. That virtue is clearly on
display in the program assembled by the group to open its 2009-10
season of concerts in Geneva, Evanston and Chicago.
A former church auditorium, Nichols Hall at the Music Institute
of Chicago in Evanston is an intimate, resonant space, and Orion’s
sound was sinewy and robust Sunday night as they dug into works by
Martinu, Schubert and the Armenian composer Alexander Arutiunian. The
ensemble–founders Kathryne Pirtle, clarinet; Florentina Ramniceanu,
violin, and Diana Schmuck, piano along with violist Jennifer Marlas
and cellist Judy Stone–played with the energy of longtime colleagues
still excited by the prospect of making music together.
The first two works, Martinu’s Sonatina for clarinet and piano and
Arutiunian’s Suite for violin, clarinet and piano, share a restless
sensibility. A dark undercurrent runs through both, though they also
have their playful moments.
Martinu fled his Czech homeland in the wake of World War II and
felt its loss keenly until his death in 1959. Composed in 1957,
the Sonatina is full of the spicy harmonies and syncopated rhythms
of Czech folk music. In the slow middle movement, Pirtle’s clarinet
glided and swooped in a bluesy klezmer-style dance over Schmuck’s
heavy, tolling piano. The final movement was a heady race, with Pirtle
darting and leaping over Schmuck’s non-stop, swirling piano lines.
The world’s massive weight seemed to press on the players
in the opening moments of Arutiunian’s Suite, a work from
1992. Entering first, Schmuck brooded over the steady tread of low
octaves. Ramniceanu’s violin picked up their outline, adding another
dark voice to the lament. When Pirtle’s clarinet appeared, however,
its pure, penetrating opening note floated into the gloom like a rede
Moods shifted constantly in the Suite. The third movement, titled
"Dialog," was slow and ardent, a conversation full of longing between
violin and clarinet. In the finale, Schmuck’s piano, pumping cheerily
away like an accordion in a polka band, set off a fiery dance.
Schubert’s Trio in B-Flat seemed to harness all this restlessness in a
grandly scaled yet emotionally vibrant work. Stone’s cello added rich
color, bringing a dark, velvety texture to Schubert’s lilting rhythms.
The program will be repeated 7:30 p.m. Oct. 21 in the Fazioli Piano
Showroom, 410 S. Michigan. ; 630-628-9591.