By Donald Waxman
The setting: Mar-a-Lago, the storied, palatial Palm Beach estate of the late Marjorie Merriweather Post, extensively renovated by its current owner, Donald Trump. The occasion: the sixth concert in the inaugural season of the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach. The artists: The highly acclaimed flute, viola and harp trio, Les Amies. The program: an all-French concert featuring Debussy’s Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp and Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro. The music room: the grand white-and-gold ballroom at Mar-a-Lago, an image out of Versailles.
It doesn’t get much more elegant than that, does it? Probably not; but, as always in music events, it’s the performance that counts. Better a stellar performance in a barn than a mediocre one in a palace. As it turned out, the April 10 concert of Les Amies at Mar-a-Lago was superb; it more than matched the elegance of the setting.
Les Amies consists of three of New York’s busiest musicians, each of them appearing frequently in such important venues as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Carol Wincenc, flutist, is particularly known for her championing of contemporary music, having premiered many works for solo flute and flute and orchestra written especially for her. Cynthia Phelps and Nancy Allen, principal violist and principal harpist, respectively, of the New York Philharmonic, appear with chamber music ensembles and orchestras throughout the United States and abroad. All three musicians have recorded extensively. All three of them teach at Juilliard, and, as the trio’s name suggests, they have for many years been good friends.
The Debussy Sonata appeared early in the program. It is a late work of Debussy, one of six sonatas that he planned as a set, four of them — this trio included — for unusual combinations of instruments. Unfortunately, Debussy died in 1918 with only three of the sonatas finished.
The Sonata is not typical of Debussy’s music. There is not the colorful brilliance of the piano music, nor the sensuous languor of L’après-midi d’une faune, or the formal structures of the early G minor String Quartet. The sonata is elusive; the themes in it often seem fragmentary. There is an austerity about the work, even a kind of stillness.
In the first movement, marked Pastorale, the themes that appear are not developed in the manner of traditional sonata form. The themes enter, combine and recombine like the shapes in a kaleidoscope. The second movement, marked “In the Tempo of a Minuet”, does not remain in the tempo of a minuet for very long. The forlorn five-note theme at the beginning of the Minuet reappears throughout the movement, darkening its mood. The third movement is more energetic, with music of a Spanish accent.
Throughout, the harp takes on the role of a big mandolin with a fast-moving drone of repeated notes, and swirling around it are bravura figurations of the flute and viola. Several times, though, the music suddenly dies away and comes to a complete stop, and after the third pause, the mood again turns melancholy. Not for long, though; and in a sudden race to the end and a final rousing cadence, the music for the first time sounds like traditional Debussy.
The great challenge in performing the Debussy Sonata is to keep its fragmentary textures from sounding random and arbitrary, to give the work some kind of cohesion. The three musicians accomplished this in a very persuasive way. They did so not only because of their intelligent musicianship but also, I believe, because of their intimate familiarity with the work. My guess is that they have performed this work more than any other throughout the 10 years of the group’s concertizing. With that kind of familiarity comes a control and unity of playing that is hard to achieve after just one or two performances.
Wincenc’s playing was admirable for its quiet, restrained lyricism. Throughout the three-octave range of the flute her tone was remarkably even; no breathiness in the lower notes of the instrument and no shrillness at the top, where the flute can with lesser players have the sound of a police whistle. Phelps’ playing in the Debussy was as admirable in for its unforced qualities; vibratos were kept within a narrow range, articulations were gentle, and the mezza voce quality of her tone was ideal.
Allen’s playing was more exuberant, but for this listener the harp somewhat dominated the ensemble. Perhaps it was the acoustics of the ballroom; perhaps the instrument itself, which was on loan from the New World Symphony. It is obvious that harpists cannot carry their instruments wherever they play with the ease that flutists can, and they must often be performing on unfamiliar instruments. Harps can vary as much as concert grand pianos can, and this harp seemed particularly resonant. This reservation aside, the performance of the Debussy Sonata by Les Amies was a model in French style performance: cool, understated but always alive.
Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro for flute, clarinet, harp and strings, the other major work on the program, ended the concert. Here the members of Les Amies were joined by four guest artists: violinist Doori Na, concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra; cellist Joseph Lee, member of the New York City Ballet Orchestra; and violinist Foster Wang and clarinetist Brad Whitfield, both members of the New World Symphony.
The Introduction and Allegro is a youthful work of Ravel, full of joie de vivre and unabashed melodiousness. It was commissioned by Erard, the great French harp maker. If the harp sounds front and center in this piece, it was meant to be. There is even a short harp cadenza toward the end of the piece.
The Ravel septet (it is sometimes played with a string orchestra) has long been a favorite of concertgoers. No matter how often one hears the piece, it is always irresistible. The first minute of the Introduction, with its dropped chromatic thirds, is certainly the most seductive opening in the chamber music literature.
The Ravel received an exceptionally fluid, refined performance. Tempos were brisk but not hurried sounding. The long melodic lines were beautifully shaped but with a feeling of spontaneity. The performance was particularly admirable in that the four guest artists had only rehearsed twice with the trio. The Ravel was a great way to end the all-French program, and the audience responded with a standing ovation.
In between the Debussy and Ravel masterpieces that framed the program were three shorter French compositions. The program began with Deux Interludes and an Entr’acte by the 20th-century composer Jacques Ibert. The first of the Interludes, written in the manner of a stately sarabande, was particularly appealing and set just the right tone to open the program.
Wincenc and Phelps were heard together in a two-movement Duo in C Minor for flute and viola by the 18th-century French composer François Devienne, a contemporary of Mozart. More major than minor, its two fast movements chatted away in an amiable manner. The piece was played with complete ease and finesse by the Wincenc/Phelps duo, as one might have expected.
Shrewdly placed in the middle of the program was a showpiece for harp solo, an Impromptu (Op. 86) by Gabriel Fauré, not a composer particularly remembered for showy music. The Impromptu, however, is a flowery concoction that, as Allen commented, all harpists play, though probably none as effortlessly as she does.
Particularly outstanding was the wide rage of her dynamics, from the softest of bell-like tones to the very loudest climactic chords. Here, the powerfully resonant harp from Miami was used to great advantage. The sound of those fortissimo plucked chords completely enveloped the ballroom. It seemed that even the crystal chandeliers vibrated.
The surprise on the program was a performance of a short work, Pastoral, by the contemporary American composer Eric Ewazen. It is a movement from Ewazen’s Trio for Flute, Horn and Piano that Les Amies thought would work well for flute, viola and harp, so they made their own arrangement of it. The Pastoral in its new, gentler guise, is a sweet, harmonically conservative piece that is actually somewhat French-sounding. One of the trio’s players told the audience that when the composer first heard their arrangement, he was so overcome with emotion that he burst into tears.
We thank Vicki Kellogg, chairwoman, and Michael Finn, artistic director, of the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, for making this fine concert happen.
I have a suggestion for those music lovers who have not attended any of the Chamber Music Society’s concerts and are hankering for a new concert experience. Reserve a pair of tickets for one of next season’s concerts, perhaps the April 2015 appearance of the Emerson Quartet, arguably America’s finest string quartet. Single tickets are $125. The concerts start at 7, but the price of admission includes a cocktail social hour from 6 to 7.
At the Les Amies concert, the reception was held poolside, which afforded the guests a view of the magnificent grounds of the estate, stretching from the Intracoastal (the lago) to the ocean (the mar). The concert is played without intermission, and there is a reception after the concert to meet the artists. As the night will still be young, why not end the evening with a dinner at one of Palm Beach’s temples of haute cuisine, perhaps Café Boulud, less than 10 minutes away. Dream big; it will be unlike any concert experience you’ve yet had.
Donald Waxman is a composer and contributor to Palm Beach ArtsPaper.