Billed as Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, the tiny band of Russian musicians that played the Kravis Center on March 13 is really a string orchestra of 14 players: Seven violins, three violas, three cellos and one double bass.
Founded in 1991 by Misha Rachlevsky, their conductor, they have toured the world extensively, and their concert in West Palm Beach was given a very warm reception, despite the present troubles in Ukraine and the Crimea.
They began their program with a Rossini rarity, his Sonata No. 3 in C for strings, written when he was 13. The 150-year-old manuscript was discovered in the Library of Congress in the late 1940s, where it had languished. The mature Rossini had written an inscription on the manuscript calling it a dreadful piece of music. However, he also said he remembered playing it with friends in the home of Agostino Triossi in Ravenna, while on vacation there with his family.
The opening passages of the Allegro show a well-formed Rossini style, immediately recognizable. I heard early hints of The Barber of Seville, the music scene, where Count Almaviva, disguised as a music teacher, takes Rosina through her paces. Not the first time a composer has borrowed from himself.
The Andante is more deliberate and very stylish, which makes one wonder what if he’d gone symphonic rather than operatic. Lively violins introduce the Moderato. They play difficult double-time runs which are answered by a lovely double bass solo. Now the cellist has a sweet folk like melody and the violins return to their quick double-time playing to end the piece. Excellent musicianship from the orchestra in this delightful warm-up sonata.
Next came Mendelsshon’s Octet (in E-flat, Op. 20), the work of teenager number two, at 16. Felix Mendelsshon’s father was prosperous. He saw to it his son’s precocious talents were developed and supported. He built a small concert hall next to their home and had twice-monthly assemblies in front of which his young son conducted his newest works.
This Octet opens with yearning cries from the violins. The two lead violins play a thrilling new tune accompanied by plucked frenzied strings from the other five violinists. The music has lovely passages of light and shade. After an exposition of the opening theme, it is now shaping up to be a symphony for strings in four movements.
Muted violas open the second movement, Andante, taken rather slowly. A strident violin melody is beautifully underpinned by lovely music from the violas, cellos and double bass. A halting theme in the violins with a few repeats leads to a precious ending. Now the famous part of the Octet: the Scherzo (marked Allegro leggierissimo), closely associated with his incidental music to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
This was taken at an unusually fast pace, and it felt to me that all the accents were misplaced; perhaps a Russian-style reading, or the pace was far too fast in the first place. It was brilliantly played, though. Such beloved familiar music cannot be too badly mangled.
In the Presto fourth movement, Mendelsshon develops notes from the last movement in fugue like procession around all string types. Recalling the first four notes Handel set to the words “And He shall reign forever and ever,” Mendelssohn builds that theme to three final notes through a busier fugue than before. The Kravis audience gave this performance loud applause.
After intermission, the program was devoted to Tchaikovsky. Three of his works for solo violin and orchestra (aside from the concerto) were played, each with a different solo violinist from the body of the orchestra.
The first piece, Melody (in E-flat, Op. 42, No. 3), had Oxana Kolyasnikova as soloist. It’s a familiar Tchaikovsky tune and with strong playing from the orchestra and the lovely intonation of Kolyasnikova’s technique, was very well-received.
Evgeny Pravilov was the violinist for the second piece, the Sérénade Mélancolique (in B minor, Op. 26). Low strings start this music and then plucked strings accompany the soloist as he moves the theme into the middle register. A busy folk-like Russian tune takes off in the solo violin; the melody sounds more familiar in its melancholy reach. A long pause is followed by the languid theme back in the lower register, touchingly accompanied by Pravilov’s colleagues.
Throughout, the conductor turns the pages for the soloist, a nice deft human touch to be sure. Pravilov produced some lovely trills high up on his E string and the original phrase returned to a long, low, drawn-out note to end it. Three bows for this soloist, whose playing was sensitive, from an appreciative audience.
Tatiana Stolbova played the last piece, Scherzo (in C minor, Op. 42, No. 2). A lively little tune played very, very fast begins this. Familiar film-style music follows, the stuff used as background in B movies and soap operas, mostly from the middle of the last century. Tchaikovsky’s detractors labeled him as a romantic sentimentalist for music like this. This slow passage leads to Stolbova playing the original fast theme with great skill. She, too, had three well-deserved bows.
Last came Tchaikovsky’s string sextet Souvenir de Florence (in D minor, Op. 70), transcribed for string orchestra. Written in the winter of 1890, shortly after returning from Italy where he’d been working on his opera The Queen of Spades, it was intended to be a light detour from the darkness of the opera. When he heard it performed he was disappointed, and set about a rewrite, at which time he decided to give it the title Souvenir de Florence.
However, the music is decidedly Russian, except for the second movement, which is marked cantabile, and with its bel canto sweep, sounds a little Italianate in parts. The opening Allegro con spirito, with its typically rich Tchaikovsky sounds has busy strings, exciting climaxes
as they all build and build to a very clever, fast ending.
The Italian influence shows in the second movement, which begins with a profusion of long chords interrupted by a solo violin over plucked string accompaniment. The lead cellist picks it up and the two go back and forth in the same vein. The orchestra now plays a heart-rending song. Crescendos occur in rapid succession and the solo cello gets a new melody, which the violin picks out as these two go back and forth, leading to a quiet, gentle ending. It reflects Tchaikovsky’s happiness at being able to compose in Italy.
In the Allegro moderato a solo viola is backed by the orchestra. It’s an exciting piece of music as they go all out harmonically. A quick tune is very moving in its intensity. Reflections of the composer’s Serenade for Strings appear here and there. Fast playing from the violins remind one of a horse galloping at speed as plucked strings bring it to a close.
The closing Allegro vivace begins with busy tunes pouring forth of which Tchaikovsky singles one out for development. It is superbly spread around all four string sections. The first six notes of this tune now get the fugue treatment. And it’s back to the melody for a classic well-constructed ending. Excellent playing from all concerned as they put their heart and souls into the presentation of this rarely heard work.
After many bows conductor, Rachlevsky led the orchestra in a fine encore, the Melodrama from Tchaikovsky’s incidental music for The Snow Maiden (Op. 12).