From the Pages of . .
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March 16, 2007
The Lyon Family Chamber Ensemble
March 10, 2007
What a pleasure it was to spend an
evening in the company of the
Lyon Family Chamber Ensemble, a truly talented quintet of parents and
children who played on a professional level. The program was a
joy as well, featuring two fondly familiar works as well as three
totally new delights.
The program began with the
glorious Brandenburg Concerto
#6 by J.S. Bach, played with two violins and two cellos. Doubling
the cellos gave the work a mellow sound, and the four instruments
blended together beautifully. The first movement had a
wonderfully melodic echo effect, with the melody in the first violin
repeated by the second violin a few bars later. It gave a great
forward energy to the first movement. The two cellos were front
and center in the second movement, which was a slow dance. The
third movement was delightfully familiar, light and lively and, as the
program notes stated, difficult. It certainly sounded like
perfection to me.
Next came the very different
but equally familiar Concerto
Grosso in A minor by Antonio Vivaldi. Clara Lyon, a violin
student at Juilliard, moved to first violin, and her playing was
outstanding. The bowing was confident and skilled, with the other
three players joining her in a wonderful ensemble blend. I
especially enjoyed the dramatic yet precise third movement.
After intermission, the
surprises began. The
ensemble played three very moving and reflective pieces by Sir Edward
Elgar, which were originally written for the traditional all-male
choir. The Lyons transcribed them for string, and the effect was
one of tranquil meditation. The four players were so attuned to
each other that their instruments almost seemed to breathe
together. When they were done the audience hardly dared to clap
and thus break the mood.
Then it was on to the light and
cheerful Divertimento in D
major by Mozart. But the real surprise was program music by
Boccherini, who in my experience wrote very formal, sometimes rather
gloomy court pieces back in the late 18th century. The Quintet
“La Musica Notturna delle strade di Madrid,” though, is more along the
lines of later music that tells a story or imitates specific
sounds. It was great fun to follow the story of an evening in
Madrid, with the changing of the night guard (a snare drum sound),
dancing, vespers coming from a nearby church, the sounds of night
insects (that was 13 year old Nicholas plucking on his violin), and
some more changing of the guard. At one point Jim Lyon even
played his violin like a guitar. It put Boccherini in a whole new
light.
The evening ended on a merry
note with what may be the
most popular tango ever written: “La Comparsita,” by
Rodriguez. It was a fine ending to a classical evening.
Nancy MacRae, Schellsburg