A Notch Or Two Above Excellence
The Impromptu Concerts, Key West’s longstanding chamber music organization, opened its season on Sunday with a concert by the Prima Trio. The group consisted of Boris Allakhverdyan, clarinet, Gulia Gurevich, violin and viola, and Anastasia Dedik, piano. Their playing was, if anything, a notch or two above the standard of excellence set by the series as a whole.
They played music by Bruch, Milhaud, Srul Irving Glick, Khachaturian, Piazzolla, and Peter Schikele, the last one, composer of the P.D.Q. Bach masterpieces of musical travesty, here in his serious writing. Their choice of program for this audience was intelligent and adventurous: while all of it was written in the 20th century, and so was outside the limiting box of the diatonic scale and the circle of fifths, none of it had any kind of insistent dissonance. If I had one reservation about the concert, it is that the klezmer Glick piece went on too long: cutting out the repeat signs would entail no loss. But then, all klezmer music, like Dixieland jazz, sounds pretty much the same to me.
It is hard to describe Ms. Gurevich’s playing except to say that it was exactly what the music demanded. This was nice, in a period too often given over to unnecessary virtuosity, especially since when virtuosity was needed she supplied it gracefully and with ease. So also Mr. Allakhverdyan’s clarinet work: clear, in tune, and with technique more than adequate to the music’s demands. It brought to mind that there is a true clarinet sound—solid in the center and with a rich overtonal outside—and he has it. His control also extended to where, in the Glick, he could produce the characteristic overdriven yawp of the klezmer clarinet. (Similarly, at one point late in the Schikele piece, Ms. Gurevich brought off a country music lick of which Vassar Clements would have approved.)
The special virtue of this trio was the way they played together. This was most evident in the pairing of violin and clarinet, where, when they traded lines back and forth, Mr. Allakhverdyan and Ms. Gurevich demonstrated a virtually perfect match in phrasing. Even more remarkable, given the fundamental dissimilarity of the three instruments, was the way in which, when the music asked for it, Ms. Dedik’s phrasing on piano completed that matchup.
Ms. Dedik’s piano work was ideal for this group and this concert. Nothing about her playing obtruded—that is, every aspect of it was of equal excellence and relevance. Her legato phrasing always seemed aimed at beauty; her rapid playing never seemed in anything less than complete and almost easy control. She had two positions in this group: she was the piano accompanist in support of the two melodic instruments, and she was the third, equal voice in the trio—and she seemed to move from one role to another seamlessly.
The Impromptu Concerts organization has been bringing small group classical music to Key West for 42 years, all of it of the highest quality. This is made possible by the fact that there is an enormous overpopulation of fine musicians these days from which to choose. Auditions for positions in major symphonies frequently draw upwards, sometimes way upwards, of a hundred candidates, and of these, the difference in playing between the winner and the other finalists is virtually imperceptible. Since very few of those are making any kind of a living, and since Key West in winter is an easy sell, a savvy impresario, like the folk who make the selections for the Impromptu series, can pretty much guarantee music played at the highest possible level.
Even a look at the credentials of Sunday’s players tells the story: Mr. Allakhverdyan is co-principal with the Metropolitan Opera orchestra, Ms. Gurevich has played with, among others, the Boston Symphony, and Ms. Dedik has won 14 international piano competitions. The situation out there is tough on musicians, but it’s good for music, and it is wonderful for audiences who can benefit from it. Especially here, for which the Impromptu board is to be thanked.
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