Chamber Music Concert By California Players

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29831, 25 May 1962, Page 11

Chamber Music Concert By California Players

The first subscription concert of the Chamber Music Society for this season was given in the Civic Theatre last evening by the California Chamber Music Players—Eudice Shapiro (violin), Mitchell Lurie (clarinet), Victor Gottlieb (’cello), and Leona Lurie (piano). If this concert is judged by the standard maintained at previous concerts given by the Chamber Music Society, it must be said that it was disappointingly below what is expected in the standard of music offered and also, for the most part, in performance.

The programme opened with a quartet by Loeillet It consisted of four movements contrasted in speed and mood, pleasant enough to hear, but offering comparatively little.

A sonata for violin and 'cello by Ravel, played by Eudice Shapiro and Victor Gottlieb, was very interesting both in its content and because it is not often heard

In the first movement, and throughout the work, the two instruments gave a surprisingly full sound. The matching of tones was extremely well done in perfect balance, and the playing, held interest completely. Throughout this work the playing was marked by beau’ ifuil shaping of phrasing with highly imaginative use of varied and colourful timbres. This was certainly the highlight of the programme.

Mitchell and Leona Lurie then plaved the Brahms Sonata in F minor for clarinet and piano. It is an intimate work of romantic character, requiring a high degree of imagination and sublety of expression. Mr Lurie produces a beautiful tone from the clarinet and does so with a fairly wide range of volume and with excellent control of pianissimo olaying. but there was a singular lack of imaginative use of nuance within his phrasing. The result was that the feeling expressing in the niano playing was not matched in the clarinet part, which remained rather cold and anaemic.

The last item was a group of three pieces by Max Bruch far piano, 'cello, and violin They were played well, with plenty of colour and expression and vibrancy of tone In mood they ranged from the poignant to the apoealingly mellow and to sparkling happiness. But this was little more than good salon music and. for the occasion, not of sufficient worth and importance.

If a chamber music programme has been well designed, encores are out of place This programme was not particularly well designed, but. even then, it is hard to see why the ‘‘Jamaican Rhumba” should be offered to this audience—"as a lolly,” according to the announcement from the stage. The word “lolly” somehow or other suggested the word “sucker.” —C.F.B.