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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2010 > November > 09 > Entry
Review: Austin Chamber Ensemble
It was nice to see Jessica Mathaes, the Austin Symphony’s Concertmaster, get to own the spotlight for the opening show of the Austin Chamber Ensemble’s 30th season.
Playing alongside Colette Valentine, the stunning and unflappable Austin pianist, Mathaes ventured through music of great virtuosity, as well as a difficult new work by Los Angeles composer Paul Reale.
On Friday at Westlake United Methodist Church, with its handsome space of thick wooden beamed ceilings, the pews were only sparsely occupied. This was a shame, because the duo chose works from among the most challenging in violin repertoire.
Giuseppe Tartini’s “Devil’s Trill” is a showpiece the artist wrote to try and replicate a tune the devil played in his dream. It starts with difficult chords and double stops, a swaying lullaby, until exploding with quick, challenging passages, loaded with, well, trills.
Mathaes, in a black A-line dress with bright pink roses, handled the work well. After a tentative start, her chords carried nicely, and her tone sang.
Paul Reale’s “Seven Deadly Sins,” was a more acquired taste. Seven short movements of two or three minutes apiece, Reale’s work tries to give each sin a distinct character, with both light and dark sides.
“Anger” contrasted moments of uneasy calm with pretty bursts, while “Gluttony” used glissandos up and down the violin that resemble swirling wine or food in the belly. The most interesting of these was “Envy,” with pizzicato that had a beautiful but serious air of mocking.
Ultimately, pieces of each section were interesting, but the work as a whole was draining. There was simply too much counterpoint — a glut of independent playing that rarely aligned.
Saint-Saens’ “Sonata No. 1 in D minor,” however, was reason enough to be in attendance. Valentine’s piano shined with little waves that recalled Debussy, and Mathaes’ tuning in the upper register was immaculate.
The Saint-Saens is a moody, beautiful work. With fast, detailed passages that are challenging for its players, and rewarding for its listeners.
The duo returned for an encore of a Henri Vieuxtemps’ variations on “Yankee Doodle,” the teasing, playful, and entirely more demanding, riff on the traditional. Mathaes played dazzling harmonics and a left-handed pizzicato that put the cap on a evening of playing that was engaging and exacting.
Luke Quinton is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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