Namesake quartet does Amberg proud
There isn’t much available evidence suggesting that the early 20th century Danish composer Johan Amberg wrote many scores. Still, one of the short pieces he did write was delightful enough to provide inspiration for the Amberg Quartet, the local ensemble that discovered this marvelous (albeit lightweight) suite and made it the starting point for their repertoire.
Tuesday night found the group — flutist Betsy Reeds, oboist Paul Schlossman, clarinetist John Fullam and pianist Persis Vehar — playing a well-constructed program in the Canisius College Montante Cultural Center that began with that piece before touching on material by other composers, well known and otherwise.
Amberg’s three-movement suite from 1923 sounded like something that a lesser contributor to “Les Six,” the French and Swiss grouping that included Poulenc, Milhaud and Honegger as its most august members, would have offered up. Still, the writing was well balanced, and the quartet played the piece with the kind of graceful professionalism that made each part stand out as an individual strand woven into the sonic tapestry.
Robert Schumann’s “Fantasiestucke” for Clarinet and Piano, op. 73, was the most substantial piece in the first half of the concert and featured Fullam, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s principal clarinetist, in combination with Vehar. The result was a well-thought-out performance that possessed just the right amount of emotional shading.
The first half of the program concluded with “Four Dances” for Flute, Clarinet and Oboe by the British composer Christopher Ball. As oboist Schlossman noted prior to diving into this sprightly piece, Ball once said there was “nothing profound about it” and there would no denying that Ball had it nailed.
Vehar’s “The Seasons” was the other major work on the program and filled up the second half of the evening. It was a relatively recent score for Canisius College’s composer-in-residence, with parts of it having seen performances earlier this year. Vehar used works by Charles Burchfield as the anchor for the score, and there was even a screen behind the musicians that showcased a different Burchfield watercolor for each of the piece’s four movements.
The music and the backdrop were complementary, with both containing elements of fantasy. Her part-writing was clear and focused, and the overall musicianship of the quartet was shown off to great advantage. It certainly deserves repeated listening as does the evening’s encore, another Vehar piece called “To Music” that proved to be a lovely, well-constructed and well-played finale for the concert.
Concert Review
Amberg Quartet
Tuesday evening in the Canisius College Montante Center.
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