The Cavalier daily :: Friday, October 30, 1970 :: University of Virginia Library

The last thing that can be said of
the Tuesday Evening Concert Series'
performances is that they are
dull! The Aeolian Chamber Players,
consisting of Violinist Lewis Kaplan,
Erich Graf, flute, Jonathan
Abramowitz, 'cello, Lloyd Greenberg,
clarinet, and Walter Ponce,
piano, presented one of the more
lop-sided programs performed here
in some time. There was relief but
there was also over-indulgence:
Ives, Debussy, Crumb, and Schoenberg.
This concert must in part
make up for all the previous concerts
in which chamber music devotees
did not hear enough "modern"
music.

Excellent Reading

Charles Ives' Largo for Violin,
Clarinet, and Piano is an interesting
piece of music which was given an
excellent reading, doubtless just as
it was written, by the Aeolian
Players. There were several passages
which were beautiful, reminding
one of Andrew Wyeth paintings for
clarity and proportion.

Debussy's Sonata for Cello and
Piano, divided into two movements,
was, with the exception of Mr.
Abramowitz' extraordinary technique,
a crashing bore. Debussy may
have suggested that a major reason
for developing a French School of
music during his lifetime was to
remove the sauerkraut, but he didn't
follow through in this case.
Perhaps the Debussy scheduled by
the French National Orchestra will
be more in line with the composer's
expressed intentions.

Tedious Piece

George Crumb composed his
Eleven Echoes of Autumn 1965
especially for the Aeolian Players. I
do not recall a more tedious piece
of music. At one point it was like
listening to snips of the soundtrack
of the film Sundays and Cybelle.
The first five minutes were adequate;
the rest was tedious. One
feels, also, that if a piece of music is
dedicated to a performing group,
the group should at least commit
this piece of music to memory-the
endless movement of sheet music
was a distraction, as was the body
English clacking of the pianist's
buttons on the Steinway, the inaudible
talk (at one point into the
flute), and so on. One would have
been as satisfied by Salvador Dali
being released with a .45 calibre
machine gun on the School of
Athens in Cabell. Why not?
Multi-mode!

Arnold Schoenberg's Chamber
Symphony No. 1, Opus 9, arranged
for violin, cello, flute, clarinet and
piano by Schoenberg's pupil Anton
Webern was the closest thing to
Mozart the whole evening.

Pressing Need

Through-going TECS fans, many
of whom had departed by intermission,
do want, I believe, at least
one piece of "old fashioned" chamber
music when such groups as the
Aeolian Players appear. Granted, it
seems to be the expressed intention
of this group to perform "modern"
music, and one can't quibble with
that intention as there is a pressing
need for performances of new music.
But, just as one expects at least
one piece of modern music, one
expects to hear at least one seventeenth,
eighteenth or early nineteenth
century work too. It is not
all the same.

Technically, it must have been
nearly perfect as the Aeolian is first
and foremost a highly professional
group of musicians. Audibly, it was
a trial without jury. One may have
to wait for the I Solisti Veneti for
just deserts.