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Four Centuries of Joy New York
Weill Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall
02/10/2025 -
Franz Schubert: String Quartet No. 12 in C Minor “Quartettsatz”, D. 703
Katherine Balch: musica spolia (arr. for chamber ensemble) – musica nuvola
Luciano Berio: Ricorrenze
Ludwig van Beethoven: Septet in E‑flat Major, Op. 20
Ensemble Connect: Catherine Boyack, Ajali Shinde (Flutes), Joseph Jordan (Oboe), Yasmina Spiegelberg (Clarinet), Ryan Dresen (Horn), Isabelle Ai Durrenberger, Rubén Rengel (Violins), Ramón Carrero-Martínez (Viola), Frankie Carr (Cello), Marguerite Cox (Bass), Oliver Xu (Percussion)
Ensemble Connect (© Fadi Kheir)
“That damned work! I wish it were burned.”
Ludwig van Beethoven, on his Septet in E‑flat major
“The relation between practical and spiritual spheres in music is obvious, if only because it demands ears, finger, consciousness and intellect.”
Luciano Berio
“I don’t like your classical (sic) music,” said a Hong Kong acquaintance several years ago. “It’s so serious.”
Probably next to CantoPop, that could be true. But next to other classical (sic) music, the concert by the Connect Ensemble last night was hardly serious Wittgenstein style. The five works from three continents and four centuries were in turn sweet (if bittersweet), surrealistic (sounds which never existed before), actually funny (variations on footsteps) and, so entertaining that the serious older Beethoven wanted it destroyed.
I haven’t any idea whether the fungible Ensemble Connect was looking for particularly felicitous music. After all, this is a group which could be described as a musical pre‑med. Founded 18 years ago by executives from Carnegie Hall and Juilliard, Ensemble Connect gives two‑year fellowships to professional and semi-professional artists, preparing them “teaching, community engagement, advocacy and leadership”. The result is hardly that of super-professional ensembles, but with a program including composers old and new, perfectly adequate.
Adequacy was not sufficient for the opening Schubert Quartettsatz. Like too many of his works, he never continued his projected quartet, yet his single “movement” obviously had potential. Yet the bittersweet theme, played delicately by violinist Isabelle Ai Durrenberger, was a songful introduction. The rest of the work was played with technical finesse, good ensemble work, yet somehow lacking the emotional complexity so essential.
The final work, Beethoven’s early Septet, written 15 years before Schubert’s 1814 movement, has always been a 40‑minute joy to those who prefer classical finesse to the romantic surprises of Mahler’s 50‑minute Fourth. Yet each of the six movements needs more than precision to make it work.
The soloists of Ensemble Connect did their jobs brilliantly. Ryan Dresen’s hunting‑horn motifs were jolly, the figurations of clarinet Yasmina Spiegelberg and bassoon Marty Tung were faultless.
Missing, though, were the colors of that wind palette. The opening was good and steady, but the andante variations became Beethoven exercises. Up to the finale, we had well‑trained artists who were perhaps too well‑trained to burst out with Beethoven’s black humor.
That finale finally erupted into the right mood, That austere introduction burst into an ersatz march and finally a triumphant presto.
The two New York-premiered fastened movements by Katherine Balch (who gave a charming introduction) were both delightful. Who knew that two flutes, a clarinet and an oboe could make pinpoint sounds which evolved into yowling, barking, snarling, chirping and cataclysmic chords, coming back and forth to simplicity?
K. Balch, O. Xu (© Courtesy of the artist/Meghan Fox)
Actually, it was percussionist Oliver Xu as the driving force. Mr. Xu had no need for explosive energy. His marimba playing with tiny mallets was soft, gentle, peeping on the repeated high notes, whizzing down the keyboard when necessary.
Add to that, I took a look at his table of percussion apparatus and saw (amongst other doohickeys) trays of water, balls of cotton (very important for the ending), wads of paper, bubble wraps and various bottles.
Ms. Balch offered a serious enough explanation, ranging from Roman streets to California trees. But one could eschew her words for the happy playfulness of the work itself.
Then came Luciano Berio’s Ricorrenze (Anniversary), for the birthday of Pierre Boulez. The written program describes the two composers as “soulmates”, which may have been true ten percent of the time. But Boulez never ever possessed Berio’s laughter, his transcriptions (Joyce and Mahler, Schubert, Puccini and Azerbaijani folk music!), or his non‑serial whimsy.
Ricorrenze for wind quintet had opening measures which could test any ensemble. Unisons of all the instruments, broken up amongst the soloists with fractional differences. Add to this a multiplicity of rhythms, a jolting quote from Stravinsky’s Les Noces and endless explosive Berio surprises.
A pedant mighty have criticized the group. Yet so unexpected, so jovial, so felicitous was this piece, that the players from Ensemble Connect went merrily soaring in the sheer Elysiums of the Berio brain.
Harry Rolnick
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