Meadowlark Music Festival closes brilliantly
The Meadowlark Music Festival came to a brilliant close at Kimball Recital Hall on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus Saturday night.
Young pianist Spencer Myer performed three works, then joined the Jupiter String Quartet for the Robert Schumann “Quintet for Piano and Strings” in E-flat major.
Myer’s opener was the Beethoven “A Therese” Sonata, opus 78. The new thinking is to play Beethoven without a lot of late-Romantic style, and Myer accomplished this by keeping his performance airy and light, letting the emotional transparency soar above the crowd of 300 .
Myer spiced up the slow opening movement with some good emotional jaunts on phrases that could take it.
Later in the faster allegro section the dynamics played a greater role. The pianist’s impeccable technique flew through the Haydnesque articulation, thrilling the crowd.
A less familiar Chopin “Barcarolle”in F-sharp Major was no less convincing. Interpretation is the key to this unusual Chopin work, and again Myer let clarity be job one as he crunched out the physically demanding, always moving, ever more complex chords and runs.
The capstone was the Carl Vine “Piano Sonata No. 1.” Vine wrote this work in 1990, and it has flavorings of jazz and rock in a surprisingly accessible piece.
As was the Chopin work, Vine’s sonata was always in motion and perhaps even more physically complex. Myer could have ripped through this one with a “done!” attitude.
But he didn’t.
Instead, he continued his determination to communicate the essence of Vine’s work with clear, distinct keyboard action, resulting in a contemporary performance the house actually internalized and loved.
With Myer at the keyboard for the Schumann quintet, the Jupiter Quartet would have a cake walk if they wanted it. But it wasn’t all that easy.
The good news is, Jupiter plays with the same bent on transparency and clarity as Myer, so the work would be again a joy for the ears. This came clean in the opening movement marked “Allegro brillante” for emphasis.
The well-expressed “March” second movement found players feeling the emotions. Was it a funeral march? Could have been. In fact, all five players communicated this feeling in an incredible display of unity in their music. The pain was noticed in violist Liz Freivogel’s emotional reactions to her solo passages.
Myer’s tight control of the fast-paced Scherzo was marked with intense eyeballing of the score and even more intense eye communications with the string players.
The final allegro movement seemed to zip by, perhaps because this young ensemble was so full of pent-up energy that it needed to go somewhere after the scherzo. It went somewhere, all right, straight out into the hall with all the precision and emotion that had marked the evening’s work.
High marks for this concert, and it’s clear these five young musicians have much promise to offer the musical world in the coming years.
Young pianist Spencer Myer performed three works, then joined the Jupiter String Quartet for the Robert Schumann “Quintet for Piano and Strings” in E-flat major.
Myer’s opener was the Beethoven “A Therese” Sonata, opus 78. The new thinking is to play Beethoven without a lot of late-Romantic style, and Myer accomplished this by keeping his performance airy and light, letting the emotional transparency soar above the crowd of 300 .
Myer spiced up the slow opening movement with some good emotional jaunts on phrases that could take it.
Later in the faster allegro section the dynamics played a greater role. The pianist’s impeccable technique flew through the Haydnesque articulation, thrilling the crowd.
A less familiar Chopin “Barcarolle”in F-sharp Major was no less convincing. Interpretation is the key to this unusual Chopin work, and again Myer let clarity be job one as he crunched out the physically demanding, always moving, ever more complex chords and runs.
The capstone was the Carl Vine “Piano Sonata No. 1.” Vine wrote this work in 1990, and it has flavorings of jazz and rock in a surprisingly accessible piece.
As was the Chopin work, Vine’s sonata was always in motion and perhaps even more physically complex. Myer could have ripped through this one with a “done!” attitude.
But he didn’t.
Instead, he continued his determination to communicate the essence of Vine’s work with clear, distinct keyboard action, resulting in a contemporary performance the house actually internalized and loved.
With Myer at the keyboard for the Schumann quintet, the Jupiter Quartet would have a cake walk if they wanted it. But it wasn’t all that easy.
The good news is, Jupiter plays with the same bent on transparency and clarity as Myer, so the work would be again a joy for the ears. This came clean in the opening movement marked “Allegro brillante” for emphasis.
The well-expressed “March” second movement found players feeling the emotions. Was it a funeral march? Could have been. In fact, all five players communicated this feeling in an incredible display of unity in their music. The pain was noticed in violist Liz Freivogel’s emotional reactions to her solo passages.
Myer’s tight control of the fast-paced Scherzo was marked with intense eyeballing of the score and even more intense eye communications with the string players.
The final allegro movement seemed to zip by, perhaps because this young ensemble was so full of pent-up energy that it needed to go somewhere after the scherzo. It went somewhere, all right, straight out into the hall with all the precision and emotion that had marked the evening’s work.
High marks for this concert, and it’s clear these five young musicians have much promise to offer the musical world in the coming years.
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