Washington Classical Review

Njioma Grevious performed Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 1 with Chiarina’s Efi Hackmey and Carrie Bean Stute Saturday night at St. Mark’s Capitol Hill.. Photo: Albert Ting

Violinist Njioma Grevious earned praise when she performed with the Chiarina Chamber Players in 2024, just before her dazzling performance with the National Symphony Orchestra at Wolf Trap. 

Cellist Carrie Bean Stute and pianist Efi Hackmey, co-artistic directors of the Chiarina Chamber Players, must have been delighted to have Grevious back at St. Mark’s Capitol Hill on Saturday night. The young violinist teamed up with Stute and Hackmey for some compelling chamber performances.

In Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Sonata No. 2 in D major, which opened the program, Grevious deployed a big, plush sound throughout. The approach worked well for passages like the wistful opening melody, but Grevious seemed disinclined to roughen her tone or change her attack to bring out the acerbic wit that Prokofiev uses to contrast (or undermine) his more sincere episodes. The result was akin to eating a flavorful steak with no seasoning—a satisfying experience, but missing an ingredient that would take it to another level.

Not that this performance lacked appealing moments. When Prokofiev has the violinist play that wistful melody high and soft to end the first movement, Grevious conjured a breathtaking, radiant whisper from her instrument. The second-movement Scherzo featured hand-in-glove playing from Grevious and Hackmey, as the violinist tore through her thickets of notes with elan.

The third movement brought more contemplative melody, and Grevious showed fine concentration building up the phrases into a compelling through-line; she also sensitively supported Hackmey during a passage when the keyboard took up the melody. The finale, though rousing at times, missed Prokofiev’s acid spirit most of all.

Grevious and Hackmey next presented two short pieces by Clarence Cameron White, an African-American violinist and composer who moved to D.C. in 1890, at the age of 10. He eventually spent some time at Howard University and studied violin with Joseph Douglass, grandson of Frederick, before leaving to attend Oberlin. In addition to composing, White toured widely as a violinist with his wife, pianist Beatrice Warrick White, and the pieces Grevious played on Saturday effectively showed that White must have been a true virtuoso on his instrument/.

The first movement of White’s Bandanna Sketches sets “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” in a manner that reflects the movement’s “Chant” title. Hackmey provided a bed of simple, glowing chords, and Grevious unspooled the melody with no artifice and a gorgeous sound. White adds double and triple stops to the melody to close the piece, and Grevious played them cleanly and tenderly, wrenching pathos from the harmonies.

No less than Jascha Heifetz favored White’s “Levee Dance No. 2” as an encore. Grevious and Hackmey’s performance on Saturday made it easy to see why. A breezy, ragtime-inflected outer section, delivered with sprightly rhythms and dashing phrasing, framed a rousing setting of “Go Down Moses.” Grevious’s violin was particularly commanding on the final statement of the melody for the words “Let my people go.”

After intermission, Stute joined Grevious and Hackmey for Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor. Grievous proved as adept a chamber contributor as she was a soloist, matching her sound to Stute’s cello; the three listened and responded alertly to each other throughout.

The performers brought the Molto allegro agitato to a rolling boil in its final pages, finding its nervous pulse; they also found the contrast in the ensuing Andante con moto tranquillo, with a particularly delectable moment near the end with Grevious and Stute intertwining their sinuous accompaniment to support Hackmey’s eloquent playing.

A sprightly Scherzo, featuring precise and engaged playing from all three performers, led to a finale that returned to the minor mode and the tension of the first movement. Grevious, Stute, and Hackmey adeptly navigated the tricky starts and stops of Mendelssohn’s themes, steadily building the pressure before releasing it in the triumphant coda.

The Chiarina Chamber Players present “Dreams and Dialogues” with clarinetist Ricardo Morales and pianist Efi Hackmey on Sunday, May 3 (rescheduled from January 25). chiarina.org