Washington Classical Review

The Chiarina Chamber Players performed Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring in its original chamber version Sunday night at St. Mark’s Capitol Hill. Photo: Albert Ting

Aaron Copland’s ballet Appalachian Spring received its premiere at the Library of Congress in 1944. Its original version, scaled to fit the Coolidge Auditorium stage, called for 13 instruments — strings, winds, and piano — to accompany dancers performing Martha Graham’s choreography. Yet most performances one hears nowadays use a full orchestra, in Copland’s later adaptation.

On Sunday night, the Chiarina Chamber Players performed the chamber version of Appalachian Spring at St. Mark’s Capitol Hill, just a few blocks from the site of its first performance. Chiarina’s co-artistic directors, pianist Efi Hackmey and cellist Carrie Bean Stute, assembled a group whose performance showed how powerful and immediate the chamber score can feel in the right hands.

From the opening bars, the musicians played as one, with transparent textures and a unanimity that projected the musical drama keenly. Sustained string textures had richness and depth that gave warmth to Copland’s open intervals. Tricky rhythms sounded seamless across the ensemble, as in the “Eden Valley” section. In the relatively cozy confines of St. Mark’s, these 13 players sounded as mighty as a full orchestra and yet intimate and personal — the best of both worlds.

Flutist Sarah Frisof delivered many highlights: warm tone for melodies that settled over the music like dew, agile playing at fast tempos, precise intonation on a tricky instrument. Lin Ma’s introduction of the “Simple Gifts” theme on clarinet had a perfect lilt and gorgeous rounded tone, and he showed just as much agility as Frisof. Of the strings, first among equals was bassist Aaron Clay, who kept the bottom anchored and sprung the dance rhythms. Hackmey, for his part, conjured an entire percussion section with his piano.

Violist Dana Kelley gave a brief spoken introduction to the Copland in which she pointed to the “Moderato” last movement, with its sustained muted string textures limning a final hymn iteration, as a particular favorite. The strings played that section with quiet, riveting intensity before allowing the woodwinds to join as well, with Frisof providing one last silvery shimmering line to close an exemplary performance.

Two other works with D.C. ties preceded the Copland. The 2009 premiere of John Williams’ Air and Simple Gifts took place on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol during Barack Obama’s first presidential inauguration. Evoking Copland, Williams’ modal, contemplative Air leads into vigorous variations on the “Simple Gifts” theme; the most notable feature is a series of daring modulations just before the last chord. Hackmey, Ma, Stute, and violinist Regino Madrid performed this music in more clement conditions than prevailed during the inauguration, and showed its earnest appeal.

Few know Mary Howe’s compositions nowadays, but Washington residents are familiar with her legacy: among other efforts to promote music in our nation’s capital, she co-founded the National Symphony Orchestra with Hans Kindler. 

On Sunday, pianist Hackmey, violinists Angelia Cho and Peiming Lin, violist Daniel Foster, and cellist Loewi Lin presented the “Romanze” from Howe’s Suite for String Quartet and Piano. The movement’s unmemorable melodies, abrupt modulations, and little-varied textures did not compel further exploration of the suite, although the ensemble made sure the brooding minor-key vibe came across effectively.

After intermission, most of the string players in the Copland took up Felix Mendelssohn’s grand Octet for strings. Although one understands the urge to perform the Octet whenever possible, another American work, perhaps something lighter, would have made for a more cohesive program.

The Octet’s first two movements did not sound as tight as the Copland, with some wayward intonation from first violinist Wanzhen Li and a few passages that didn’t quite sync across the ensemble. Things started to click in the Scherzo, with the ensemble cleanly articulating its furtive, scampering runs, and the group generated irrepressible momentum in the finale en route to a rousing conclusion.

The Chiarina Chamber Players present the Catalyst Quartet in works by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, George Walker, Jessie Montgomery, and Johannes Brahms December 7 at St. Mark’s. chiarina.org