The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble stopped in Columbia, Maryland Saturday night for the first date of a U.S. tour. The event at the Smith Theatre was presented by Chamber Music Maryland, the new moniker for the venerable Candlelight Concert Society.

This long-running ASMF Ensemble, drawn from the ranks of the orchestra now led by Joshua Bell, specializes in larger-format chamber works, here string octets by Shostakovich and Mendelssohn and a string sextet by Erwin Schulhoff. Jonathan Palevsky of Baltimore’s WBJC provided illuminating context for the works before each half.

Shostakovich’s youthful Prelude and Scherzo for String Octet of 1924 was originally intended as the kernel of a five-movement work before being overtaken by more famous projects like the composer’s First Symphony. What remains is an intriguing snapshot of the 18-year-old’s emerging sensibilities, particularly in the raw exuberance of the Scherzo.

The musicians approached that movement’s scurrying figures with a dry, almost detached sensibility that enhanced the aggressive, confrontational quality of the work’s mounting mayhem, while the initial mournful Prelude demonstrated the Ensemble’s ability to realize a high level of transparency with expanded forces.

Czech composer Erwin Schulhoff is one of the many Jewish composers whose lives and careers were destroyed by the Nazi regime, and whose legacies are still being reclaimed. After gaining prominence in the 1920s as a pianist and composer, his career began to suffer amid the turmoil of the 1930s. While attempting to emigrate to the Soviet Union he was deported by the Nazis and died in a prison camp in Germany in 1942.

The bleak Sextet for Strings reflects the trauma of the previous war, however. Completed in 1924, the Sextet shows a step in the composer’s radicalizing style in the years following World War I, in which he served in the Austrian army on the Russian front. Schulhoff’s style would evolve even further afield in the following years, taking on avant garde methods and integrating jazz motifs into classical forms.

The Academy members captured the outsize contrasts in the Sextet’s Allegro risoluto, pitting a wild, full-throated sound in the bitter opening themes against an exhausted, wounded affect in the middle section. The second movement is a study in gray, ambivalent textures, and the ensemble brought off the distinctive wan, enveloping mood of the initial section and insect-like string effects in the latter half. Precisely coordinated churning rhythms against a soaring infernal folk dance melody from lead violinist Tomo Keller made for an exciting Burlesca movement.

The final Adagio is a forbidding close to the work. Initial passages try in vain to bring together the players only to have the music repeatedly disintegrate. In the long coda the music is depleted almost to the point of inaudibility, the remaining sounds hardly recognizable as music, hinting at a terrifying void.

The second half of the program was devoted to that undoubted pinnacle of the small literature for String Octet, the 16-year-old Felix Mendelssohn’s 1825 example in E-flat major. The Academy musicians wasted no time luxuriating in the opening bars, choosing a tempo that brought out the delicious sense of impatience that dominates the Allegro. If Keller’s lead violin seemed surprisingly restrained and matter of fact of the outset, this only served to heighten the effect of his increasing brilliance as the climax came into view, egged on by skillfully executed unison effects and seamless handoffs between players.

A warm, intimate sound infused the singing lines of the second movement, though the quiet sections were at times a bit too subdued in their contrast with the forte interludes. The Scherzo benefited from detailed articulation and careful balances where Mendelssohn sets galloping lines against sustained strings.

Scrambling figures in Alice Neary and Will Schofield’s cellos announced a tone of controlled abandon for the Presto. The Ensemble excelled in their ability to cohesively execute Mendelssohn’s rhythmic and dynamic surprises, creating a delirious sense of forward momentum. The boisterous ensemble came at the expense of balance in just a few places, with the lead violin flourishes occasionally submerged in the texture. But this was relentless, bravura music-making of a high order, leaving one reeling at the scale of Mendelssohn’s unique achievement.

Chamber Music Maryland’s season continues with the Ulysses Quartet and clarinetist Oskar Espina Ruiz October 26 at the Smith Theatre in Columbia. chambermusicmaryland.org

One Response to “Academy of St. Martin Chamber Ensemble brings verve and virtuosity to Columbia”

1. Posted Oct 11, 2024 at 4:44 pm by REBECCA

   It was indeed a fabulous concert. Amazing musicians. Great to hear infrequently played music. Thanks, Chamber Music Maryland!

Leave a Comment

Name (required):

Email (will not be published) (required):

Website:

Message:

Δ