Poulenc: Sextet. Strauss: Metamorphosen (arr. Leopold). Brahms: Piano Trio Op. 8. Various artists. Walter Hall, July 28. Presented by Toronto Summer Music.
Justly known for its stellar recitalists and ensembles, Toronto Summer Music is no less valued by its loyal public for bringing together artists from here and afar to play mix-and-match chamber programs. A successful example was the penultimate evening concert, Friday in Walter Hall.
The great curiosity was Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen for 23 Solo Strings — as performed, paradoxically, by a squad of seven, including the Rosebud String Quartet. This 1996 arrangement by the Austrian cellist Rudolf Leopold apparently has some scholarly justification, a score having been discovered in Switzerland that suggests a septet was what Strauss originally had in mind.
Well, the proof of the pudding is in the playing, and this was an extraordinarily warm and intense performance, the part-writing clear, the pace urgent, the phrasing expressive, and the balances just. In a matter of seconds, I stopped wondering what was missing, captivated instead by what was there. Rank this rendition of the valedictory masterpiece as a seven out of seven.
The opener, Poulenc’s Sextet for Piano and Wind Quintet, did not fare as well. Players included fine orchestra professionals, who seemed to be projecting with a symphonic sonority in mind. The composer’s gentle wit and sentiment came across as raucous. Still, there were a few interludes of calm, some provided by pianist Stéphane Lemelin.
After intermission, the stage count went down to three for Brahms’s Piano Trio Op. 8, given not in the original version of 1854, as some online sources alleged it would be, but in the slimmed-down and otherwise much-improved revision of 1889. Coordination was not always impeccable, but the players — Andrew Wan, violin; Desmond Hoebig, cello; Michelle Cann, piano — were united in their deeply romantic view of the music. Cann seemed to be in the driver’s seat, fashioning expressive slowdowns that (happily) never led to inertia.
There was some amusing fussing before the performance as Wan judged his bench to be inadequate, heading backstage for one that appeared to be identical. The audience chuckled sympathetically but remained admirably quiet between movements. The quality of listening at TSM is as high as it comes. Halls are packed, and ovations are appropriately robust.
Artistic director Jonathan Crow seems to have a hit on his hands. What will next summer bring? More of the same would do quite nicely.
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