Mooredale Concerts | Brahms: Violin Sonata Op. 108; Scherzo from the F-A-E Sonata. Ravel: String Quartet. Mendelssohn: Concerto for Violin, Piano and Strings in D Minor. Andrew Wan, violin. Charles Richard-Hamelin, piano. Dior Quartet. Walter Hall, Feb. 23, 2025.
We live in an era that values repertoire renewal and the music of living composers. On Sunday afternoon the Mooredale Concerts organization brought much happiness to a midsize crowd in Walter Hall with a program of mostly familiar works by long-gone masters. It has been a while since I have had such a satisfying chamber experience.
In the spotlight were two visitors from Quebec: Andrew Wan, concertmaster of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, and pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin, who has parlayed his 2015 Warsaw Competition silver into a busy solo career. They often appear together, live and as recording artists. Having established their compatibility with a cycle of Beethoven Violin Sonatas on the Analekta label, they moved on to Schumann and now have plans for Brahms.
It is easy to predict a success after hearing this magisterial performance of the Sonata in D Minor Op. 108. Fine balance coexisted with individual character. The famous development section of the first movement, in which Brahms assembles something close to a comprehensive catalogue of what can be achieved harmonically over a dominant pedal, was a wonder of subtle light and shade, all the more fascinating for its steady, inexorable pulse.
No period-practice fusspot, Wan applied a generous (and fitting) vibrato to the main theme of the Adagio. Richard-Hamelin, in turn, drew burnished sounds from his Steinway. This was high romanticism. Justice was done to the shadowy turbulence of the third movement and to the fury of the finale. Presented almost as a mid-concert encore, the Scherzo from the F-A-E Sonata (a collaborative effort of 1853 to which Schumann and Albert Dietrich also contributed movements) typified the full command of these players over the lyrical and assertive elements of Brahms’s idiom.
Next up was Ravel’s String Quartet — a bracing contrast, one might suppose, although the nuanced performance by the Dior Quartet (former ensemble in residence at the Glenn Gould School) suggested an array of commonalities. Here also were gentle touches of chiaroscuro and exacting moments of tension and release.
Execution was faultless. Strumming and pizzicato passages were both exact and evocative. From first violin Noa Sarid we heard playing of raindrop delicacy. Slow-movement solos by viola Caleb Georges were warm and urgent.
After intermission, Wan and Richard-Hamelin joined the Diors in a trimmed-down version of the Double Concerto for Violin and Piano in D Minor by the 14-year-old Mendelssohn. Strings and soloists interact considerably in the finale. The effect elsewhere is of a quartet and duo playing concerto-grosso volleyball.
Still, it was a wonderfully spirited piece, fresh in effect despite of its length and prolixity. The piano indulges extensively in double octaves, a novel device in 1823. It was characteristic of Richard-Hamelin’s artistry that he made these passages sound musical rather than mechanical. Wan also had bravura turns to accomplish, which he did with great flair.
All concerned then performed the Sicilienne from Ernest Chausson’s Concert Op. 21, the one repertoire piece for this combination of instruments. Softly undulating, the encore left the crowd both happy and humming.
A surprising footnote is necessary. Cellist Joanne Yesol Choi announced from the stage that Georges and second violin Tobias Elser were playing their last concert with the group, which was founded in 2018 at Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. Seems a shame. The search for new members is reportedly under way.
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