By Montague Gammon III
Feldman Chamber Music Society’s October 28 concert brings Ensemble 4.1, self-described as the world’s only piano windtet, to the Chrysler Museum’s Kaufman Theatre in a program of music by Mozart, Gershwin and a composer called N.H. Rice, whose identity seems “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a very well guarded enigma,” to paraphrase Mr. Churchill’s remark about an unrelated subject.
The European-based Ensemble 4.1 i is made up of piano, bassoon, clarinet, horn and oboe. The instrumentalists all boast the impressive credentials typical of Feldman presented ensembles: first chairs in orchestras, thriving international soloing careers and the like.
Jörg Schneider on Oboe, Alexander Glücksmann on Clarinet, Christoph Knitt ion basson and , Sebastian Schindler on Horn join pianist Thomas Hoppe, whose ollaboration with Itzhak Perlman is also mentioned.
Their quoted reviews reinforce the promise of excellence with terms such as “powerful sonority…unassailable musicianship…breath of fresh air…superb blend of sound, technique and musicianship…extraordinary balance…impeccable intonation…music of pith and beauty…four high-class woodwind players and one excellent pianist.”
The unresearchable Mr. or Ms. Rice’s Quintet in E-flat, Op. 2, conveniently scored for Ppano, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon opens the concert. All that the internet says about Rice is that he or she was born in New York in 1851, and “flourished” in 1923, when Rice would have been an age where few flourish, and wrote this in 1898, dedicating it to the German based composer and Rice’s music teacher. Iwan Knorr. The Poland born Knorr had some pretty well known students, Percy Gainger among them, but nothing found about him mentions Rice. Rice is not even listed in the 20 volume, definitive New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, which is akin to a word not being in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Inquiries about Rice put to Ensemble 4.1’s agent got this response:
“RE:. Rice Info: ensemble 4.1 does prefer not to give away the background story of this composer piece. They consider it a” bonbon” and would like to talk about it from the stage. Hope that is fine.. it may be intriguing.”
Their website does say they are “devoted to discovering rarely played compositions from the turn of the 19th to the 20th century,” and one review quoted on their page said, “Ensemble 4.1 impressed the entire audience with their performance of seldomly (sic) heard works..”
A chamber arrangement of George Gershin’s light-hearted An American in Paris is next up. No word on what wind instrument will be imitating Gershiwn’s famous taxi horns that were scored into this piece which sonically follows a visiting American wandering through the street of the French capital in, originally, 1926. The 1928 jazz influenced tone poem preceded the film of the same name by 23 years, and the musical play by another 53.
Mozart’s Quintet in E-flat Major, K 452, about which he famously wrote to father, “I myself consider it to be the best thing I have written in my life.” is last on Feldman’s published program.This 20-22 minute quintet premiered April 1 of 1784 at the Imperial and Royal National Court Theater, two days after the composer recorded is as finished.
It’s hard, or just about impossible, to beat Gershwin and Mozart, so placing Rice’s truly unheralded work on the same program must make it on very sweet, or even nutritious “bon-bon” indeed.
All Feldman’s 7:30 Monday evening concert are introduced by a 7:00 p.m. introduction by the articulate, witty, and surpassingly knowledgeable musicologist and WHRO radio announcer Dwight Davis. DR. Davis’s take on N.H. Rice should be reason enough to get to the Hague neighborhood Museum’s small theater half an hour before concert time.
WANT TO GO?
Ensemble 4.1
N.H. Rice: Quintet in E-flat, Op. 2
George Gershwin: An American in Paris, arranger Renz
W.A. Mozart: Quintet in E-flat Major, K 452
Feldman Chamber Music Society
7:30 p.m., Mon. Oct. 28
Chrysler Museum of Art Kaufman Theatre
One Memorial Place, Norfolk
757-552-1630
