Camerata San Antonio
New venue, no traffic noise, but what about that constant groan?
September 13, 2011
Camerata San Antonio opened its ninth season on Sept. 11 with a Gypsy-influenced program, perhaps in recognition of the troupe’s move to a new home, Christ Episcopal Church in the Monte Vista Historic District.
Both Franz Joseph Haydn’s congenial Piano Trio No. 39 in G (Hob. 15/25), from 1795, and Johannes Brahms’s Piano Quartet in G Minor, from 1861, closed with exuberant Gypsy rondos. The concert’s centerpiece was a compelling account of Zoltán Kodály’s Duo for Violin and Cello, an early 20th century landmark infused with a Hungarian folk sensibility.
The whole program, and the Kodåly piece especially, seemed custom-fitted to violinist Ertan Torgul’s assertive, go-for-broke, rhythmically biting musicianship. Cellist Kenneth Freudigman was his excellent partner in the Kodály.
Pianist Vivienne Spy, Mr. Torgul and Mr. Freudigman brought impeccable teamwork to the Haydn trio. The central adagio was particularly fetching, with carefully shaped phrases imparting a sense of song with an implied text.
The Brahms quartet (with violist Emily Freudigman) fared a little less well, mainly because the church’s mid-sized piano wanted a bigger sound and perhaps a more responsive action.
The intimate sanctuary of Christ Church entailed some acoustical trade-offs. The sound was too dry near the side walls, but gained warmth and a wide soundstage closer to the center aisle. The acoustic pushed Mr. Torgul’s violin into the foreground. At Camerata's previous venue, Travis Park United Methodist Church, the roar downtown buses and trucks was an occasional distraction; Christ Church's location provided blessed relief from those sounds, in exchange for the constant, annoying groan of air-handling equipment.
Mike
Greenberg
