Eric Gratz and Kayleigh Miller play Mozart’s Duo in G for violin and viola

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August 19, 2014 The main draw on the Olmos Ensemble’s all-Mozart concert (Aug. 17 in First Unitarian Universalist Church) was the local chamber-music début of violinist Eric Gratz, who was appointed concertmaster of the San Antonio Symphony last fall at the absurdly young age of 24.  Mr. Gratz earned his undergraduate degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music and, just this past spring, his master’s from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. In Mozart’s Duo in G with violist Kayleigh Miller (also a newcomer to the symphony) and in the magisterial Clarinet Quintet (in which Mr. Gratz played first violin), he impressed with his precise diction in both legato and non-legato passages, his rhythmic alertness, his sweet and accurate high register and his assertive phrasing, which seemed to involve the whole of his lanky frame right down to his feet. At times the tone from his 1877 Pietro Grulli instrument was a shade too aggressive, and this listener would have preferred a bit more warmth, but Mr. Gratz’s enthusiasm was consistently winning. In the Duo, Ms. Miller didn't quite match Mr. Gratz’s clarity in 16th-note passages, but her viola tone was lusciously rich.  Two Olmos regulars and symphony principals, flutist Martha Long and clarinetist Ilya Shterenberg, earned their customary superlatives in the Quartet in D (1777) for flute and strings and the Quintet in A (1789) for clarinet and strings.  The Flute Quartet, though not the Clarinet Quintet’s equal in depth, proved an ample showcase for Ms. Long’s technical brilliance, opulent tone and, in the stop-and-smell-the-roses adagio of sinuous flute melody over gently bobbing pizzicato strings, delicacy of expression. Her partners were violinist Renia Shterenberg, Ms. Miller and cellist Ryan Murphy.  If the Flute Quartet is all carefree blue skies, the Clarinet Quintet takes us to a realm of hazy sunlight and soft shadows, a place that is not quite cheerful and not quite melancholy. One of Mozart’s supreme masterworks, it reveals his ability — honed in the opera house — to mold melody to the layered complexity of human emotions and his understanding of common-practice tonal harmony not as a confining box but as an open sea. Most remarkable about Mr. Shterenberg’s technically superb performance was his intuition in following Mozart’s harmoniccues to shape phrasing and dynamics.  The clarinetist was abetted by creamy-sounding, impeccably unified strings. One special plaudit: Although the cello was given mainly a supporting role in the Flute Quartet and the Clarinet Quintet, and Mr. Murphy never tried to push his way into the foreground, again and again my ear was drawn to the limpid beauty of his tone and the naturalness of his rhythms. Mike Greenberg Joined by pianist Christopher Guzman, the Olmos Ensemble devotes an entire concert to music by the witty French neoclassicist Jean Francaix, Aug. 24 at 3 pm in First Unitarian Universalist church.

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Olmos Ensemble, Eric Gratz