Carnegie Hall performance thrills

On Feb. 5, members of the ACJW ensemble performed at the opening of Helen Filene Ladd performance hall in Zankel. Though not the official opening of the hall, which will take place next October, it was the culmination of many years of planning and construction.

The Arthur Zankel Music Center is still under construction. Days before its debut concert, the hall was still being fine-tuned and the microphones were still being put in. Yet, walking in on the night of the concert, both the sounds and the sights were stunning.

The event functioned as the showcase for the new hall. By the time the pre-concert talk started just after 7 p.m., the majestic and spacious new hall was almost entirely filled and there was a definite air of anticipation.

Commenting on the size and superb sound of the hall, bass player Evan Premo commented, "A lot of it has to do with how quietly you can play in this space…it has an incredible silence". Others affirmed this and if that wasn't testament enough, the sparkle and crispness of the sound when the musicians commenced playing certainly was.

Glotzbach spoke about the coming together of the Carnegie Hall Program and the college, something Arthur Zankel had claimed to be in favor of preceding his death in 2005. The chair of the music department, Professor Tom Denny, spoke of the connection as being an important factor in choosing the ACJW ensemble for the debut concert in the new building that bears his name. As noted, the music department could have gone with any group or artist, within certain limits. The fact that it selected ACJW is a testament to the ensemble's ability.

The two works by older composers, the Prokofiev's Quintet in G Minor and Shostakovich's Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor, each showcased the skill of the ACJW ensemble cast. The former, one of Prokofiev's typically difficult and thorny compositions, was vibrant and lean, with the swells of chromatic harmonies and intricate interplay between instruments sounding natural and unforced.

The Shostakovich piece, written during World War II and featuring themes taken from Jewish folk songs, was dark and brooding. As pianist Angelina Gadeliya noted, the Shostakovich piece deals largely with death and, fittingly, parts of it were even played at his funeral. The musicians captured the gloomy sentiment underlying the piece, especially in the third movement, when the music reached its most contemplative and dour moment.

The highlight of the night turned out to be the new piece, Gumboots. Written in 2008 by David Bruce as a commission for Carnegie Hall, it includes many elements of African dance music in string quartet format with clarinet. Part I of the piece built tension between the string quartet that carried through the hall with growing force, but never fully exploded, reaching a peak tension and then slowly fading out behind a repeating arpeggio figure from the viola.

However, during Part II, a group of five dances, took the lingering tension and released it cathartically in a string of buoyant and breezy movements. The highlight of these was the fifth dance, which showcased clarinetist Sarah Beaty's immense talent. Her trills and shrill tone wove in and out, leading each piece. In the fifth dance, these trills came in waves, each one reaffirming the last and giving it a sense of unity, recalling its triumphs in the final moments with just the right sense of nostalgia and without sounding like a retread. The piece received a standing ovation and again at the end of the concert, when all the performers walked back out, it received jubilant applause.

Indeed all of the performers received more than the requisite amount of appreciation from the audience. Often, opening nights can succeed on the back of the initial good feeling for something new and energetic. ACJW's performance would have been a brilliant one whether it was the first or 50th performance in the new hall.