Surveying our ecletic arts scene, from the galleries to the stage.
FORT WORTH -- Chamber music is too often played in large halls rather than the smaller spaces for which it was written. A year-old Fort Worth group, Hall Ensemble, has taken such music back to its origins, and a concert on Tuesday night proved that that's a great idea.
The idea is to play for relatively small groups of people in private homes (on Tuesday, the hosts were Stanley and Patricia Wright). The 19th-century pieces played by Hall Ensemble almost certainly premiered in just such a venue.
One impressive piece demonstrated just how beautiful a true chamber-music performance can be. This was Beethoven's Quartet in F, Opus 18, No. 1. The performers were Curt Thompson, first violin; Pei-Ju Wu, second violin; Daniel Sigale, viola; and Karen Hall, cello. Their sound projected strongly, and there was a sense of immediacy that you never get in a large hall.
It was a cohesive performance that captured the sense of playfulness that permeates the piece as well as projecting the loveliness of Beethoven's moving adagio. That the Wrights' home has an excellent acoustical space certainly didn't hurt.
Bassoonist Kevin Hall joined the quartet for the concert opener, a Grand Quintet by Anton Reicha, a contemporary and friend of Beethoven. The work consists of two chipper, fast movements surrounding a lovely lento arioso. The five musicians gave a charming performance with a sense of immediacy that added much to the evening.
An unusual offering was a trio of operatic arias played by Sigale on the viola in an arrangement by the Hall Ensemble. Largo al factotum from Rossini's The Barber of Seville was a little shaky, though Nessum dorma from Puccini's Turandot and Una furtiva lagrima from Donizetti's The Elixir of Love were more solid, and I found Una furtive lagrima to be moving even in this strange arrangement.
Alas, an approaching deadline forced me out before an arrangement of music by Astor Piazzolla.
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