Arneis Ensemble Plays Brahms, Haydn, and Bartok

I think I am quickly becoming the Arneis Quartet’s biggest fan. Their concert on Tuesday night was wonderful. The setting was beautiful St. Paul’s Church in Brookline. The warm acoustics are a treat for the performer and even better for an audience member. I had the enviable experience of listening to my new favorite string quartet play a program of Haydn, Bartok, and Brahms.

Arneis Ensemble Monday Afternoon Concert

When it rains it pours...  I'm just back from another fantastic concert.  This has been quite the musical weekend with an opera at The Met, Vento Chiaro's lovely concert yesterday and today's lunch time performance by The Arneis Quartet!  Life can't really get any better.

Arneis Ensemble Does It Again!

Another Winter Solstice has come and gone. It's a day that, for me, begs introspection and also one that I look for comfort and warmth in, bracing for the coming winter. I was happy to spend my evening attending a concert given by Dan Doña and friends, Kristin Elgersma and Will Cicola - the second performance in the Arneis Ensemble Concert Series. The program featured Mozart's Kegelstatt Trio, Eight Pieces by Max Bruch, and Robert Schumann's Märchenerzählungen, all works for clarinet, viola, and piano played superbly by the three musicians. Overall, the group produced a warm and inviting sound and navigated the treacherous program with ease and grace. Kristin seemed to meld with piano and provided a solid foundation of sound for the group. Will's tone and intonation were unwavering, and Dan played with an elegance and confidence that I have not heard so consistently from him before tonight's performance.

Program Notes for The Arneis Ensemble Concert on 12/10/2009

Arnold Bax wrote the Quintet for Oboe and Strings in 1923 for renowned oboist, Leon Goossens. It was the first piece ever dedicated to the emerging soloist. The piece, no doubt, was meant to showcase his incredible facility on the oboe from a technical and expressive standpoint. In fact, the piece is a significant challenge for the entire ensemble. The string writing is virtuosic, atmospheric, and at times downright awkward.

The first movement begins with a few chords played by the strings in a grand swell of tonality followed by the statement of the theme in the oboe that becomes a ritornello through repetition over the course of the movement. Bax uses plenty of augmented seconds and “snap” rhythms to evoke the wailing sonority of Celtic keening. The movement follows a typical form of a slow rhapsodic introduction, followed by a fast section, and then a return to the opening material at the end.