Review: Chamber season opener a real treat

It may have been Halloween but Monday evening's season opener of the Classic Chamber Concerts at the Sugden Theater was devoid of any "boos!"

Instead, the loyal group of classic chamber devotees ignored residual effects from Hurrican Wilma and showed up, eager to feast on chamber music. Not even the absence of elevator service in the adjacent parking garage deterred them.

And the rapt audience apparently wan't distracted by the bizarre stage setting: the graffiti-laden set design for "Little Shop of Horrors" that dwarfed the chamber musicians.

The audience got its money's worth in the evening's four diverse selections: Beethoven's beautiful "Piano Quartet in E Flat Major, opus 16," contemporary composer Torrie Zito's exciting "Montauk Suite for two cellos," Debussy's brilliant "Sonata for violin and piano" and Franz Schubert's eternally tasty "Quintet in C Major, opus 63" for two violins, viola and two cellos.

An ambitious program to start the Classic Chamber Concert's 11th season, only the first selection — the Beethoven "Piano Quartet" — featured the intact Philadelphia Piano Quartet members: Toby Blumenthal, piano, Bert Phillips, cello, LaMar Alsop, viola and Norman Carol, violin.

Initially composed for woodwinds, it is this arrangement for piano and three strings that best showcases the passion of his glorious second movement, "Andante cantabile." Even though Beethoven could not hear, he could feel, and this beautiful movement simply captures your heart. It is, in essence, "music to make love by."

Then a very different mood, as contemporary composer Torrie Zito's "Montauk Suite for Two Cellos" was splendidly performed by Bert Phillips and guest artist Johanne Perron. Perron has become a personal favorite, one of those rare, intensely passionate creatures who makes love to, and with, her cello.

Stylistically, she is perhaps most reminiscent of a slightly more restrained Nadja Solerno-Sonneberg, extracting almost impossibly delicate nuances with every note. And her pairing with Bert Phillips again proved excellent, a top-notch balance between the two cellos. The duo's performance garnered the evening's first bravos.

The Debussy "Sonata for violin and piano" once again showcased the talents of Toby Blumenthal who, with her husband Bert Phillips, are artistic directors and founders of the Philadelphia Piano Quartet. The evening's second guest artist, Reiko Niiya, completed the duo.

Niiya, the concertmaster of the Southwest Florida Symphony as well as concertmaster of the Opera International in Washington, D.C., gave an absolutely seamless performance of the passionate and simultaneously poignant sonata.

Though planned to be the third of six sonatas Debussy intended to compose, it proved to be his last, as he succumbed to cancer before the remaining three could be brought to fruition. You can almost taste his pain during the opening of the first movement, "Allegro vivo."

As much as I loved the evening's first three selections, it was the final piece, Franz Schubert's "Quintet in C Major, opus 63," that earned a gold star for my evening. This piece, composed by one of history's most prodigious composers (some 800 compositions to his name), makes one wonder what other masterpieces Schubert might have given the world had he not died at the age of 31 — before he even heard this composition performed.

Featuring Norm Carol and Reiko Niiya on violins, LaMar Alsop, viola, and Johannes Perron and Bert Phillips on cello, the performance was a delight to hear and observe. Everyone had an opportunity to shine.

With one of Norm Carol's best performances to date, plus some wonderful contributions by Bert Phillips, LaMar Alsop and Reiko Niiya, it was the simplest of notes — the quiet, rhythmic pizzicato fifths by Perron — that tied it all together and made it a masterpiece.