Oberlin

If you wanted to hear some Ravel--or simply some great music in Oberlin--Finney Chapel was the place to be on Tuesday night, November 5.  Ravel: Intimate Masterpieces, an all-Ravel chamber music concert featuring nine musicians all connected to Oberlin in some fashion, kicked off Oberlin's 2013-14 Artist Recital Series. 

The concert began with a stunning performance of Ravel's famous String Quartet in F Major (1903) by the Jupiter Quartet, the conservatory's Quartet-in-Residence.  It was clear the group's members were totally linked in with one another as melodies and fast rhythmic fragments passed effortlessly among them.  The piece's many transitions were executed skillfully and with ease, like the best telling of a story.  Perhaps most captivating was their take on the slow and soulful third movement.  It evoked frozen time and ancient truth--a sense of always-has-been and always-will-be about the world. 

One of the highlight performers of the evening was soprano alum Ellie Dehn.  A star opera singer, Dehn has recently performed at the Met, San Francisco Opera, and Teatro alla Scala in Milan, among many other leading opera houses.  She was excellent in the chamber setting, her voice easily filling the space in Finney while retaining a perfect sense of intimacy.  She was joined by Professor of Harp Yolanda Kondonassis for Cinq mélodies populaires grecques (1906), a cycle of five Greek folk songs with piano accompaniments by Ravel and transcribed for harp by Carlos Salzedo.  Together, they impeccably captured the piece's quirky, short movements, in particular the urgency in the first and the joy in the last.

More meaty were the Chansons madécasses (1926), performed by a quartet of Dehn, Professor of Flute Alexa Still, Jupiter cellist Daniel McDonough, and pianist Spencer Myer '00.  The piece's second movement was especially stunning.  It began with shrieks of horror--"Awa!  Awa!"--from Dehn, then cooled to a chilling tone of interiority and traumatic reminiscence in Dehn's eerily calm voice.

Kondonassis starred in Introduction et Allegro (1905), a concerto-like chamber piece featuring the harp.  Playing from memory, she handled the virtuosic, cascading runs and arpeggios with aplomb.  Her cadenza was by turns gentle, thoughtful, and bold, and the audience seemed transfixed at the whim of her every touch of the strings.

The rest of the ensemble, which included Still, Professor of Clarinet Richard Hawkins, and the Jupiter Quartet, was likewise spectacular, creating fluttering textures and matching each other brilliantly in pitch and dynamics.  Hawkins and Still played together exceptionally well, enchanting in their opening duet.

Interesting introductions to each half of the concert were provided by Professor of Musicology James O'Leary and Professor of Music Theory Sigrun Heinzelmann.  The two took turns at the podium, O'Leary focusing on the history of Ravel, Heinzelmann on the theory.  While informative and excellently done, the introductions ran long for a concert that lasted over two hours.  They would have been more appropriate either shortened or set separately as an optional pre-concert lecture, for it felt a bit like a class when really one just wanted a concert.