Classical Music Reviews: The “jewel in the crown of Baltimore’s most distinctive historic homes”, the Garrett-Jacobs mansion on Mt Vernon Square, served as the elegant setting for a program of heroic intensity and romantic inspiration. Concert Artists of Baltimore’s Sunday afternoon concert on April 6, last of this season’s Mansion Series, featured the widely praised Duo of violinist José Miguel Cueto and pianist Nancy Roldán playing Sonatas of Beethoven and Poulenc as well as selections by Liszt, Turina and Piazzolla. The Duo opened the program with Franz Liszt’s Second Elegy, bringing to life its tender mood of confluent memory and desire, and demonstrating the pair’s exquisite ensemble playing. The centerpiece of the program was the Beethoven Sonata Op. 30, No.2 in the fateful key of C minor. After an opening of uneasy calm, the 1st movement quickly propels the listener into a turbulent musical landscape during which the Duo’s tremendous but balanced energy was on full display. A cheerful march tune bravely appears and reappears throughout the allegro con brio movement, before the agonized resignation of its conclusion. The lyrical 2nd movement, a welcome though not entirely unclouded respite from the overarching sense of anxiety that seems to inform this sonata, gave the audience the pure pleasure of hearing violin and piano sing tenderly together a theme of heart melting beauty. The comparatively sunny scherzo movement, with its evocation of a country dance, was played by Mr. Cueto and Ms Roldán with exceptional grace. With the final movement the listener is again propelled furiously along toward the final destination of the C minor tonic chord. The Cueto-Roldán Duo drove through to the conclusion with the bold and disciplined style that makes listening to them such a satisfying musical experience. After the intermission the Duo presented a piece not often heard here, La oracion del torero, or The Bullfighter’s Prayer, composed in 1926 by Joaquin Turina (in a transcription by Jascha Heifetz). Francis Poulenc wrote several versions of his Sonata Op.119, dedicating the final one of 1949 which was performed on Sunday to the poet Federico Garcia Lorca who was killed during the early days of the Spanish Civil War. It is a work replete with fiery rapture and fury. From the breathless propulsive opening (allegro con fuoco) the violin seems to be exploring a raw nerve and the notes of the piano fall like hammer blows on a wound. A section of intense and dark lyricism intervenes before the return to the initial mood and tempo. The Intermezzo allows passages of consoling tenderness before the cynical, questioning glissando that leads into the Presto tragico movement, wherein all the pain and rage of the 1st movement is reiterated. Cueto and Roldan made this “edgy” piece come to life with their fearless style and sympathetic communication. Bravissimo and bravissima! The program closed on a more joyous and affirmative note with two movements (Winter and Spring) from Las cuatro estaciones portenas of Argentinian composer, Astor Piazzolla. Infused with delicious tango rhythms, these appealing pieces provided yet another showcase for the Duo’s technical command and unerringly beautiful interpretation. A word must be said about the performance space: The hard surfaces of the atrium, from the 5 story high glass ceiling to the stone floor and brick walls are particularly unsuited to chamber music: On Sunday the unfriendly acoustics often distorted Ms Roldán’s renowned cristalline playing. When the audience maintained an awed silence to savor the last vibrations of Mr. Cueto’s final soaring note in the Elegy, it was only to hear a clatter of dishes from the kitchen directly below the atrium. The audience found alternate uses of the handsomely designed programs as fans (even on a cool Spring day the space can heat up) and as shields from the sun that shone directly into their eyes from above and behind the performers. There surely is no more ideal venue to enjoy Sunday brunch (served before concerts in this series) and an afternoon of impeccably performed music than Mt.Vernon’s Engineers Club; why however, must chamber concerts be in the atrium, when there are other more suitable and accommodating spaces in that glorious mansion?
