Stella Chen

Last night at Trinity St.Paul’s we got the first of two concerts in the fourth iteration of the OPUS Chamber Music series.  Music director and pianist Kevin Ahfat had arranged an impressive group of young string players to join him in a varied and enjoyable programme.

From the United States we had violinist Stella Chen; a Queen Elisabeth Prize winner and Gramophone Young Artist of the Year, and up and coming violist Matthew Lipman.  There was Berlin based cellist Brannon Cho.  The local talent consisted of and violinist Isabella Perron, as well, of course as Kevin himself.

First up were Ahfat and Lipman with Rebecca Clarke’s Sonata for Viola and Piano of 1919.  It’s quite a substantial piece with more than a hint of Debussy, especially in the piano part.  The first movement is marked “Impetuoso” but it’s nothing like as frenetic as the second movement; “Vivace”, which is really densely scored.  There’s a lovely, lyrical and expressive concluding “Adagio” which culminates in a very involved final section in high romantic style.  Some gorgeous playing and great communication between the musicians here.

Matthew Lipman

Next up was the Weiner String Trio, Op. 6 of 1908.  Lipman was joined by Chen and Cho for this one.  It’s a four movement work in a entirely tonal, romantic style that sounded a bit retro (to my ears at least) for 1908 (the year of Schoenberg’s String Quartet No.2).  It does have a very expressive slow movement though and the performance was terrific.

After the interval came my favourite piece of the night; the relatively short but gorgeous Webern Langsamer Satz for string quartet.  It’s very early Webern (1905 probably) in late Romantic style.  All four string players were involved (of course!) and there was a tangible sense of communication within the ensemble which helped make the most of this beautiful and evocative piece.

Isabella Perron

The finale was the Schumann Piano Quartet, Op. 47.  This is more familiar, mainstream, chamber music territory and well within the compass of the group.  There was some excellent playing again with particularly excellent work from Ahfat with the vey busy piano part.

All in all, a very rewarding concert and a great way to kick off 2024.

It’s not often that one gets to hear a combination of tomorrow’s chamber music stars but the really good news is that they are going again  at the Arts and Letters Club on Tuesday evening in a programme that includes music by Handel-Halvorsen, Tcherepnin, Klein and Wegener topped off with Beethoven’s mighty Kreutzer Sonata.