Catherina Szepes, Peter Winograd, Mark Kosower and Dan Panner Perform the Haydn String Quartet
By Roy Ziegler
Photos by Brian Keyes
Haydn to Mozart to Elgar, a classic play, ended the season for the Concordia Chamber Players last Sunday at the Stephen Buck Theater in New Hope. It was like ending spring training with a convincing win that augurs well for the coming season. Concordia will once again play in the Princeton Festival on July 2.
Franz Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet, “The Lark” quite appropriately ushered in spring. The violins of Peter Winograd and Catarina Szepes sounded like two young birds fervently attempting to leave the nest while Mark Kosower’s cello became the ever-watchful mother guarding their safety. In the second movement, Dan Panner’s brooding viola communicated the parents’ strange feeling of simultaneous sadness and joy following the empty nest. But the ensemble restored joy in the final movements as if a family reunion had taken place.
Concordia president Valerie Siciliano, left,
and vice president Lisa Gladden-Keyes
celebrate another successful season.
Clarinetist Todd Palmer introduced the Mozart Piano Trio known as the Kegelstatt or bowling alley, by reminding the audience that names such as the “Kegelstatt” were attached to compositions long after the composers had passed on. The bowling alley theme is communicated by the repetition of a chord followed by four cascading notes, almost like a ball hitting pins causing them to fall.
A magnificent Edward Elgar Piano Quartet in A Minor completed the spring concert. Symbolizing the tale of a naughty monk transformed into a gnarled, petrified tree during a satanic rite the quintet, led by pianist, Gail Niwa, presented a haunting theme that escalated into intense anxiety as the monk futilely attempted to escape his assigned destiny.
The Concordia Chamber Players will perform at the Princeton Festival on July 2 at 3 PM at the Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Works by Rahcmaninoff, Shostakovich and Franz Schubert will be presented. Tickets are available at www.princetonfestival.org