By Roy Ziegler
The final concert of the Concordia Chamber Players sixth season on Sunday afternoon thrilled an enthusiastic audience at the Stephen Buck Theater with works composed in three different centuries.
Ludwig Von Beethoven’s Piano Trio, Number 3 seized the audience with an intense, driven introduction that suddenly blossomed into rarified melody. Pianist Gail Niwa led the ensemble presenting dance-like themes. MicheIle Djokic, cellist and artistic director of the Concordia Chamber Players joined Niwa in playful flights of syncopation before ending the movement with the violinist, Carmit Zori providing a more solemn and pensive mood. These three popular artists demonstrated impeccable timing and dramatic harmony breaking into a rousing dialogue before the restrained conclusion.
New York Philharmonic violist, Robert Rinehart and cellist Djokic transformed themselves into musical mechanics calibrating a symphonic machine to produce a variety of tones and speeds in Walter Piston’s Duo for Viola and Cello. Djokic daintily introduced a waltz-like melody and Rinehart followed with a gentle melody before ending with a blustering cadence.
The artists collaborated on Robert Schumann’s Piano Quartet, Opus 47. The strings opened with a somber, penetrating mood until the piano escalated into dramatic cadences. The effervescence continued into the second movement with each instrument adding more sparkle to the musical cocktail. Then Djokic’s sobbing cello returned the mood to a brief melancholic moment. In the final movement the ensemble portrayed a phoenix-like rise to new-found hope that ended in sheer jubilation.
An appreciative audience brought the sixth Concordia Chamber Players season to a close with a standing ovation and two curtain calls. Michelle Djokic provided a sneak preview of next season, teasing the audience with promises of sonatas, quintets, sextets and septets that she felt will certainly make Concordia’s seventh season its greatest ever.
Tickets for the Concordia Chamber Players seventh season that begins in November, 2003 may be ordered by calling 215-297-5972 or on the web at www.concordiaplayers.org.