CNJS - Duo Fresco - Concert Review

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Duo Fresco: Brett Deubner (viola), Chrisitopher Kenniff (guitar), with guest Erik Wyrick (violin). Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church, Liberty Corner.

The high winds, sleet, and snow driving against the windows of Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church produced a very noisy random percussion element to the concert by Duo Fresco. But it only emphasized the warmth of the all Spanish and Latin American music being played inside. In spite of the weather, the church was quite full. The word is out about Duo Fresco.

Violist Brett Deubner and guitarist Christopher Kenniff, the Duo, are the headliners at the "Music at the Corner" series and are the perfect choice for such a position. They are both well connected to first-rate potential guest artists, and their own musicianship and energy (with the aid of some judicious amplification of the guitar) fill the space well.

Both Deubner and the concert's guest violinist Erik Wyrick are, of course, members of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. It is telling that morale in the orchestra is such that several members of the string section came out on an off-night to hear this concert featuring two of their own.

Some in the audience, who are used to Wyrick only as concertmaster, were struck by how well he plays chamber music. While his music-making was always appropriate to the music, he never slid into sentimentality, even where some players might take Piazzolla a bit over the top. But all the players understood that in an intimate setting, the music speaks so well for itself that histrionics are unneeded.

For this listener the highlight of the concert was Mexican composer Manuel Maria Ponce's (1882-1948) Sonata for violin and viola. The number of times I've heard this composer's guitar music can no longer be counted. So it was an ear-opener to hear this non-guitar work unleash the extraordinary energy usually associated with the hallmark violin and cello duos by Ravel, Kodaly, and Antheil. This was Bartókian in intensity and inventive elevation of folk music. If the fiery conclusion rightly left the audience applauding wildly, the eerie medievalist open intervals and straight sound of the slow movement left this listener equally impressed, a 20th century reminder that the late Spanish renaissance and counter-reformation flowered in early post-Columbian Mexico.

The concert concluded with all three playing Le grand tango by (with that title, who else?) Astor Piazzolla. It featured Deubner producing effective *sul ponticello and *harmonics on the viola and a big singing sound from violinist Wyrick. Meanwhile, Christopher Kenniff's solid grasp of style and technique unerringly supported the whole harmonic structure.

Given a chance to shine on his own, Kenniff's clear playing elucidated the counterpoint in Ponce's Theme, varie et finale for solo guitar. Finely wrought *arabesques and other well-executed ornaments raised the performance to a level of elegant ease only the most secure guitarists produce.

Kenniff and Wyrick combined to play a violin version of Piazzolla's famed Le histoire du tango, originally for flute and guitar. In the final movement played ("Nightclub 1960") Wyrick dug in at the *frog to gain a rhythmic percussion effect which sounded like a maraca filled with small shotgun pellets. It may have been produced on the far side of the bridge on the G string.

Jose Lezcano (b. 1960), a Cuban composer now living in New Hampshire, wrote his Sonata for Viola and Guitar for the Duo Fresco in 2003. The final "Tango - Fuga: a la tristeza de Buenos Aires" was the most engaging movement of the three and featured a quite memorable *coda. The final little swirl of viola sound, light as a feather, proved to be a lovely luminous ending. The previous two movements, however, were filled with demanding music, some of it expressive, some of it not. Both were too long, exhaustive explorations of every possible use of the material rather than selective uses of only the best episodes chosen from all the possibilities. Less would have been more.

The concert began with the Duo Fresco's own effective arrangement of Manuel de Falla's Canciones Espagnoles. We have reviewed it before, but we must remark that if ever one is called upon to define in sound what makes Spanish music Spanish, this should be the A-1 exhibit. Every time I hear them play it, I feel nostalgic for a country I've never actually visited. The final "Polo" movement they took at a blisteringly fast tempo and pulled it off.

They did falter a touch in the first few movements, their ensemble not quite as squeeky clean as usual. But it seemed evident that they and the whole audience were distracted by the sudden and quite audible onslaught of the storm. Indeed, we were all considerably distracted.