Here, in Columbus, the OSU chamber orchestra, which consists of the music
faculty members, is doing a series of concerts called "Farewell of the 20th
century".  Every concert features chamber music composed in a specific
decade of the century.  Yesterday, I attended the third concert in the
series featuring works from the 1920's.

First, was Poulenc's Sonata for horn, trumpet and trombone.  The notes
for the concert went on and on about how difficult and deep the piece
was.  Well, the players certainly showed it.  There were too many obvious
mistakes in the performance to appreciate the piece.  Still, I am left with
a longing to hear this work again in a better performance.  I particularly
enjoyed the joyous feeling of the last movement.

Next were a few songs by Charles Ives.  These did not appear anything
special.  I don't know whether this was the performance or the music, but
I kept thinking that I've heard these before, and that I did not like them
the first time.

The final work before the intermission (these concerts are rather short)
was "As It Fell Upon A Day" by Aaron Copland.  It is a setting of a poem
by Richard Barnefield (1574-1629), and obscure 17th century poet.  It grew
out of Nadia Boulanger's (his teacher) counterpoint assignment to write a
piece for flute and clarinet.  The assignment was fulfilled by the lovely
polyphonic introduction.  The rest of the song was not any worse.  It has
a stravinskian motif, which I suppose is not surprising, but it is also an
original and very enjoyable work.  The song alternates between solos for
each instrument (including soprano) and polyphonic parts where everyone is
playing their own tune, yet it all comes out into one whole somehow.

Last but not least was the concertino for piano and 2 violins, viola,
clarinet, horn and bassoon by Leos Janacek.  This was by far the most
outstanding work of the evening, of course.  Janacek wrote it after he
heard Jan Herman's transcription of Janacek's "Diary of the Young Man who
disappeared." The performance made him resolve to write a work for the
piano.

Janacek provided at least 2 programs for the piece, both attributing each
movement except the last to an animal (different animals though), and the
last was first supposed to portray man, and then a scene from a fairy tale.
Nevermind the program, the music is enchanting.  The first movement and
second movements are duets of piano with clarinet and horn respectively.
The latter 2 movements get the strings involved.  The music is amazingly
melodic with that unique Janacek accent.  It's impossible to explain, but
there is something about those folksy tunes that makes me enjoy Janacek's
music greatly.

My exposure to Janacek has been very limited.  I've only heard his "Kat'a
Kabanova" and sinfonietta through radio broadcasts, and yesterday's
performance was my third encounter.  Could you recommend some recordings
of the above-mentioned and others of his works?

On a totally different note, I bought a gem of a CD on Ebay recently.
Franz Brugger's live recording of Schubert's 5th and Mendelsohn's 4th
symphonies on Philips (432 123-2).  Wow!  what clean and fulfilling sound.
This is my first encounter with Romantic music on period instruments, and
what an experience this is.  The strings, especially, sound extremely
fresh.  I've heard Schubert's 5th symphony a few times before, but
was never touched by the gentle melody that Brugger brings forward.
Mendelsohn's Italian symphony was one of my first favorites of classical
music, but this performance brings it in a totally different, and yes,
more enjoyable light.  This CD is highly recommended!

Igor
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