Concert review: Chamber Music Society offers 3 world premieres in eclectic concert

The Chamber Music Society of Minnesota presented an eclectic concert on Sunday at Hamline University’s Sundin Music Hall, spanning centuries and continents and offering celebrations, surprises and new explorations. The concert featured three world premieres, performances by former Minnesota Orchestra principal clarinet Burt Hara (recently retired from the Los Angeles Philharmonic), and co-artistic director Ariana Kim’s recent explorations into Carnatic music.

Kim and her father, fellow co-director Young-Nam Kim, began the program with a charming mash-up of Georg Philipp Telemann’s Intrada-Suite for two violins, “Gulliver’s Travels” and Luciano Berio’s Duetti for two violins. The juxtaposition of the two composers — one Baroque, one from the 20th century — allowed for serendipitous dialogue between the contrasting styles.

And yet both were playful. Telemann’s music animates Jonathan Swift’s outlandish story, with spirited dances by the tiny inhabitants of Lilliput and strident rhythms of the giant Brobdingnagians. Berio’s works have their own theatricality, with each composition inspired by people he knew. Paired together, the works shared a feeling of wonder.

The concert program listed Claude Debussy’s Premiere Rhapsodie for clarinet and piano as the next selection, but the ensemble didn’t play the number. Instead, Ariana Kim announced the ensemble would perform world premiere works by John Harbison, Peter Child and Minnesota’s own Steve Heitzeg in honor of Young-Nam Kim’s birthday. CMSM commissioned the three composers, plus the late Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, 10 years ago for Young-Nam Kim’s 70th birthday, and this year brought the living composers back for a reprise.

John Harbison’s “A Clear Day: No Memories,” came first. Ariana Kim and violist Sally Chisholm traded repeating patterns, switching off melodies as the music jumped around the scale. Peter Child’s “Birthday Notes for Young-Nam,” meanwhile, delivered a bouncy number that veered into darker tones, performed by Ariana Kim and Burt Hara. Finally, Ariana Kim, Hara and pianist Timothy Lovelace performed four variations from Steve Heitzeg’s “Variations on Peace.” From the soaring, luscious “CHORDS NOT BOMBS” movement to an aching lament for children killed in violent conflict, as well as more hopeful, cinematic meditations on future peace, Heitzeg’s work, inspired by French composer Olivier Messiaen’s 1941 “Quartet for the End of Time,” pulled heavy emotional weight even as it strove toward musical beauty.

Before intermission, Ariana Kim teamed up with Praseed Belaji, who plays the double-headed mridangam, a barrel drum from South India, in a piece called “Brova Barama.” Kim spent last winter taking a deep dive into Carnatic music, documented by a “PBS NewsHour” episode that aired in May.

Rather than playing her violin on her shoulder, the violinist crouched on a rug with Belaji, facing the instrument toward the floor. The two musicians played with a recorded drone, performing an improvisation-based tune that was at once rhythmic and meditative.

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After intermission came two trios that showcased Hara’s remarkable artistry. First, in Charles Ives’ Largo for violin, clarinet and piano, he played with a clear, warm, and impeccably controlled tone. Then, in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Trio “Kegelstatt” in E-Flat Major, his agility complemented the unusual instrumental pairing, alongside Lovelace’s elegant pianism and Chisholm’s assured musicality.

By the end of the concert, a sense of boundless curiosity prevailed the musical selections and traditions, even in its deep respect toward legacy.

IF YOU GO

Who: Chamber Music Society of Minnesota

What: Next, CMSM performs Ariana Kim’s Latest Album Release Concert, for “Uncommon Thread,” exploring exploration

When: Dec. 7 4 p.m.

Where: Sundin Music Hall, 1531 Hewitt Ave., St. Paul.

Tickets: $25 at chambermusicmn.org

Capsule: The Chamber Music Society of Minnesota boasts a tremendous group of musicians exploring Western classical music with some intriguing diversions.